I have compiled for myself a distribution kit of the BlogEngine.NET blogging engine (version 1.5.0.7), ready for deployment on hosting in seconds and russified as I need it (ranging from slugs to many translation improvements in a special file and the code itself, including extensions), with various extensions and a large package of themes, but I thought that maybe someone else will find it useful.
Further: for those who do not know what BlogEngine.NET is and what it is eaten with - perhaps the story about it will be interesting, for those who are "in the subject" - a list of changes made in the engine.

What BlogEngine is not?

BlogEngine is not Wordpress. I repeat: this is not Wordpress. Of course, it's tempting to compare them (in general, the best blogging engines on two different platforms). But BlogEngine is an engine of a different class: not so extensible with ready-made plugins (although your own can be written quite quickly and simply), but as lightweight and fast as possible, providing more functionality than is necessary for an ordinary blogger (not playing with his blog, but simply writing it) ...
It shouldn't be used where any feature might be needed: unless you really want to learn ASP.NET by writing the UserControls and extensions you need, but when you need something lightweight, quick to deploy, it's easy customizable, user-friendly (the BlogEngine dashboard is much simpler and lighter than the Wordpress dashboard "a) - then it makes sense to try BlogEngine. In the FAQ "e of developers there is a question" Can my mother use it? " in Visual Studio and enjoy the convenience of working with beautifully written code :)

What can he do out of the box?

1. Work fine with caching (without bothering the user), mobile devices(they are given a special theme by default), trackbacks, pingbacks and even OpenSearch (blog search can be inserted into the search bar of modern browsers in addition to Yandex, Google, Bing, etc.)
2. Tree comments, gravatars, comment notification by mail, ping services
3. Multi-author blogging, detailed author profiles
4. Widgets for the cloud of tags, twitter, favorite blogs, notification of new posts by mail, drag-and-drop work with these widgets
5. Auto-resize uploaded images
6. Using bbcode in comments, previewing comments
7. MP3 audio player based on Flash technology
8. and many many others!

And most importantly, all of this is easy to manage, and the blog's work is not slowed down at all. Instant installation and minimal system requirements- also a serious advantage. Even an installer is not required, see below :)

Windows hosting is expensive !!

Nothing of the kind: many serious companies offer Unix and Windows hosting for the same prices. Moreover: Windows hosting usually has a trial period. Personally, I am satisfied with Windows hosting from Infobox and Agave, but I do not insist at all. In addition, BlogEngine.NET requires much less powerful hosting than Wordpress.

Who will benefit from this?

If you are just interested in the ASP.NET platform, then this is a good constructor to start with. The BlogEngine code is written beautifully and easily, it is quite understandable even without special training in the field of .NET technology. You can freely dig in it and correct it for yourself without any problems, at the same time gradually understanding ASP.NET. If you've never worked with ASP.NET but would like to give it a try - just play around without trying to write your own CMS from scratch - try BlogEngine, you won't regret it. On its basis, it is quite possible to make your own CMS, everything is ready for an ordinary non-blog CMS (NB ready does not mean done ;-) For example, there is support for tree-like page organization in the control panel, but for the site itself you will have to code it yourself for now).

Installation

BlogEngine works without a database (although it is quite possible to connect it) and for installation you only need to upload to the hosting and specify write permissions for the App_Data folder. Then download home page; the first time it will load longer, but then everything will happen quickly.

What's changed in this build?

1. The official translation in the file has been seriously supplemented and corrected \ App_GlobalResources \ labels.ru.resx
2. Where possible - the names are translated directly in the code (since not everything is taken out in separate file, and not everything is possible to endure without a lot of changes in the engine; hopefully someday this will change)
3. \ bin \ BlogEngineCore.dll rebuilt. Now Russian headers do not turn into slug "and like d09ed0b1d0be-d0bcd0bdd0b5(a headache for BlogEngine, because you cannot turn off rewriting of urls here), but are shown directly in Russian letters (a la Wikipedia). Personally, I like it so much :) But as a last resort, the assembly also includes a plugin for transliterating the slugs for posts (unfortunately, this does not apply to categories and tags, so the solution did not suit me completely ...)
4. Added fully Russian version of TinyMCE instead of English
5. A large number of extensions have been added, all are translated.
6. The assembly comes with 50 different themes. They have not been Russified, however, very few changes are required there (on average, much less than in Wordpress themes; the simpler arranged code affects); I think that this will not be a problem, although I plan to translate them in the future , if required

What else needs to be done

1. Not just translate, but translate the engine with high quality, especially the control panel. Remove discrepancies in terms (I confess, there is no end to work ...), and in some places and correct the code for correct translation.
2. Translate topics (at least a few)
3. Improve, improve and improve BlogEngine again :) In general, I would like all translation to go through only one file in the future - and then the site would be automatically translated into the language of the logged in user without tambourines (ASP.NET technology allows this out of the box). The beauty:)

Finally why did I do it

Everything is simple: you yourself needed to have at hand a ready-to-install distribution kit of a blogging engine for ASP.NET, Russified enough to put control in the hands of a simple user. So that there are already themes and extensions. Those extensions for which you do not need to write UserControls into themes. This, of course, is not difficult, but not for this case :)
Since BlogEngine has enough problems from scratch in the Russian-speaking spaces, and moreover, not all problems are solved by editing scripts (for something you need to rebuild the kernel, and here not everyone will open Microsoft Visual Studio for this ...), then I rummaged, I corrected it - and laid it out.
Even if no one needs it (after all, we have little use of ASP.NET in such a "light" segment of the web, and it's a pity, it's a very good technology), then at least I do. :)

Download, if anyone is interested, you can

In today's post I would like to talk about such a process in creating a blog as choice of engine (CMS) for the future site In principle, anyone who has decided to create their own website is already thinking about this issue, searching and analyzing well-known engines to choose a suitable engine for the site. The choice in most cases falls on free CMS, with which you can create a full-fledged website for almost free. For example, take the same blog - to create this type of site, there are many management systems, both paid and free, that will literally help you organize your blog in just a day, and without much investment, and in some cases even for free.

The well-known blogging engine WordPress, which is also free, is a vivid example of how you can create your own personal website without investments, except for paying for hosting and domain. However, it is a pity that not many, but only some, do not limit themselves to the functionality of the blog and create other projects, well, or study systems other than WordPress, which, moreover, are many times more complicated, but more flexible in use. It is good that the author belongs to the second group of webmasters and during his time used and studied many popular, and not so, engines for the site. Below I would like to talk about each of the CMS I use, for which site they are suitable and, in general, make a small comparative characteristic, as well as conclusions.

Blogging Engines, MaxSite vs WordPress Comparison

First, let's look at a CMS for creating blogs, the most famous of which is of course WordPress. I started using it when I created the blog you are currently reading. Although no, acquaintance with him was before, when it was necessary to create personal blogs for employees. There I also tried to create tables, various reports and other pages for reporting.

The advantages of WordPress are obvious - it is the simplest blogging engine, and indeed of all the CMS that can be found on the Internet. In addition to simplicity, there are several more positive qualities inherent in it:

• Ease of installation - you can't argue here either, all components are installed literally in a minute, and sometimes less;
• Extensibility - this engine increases its functionality thanks to plugins. Of course, they load the server, but they save the end user from writing code and other red tape;
• Popularity and support - you can get an answer for almost every question about the functionality, and a detailed one. Support is provided in the form of forum communities, where you can get additional answers, tricks and other interesting things when administering a WordPress blog;
• Templates - There are a lot of free WordPress templates. Among them there are both high-quality, and for a specific topic, and customizable - in general, with a choice free design you don't have to worry about the site;

Apart from the merits of WordPress, it also has its drawbacks:

• Every year it becomes more and more difficult for the server, and therefore you can fork out well on hosting;
• Plugins - let them have their own advantages, but their main disadvantage is the load, and it is very good;
• Templates - maybe tried hard, but never succeeded in changing the structure of the page. Their code is clear, there is nothing against it, but there is simply no way to change the position of the widgets and do something more than a blog;

Second blog engine I had to work with - MaxSite CMS, which is pretty close to WordPress. Frankly, it really looks like WordPress, there was not even a "transition" effect - it seemed that you were still working on WordPress, although the interface was different outwardly. But this is only a positive quality - to add his capabilities and dignity, then he can compete well with his "older" brother.

Let's take a look at the advantages of MaxSite CMS:

• Fast - it already has a built-in caching system, consumes little memory and will significantly save on hosting services;
• There are already all the necessary modules with which you can organize your blog, and very quickly;
• Free - there is nothing to explain, in general, one savings;

No matter how good it is, there are still drawbacks, and quite serious for beginners:

• On this moment catastrophically few topics, cardinally few. This blogging engine has a colossal problem with this, however, templates are being imported from WordPress slowly;
• Modules or plugins - there are still few, there are no alternatives that can be used by many;
• Support - the community is still small compared to WordPress, but for a beginner this is also a significant disadvantage;

WITH blogging engines you can finish - there are still a bunch of such CMS, but these are enough for organizing a simple blog. It would be foolish to compare all the engines after recording, so I'll make a small comparison right away. What they have in common is that they are both free, extensible, and great for organizing a blog. But the differences are quite colossal:

• Load - I would prefer MaxSite CMS, it is especially suitable for those who do not have enough money to create their own blog;
• Support - WordPress has an undeniable advantage here, a huge community and many forums will answer many questions;

• Extensibility is the same, but for those who need a standard build, MaxSite CMS is suitable;
• WordPress has an undeniable advantage in the number of templates, especially free ones - there are simply a huge number of them;

Conclusion: for a beginner, WordPress is suitable, for a beginner without finances, it is best to use MaxSite CMS.

If you've decided to start a blog, one of the first steps in technical implementation is choosing a platform. Today we'll take a look at popular blogging CMSs and try to help you make your choice. Which content management system should you choose for keeping your online diary?

WordPress

In this area, the grand prix belongs to WordPress... This CMS is used by most of the bloggers around the world.

The system is constantly being updated. Recently released latest version 3.6 with an updated administration panel, built-in media player and other useful things.

There are many plugins written for WordPress that will optimize the work with your blog and provide additional features on its design.

The system has no special server requirements, and the visual editor is similar to Word. So it's pretty easy to set up and manage a blog on WordPress.

Developers claim reliable protection against hacking. And WordPress also has SEO support, which is important.

Joomla

Another very popular content management system is Joomla... True, in the West, its popularity is much greater than in the countries of the former USSR. Why is it not clear.

Joomla is updated frequently too. Security release 3.1.5 has recently been released with important fixes.

Also you will find a huge number of extensions for this system.

Content management and post editing systems are perhaps a little more complex than WordPress, but still fairly simple.

Joomla also has SEO support. You can also see page traffic.

Another one nice feature this CMS is a database that saves hosting space.

Drupal

Drupal Is another CMS that is suitable for creating a blog. The system works with all types of files, searches and successfully categorizes content.

Drupal supports multilingual content, allows you to publish material from external applications.

There are also many extensions and modules written for Drupal.

TYPO3

Have TYPO3 many options that a blogger can customize for himself. Also, this CMS allows you to deeply customize user rights.

However, to use TYPO3 you need good hosting and the system takes time to learn. If you are not ready to comprehend TypoScript, then this is not your option.

And one more nice feature: one installation allows you to build not a single site.

Movable Type

Rumor has it that if the creators Movable Type didn't make a big mistake in 2004, this particular CMS would be the market leader. The fact is that it was then that Movable Type became paid, giving way to WordPress. Later, the developers changed their minds, but it was too late.

This content management system is rich in innovation. So if you are following new features, then Movable Type will delight you.

Also, the CMS is convenient to manage files, and the template system is well developed.

As with TYPO3, an unlimited number of sites can be created on one installation. There is reliable protection against spam, its own style libraries and other useful add-ons.

Movable Type is actually more complicated than WordPress, but it's still quite possible to understand it.

Habari

Habari literally made for blogging. So if you are looking for the simplest option, turn your attention to it.

Everything here is very simple, practical and without bells and whistles, the CMS is easy to set up.

But if you are looking for a huge number of themes, you will be disappointed. Therefore, in order to see your dream blog on this CMS, you will most likely have to customize it yourself. appearance... But in the plugins you will probably find everything you need.

MaxSiteCMS

MaxSite CMS- a good solution for blogs with a large number of visits, since the system is well thought out in this regard.

MaxSite is also suitable for those who do not like to rummage in the sea of ​​extensions. The required plugins are included with the installation.

The CMS is also successful from the SEO point of view, and the administrative part does not take a long time to understand. Perfect for a beginner.

B2evolution

B2evolution easy to install and update. CMS is convenient and rich various functions... A number of Russian plugins will help you optimize your work.

Among the plugins are update management, the ability to use an avatar, blog statistics, transliteration of links, etc.

LiveStreet

This CMS is functional, secure enough, and the databases LiveStreet weigh a little.

But in terms of add-ons, the system is poor, and in some places it is difficult to use. However, everything you need for blogging is here.

Plus, it's a good option for "closed" blogs, since it is possible to enable the option of invitations to visit and allow only a select few to enter the page.

Serendipity

Another solution specifically for blogging. Serendipity dynamic system publications. This means that with a large number of visitors, you will need serious hosting.

There are a lot of plugins for Serendipity, but the situation with templates is less rosy.

It is not difficult to install the system, but editing materials will not seem to everyone an easy task. But the creation and publication of materials is possible with external software.

Choice software creating a blog can be a tricky business, especially if you're new to it. There are many varieties of engines and content management systems (CMS). Finding the software you need is not an easy task when you consider the huge number of varieties of this software available on the web today.

There are many aspects to consider when choosing blogging software. For example:

• Programming language.
  Most blogging platforms are developed in PHP or Rails, but in principle you can find yourself a platform written in any language that suits you.
• Required properties.
  The type of software you choose directly depends on what kind of blogs you are going to work with. Some types of blogging software are more geared towards beginners, while others are more geared towards designers and developers. You must choose exactly the program that you need.
• The size of the community dedicated to a particular software
  If one blogging system has a larger community, while the other has a smaller and less active community, then it is better to choose a program with the most active community. The more active users are, the higher the likelihood that the program code is constantly being revised and improved.
• Age of software creation
  The "age" of the platform indicates its completeness. Younger projects are often unstable and contain many more bugs.
• Planning a blog extension
  If you expect that in the future a forum, store or some other service will be added to your blog, you need to choose the most suitable blog software for this.

What software you choose to create your blog will have a huge impact on its further functioning. It is very important from the very beginning to choose the most suitable option in order to avoid transferring the entire system to another engine in the future. Below are the pros and cons of the 10 most popular blogging systems.

1. Wordpress

Wordpress is the most famous and widely used blogging platform. It is equipped with a very simple and intuitive installer, so anyone, even a beginner, can quickly install it without any hiccups.

The main advantage of this software is the Wordpress community. This is one of the largest and most active communities of developers and users, so you can find any theme or plugin you want. The possibilities for improving this software are endless, so many websites and web services use Wordpress code as a basis for creating various internal applications... In addition, Wordpress can be integrated with Akismet, one of the most effective systems spam protection designed for blogging software.

Newbies can not only easily install Wordpress, but also download and install automatic plugin upgrades with one click. The accumulation of knowledge about Wordpress is very easy, and if a novice user is faced with a problem, he can always familiarize himself with an extensive package of documents. The Wordpress engine is ideal for both beginners who want to run their first blog software installation as calmly as possible, as well as advanced developers looking for a program with stable code from which to make something new.

If you want to create a site containing many blogs, you should get familiar with the Wordpress MU system. It contains basically the same code as Wordpress, designed to create a single blog, but has additional features.

Websites developed on the Wordpress engine:

While Wordpress is the most widely used blogging platform, the Movable Type platform powers the majority of high traffic blogs. The most significant among them are Huffinqton Post (the most popular blog on the web), Gawker blogs (blogs of Lifehacker, Gizmodo and others), BoinqBoinq and dooce.

The main plus in favor of the Movable Type system is the built-in support for the functioning of many blogs on one engine. You can quickly create as many blogs as you need, or you can create an entire blog network like the Huffington Post or Gawker at once.

The Moveable Type engine has leapfrogged Wordpress in terms of user friendliness, making its interface and installer much more user-friendly, and the biggest leap forward has been the platform's transition to open source. As a result, the Moveable Type community has grown dramatically in size.

If you want to create multiple blogs or a network of blogs, and you need software that works with large numbers traffic, then the Moveable Type platform is the best choice.

Websites developed on the Moveable Type engine:

Kevin Kornell

3. ExpressionEngine

The ExpressionEngine platform is highly reliable, but you have to pay for it. Its biggest advantage is the ability to publish websites with a complex structure, either using multiple subdomains created in the same domain, or on different domains.

In order to create a branched site on a system of several domains, one source code is enough. Working with the server side of the platform is very simple and convenient for the user. And designers and developers love this program because it is quite easy to link it to the site and thus enable the client to work with his own blog... ExpressionEngine is a robust, unified software package.

ExpressionEngine is truly designed for people trying to create a branched blog site, and yet anyone can handle it fairly easily thanks to its thoughtful and sleek design. One license costs $ 99.95, but if you want to create a personal blog, download the basic version of EE.

Sites powered by ExpressionEngine:

One more strong point this platform is the versatility of the software. The kit includes a reliable user interaction system, as well as a set of functions necessary for the successful work of the community: forums, books (for creating documents with a "book" structure), as well as a tracker with which you can track recent system changes and the emergence of content. recently introduced by users.

In addition, Drupal has a large developer community and modules. Using these modules, you can create any type of site or add almost any functionality when installing Drupal. On many well-known sites, the Drupal engine is used to create an extensive system of blogs and communities: Performancinq, Spread Firefox, The Onion, Ubuntu and others.

Drupal blog software is perfect for anyone who wants to add a community with forums and extensions to their blog.

Websites developed on the Drupal engine:

Textpattern is the simplest blogging platform compared to all of the above. It doesn't even include a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor, instead it uses the Textile markup language to format text.

The Textpattern framework is very similar to ExpressionEngine, with the exception of the features that ExpressionEngine was originally packed with. (You can read more about the differences between the two blogging platforms.) Although this program is quite stable and cohesive, it is unlikely to be suitable for beginners, since they will either have to learn the Textile language, or immediately make notes with using html... If necessary, of course, you can install a WYSIWYG editor as an additional plug-in.

This platform has a fair amount of themes and extensions, and although the Textpattern developer community is not as large as in the case of Wordpress, it is quite loyal and open towards users.

The Textpattern platform is ideal for more experienced blog creators who prefer simplicity and are familiar with the Textile language.

Sites developed on the Textpattern engine:

CMS Joomla is very similar to the community-oriented Drupal platform, and its fan base is growing every day. While Drupal is more suited for developing websites and blogs that act as communities, then Joomla is more suited for developing e-shops (you can read more about the differences between Joomla and Drupal here).

Despite the differences, the Joomla and Drupal engines are very similar in one thing: in just a few minutes, a blog community can be built from a simple site. Joomla has a very active developer community with many extensions.

The Joomla platform is great for building blog communities or for adding additional e-commerce functionality to existing blogs.

b2evolution is another blogging platform that can be used to create either a single blog or an entire blog network at once. But the community of developers for this engine is probably the weakest of all - it has developed only about 200 plugins (compare to Joomla - over 3,400 plugins!)

But although the developer community of b2evolution is not particularly large, the engine has quite promising source code and many people still use b2evolution to build their blogs and blog communities.

The back-end of the application is very easy to navigate, so this platform is ideal for beginners. In addition, b2evolution has a built-in aggregation feature that most blogging platforms somehow lack. The package includes a post editor with a minimal set of WYSIWYG, which can please new bloggers.

Nucleus is another blogging software package designed to create both standalone blogs and branched systems containing many blogs from different authors. In terms of program capabilities and developer community activities, it can be compared to b2evolution. At the same time, Nucleus has a set of useful plugins and themes that can be added during installation to improve the program's performance.

Nucleus has a much better experience and feel than b2evolution, server part Nucleus is simple and easy to understand. In addition, this system has a well-organized schedule for the release of updates, so its code is being worked out much better. If you want to study the program from all sides before downloading, here you can familiarize yourself with the demo site.

Nucleus is a great blogging platform for creating one or more blogs directly.

9. Serendipity

The Serendipity platform prides itself on its beginner-friendly interface. Plugins for it are updated automatically - every time you go online, the plug-in archive is checked, and if necessary, their updated versions are downloaded from the extensive library of user plug-ins. This program, unlike many other blogging platforms, without adding special plugins, supports the ability to create nested and branched branches with comments.

The Serendipity engine uses the Smarty templating system, so the PHP code on which this engine is written is very clear and fast. If this is your first time creating a blog, you can use the setup wizard to make the process much easier. Unlike the b2evolution and Nucleus platforms, Serendipity cannot create a system of several blogs at once, but several users can use one blog at once.

Up to this point, we have only discussed blogging software that was developed in PHP language... The Mephisto system is developed on the Rails platform. The back end is very simple and intuitive to understand. Each element of Mephisto's appearance can be managed using the built-in editor, without using FTP clients.

Unfortunately, so far nothing can be said about plugins or additional themes created to improve the look or functionality of your blog. Bigger Mephisto is a starter kit for building a blog that hasn't been sufficiently developed yet.

The Mephisto blogging platform is mainly aimed at designers and web developers who can create their own themes and plugins to enhance the site. Newbies are better off working with Wordpress or Movable Type. These two popular blogging platforms are much easier to enhance with existing themes and plugins.

Worthy of a Mention

Here are a few blogging systems that didn't make the top ten but are worth mentioning.

• Dotclear
  Dotclear is a French blogging system, also available in English. Supports multiple blogs on one engine, the server side is very user friendly.
• 
  Symphony is a blogging platform for web developers. It is based on xml / xslt, so it requires a certain amount of knowledge to use it. A very versatile and highly customizable system designed for advanced bloggers who need fine site management.
• 
  Habari is a promising modern blogging platform that focuses on working with defects at the core level of the program. Developers of other blogging platforms try to fix such errors with add-ons. The Habari platform can rightfully be called more standards compliant and more secure than other blogging platforms.
• 
  Pixie is a small CMS with which you can quickly create websites and blogs, easy to use and free. The server side of this engine has Beautiful design and easy navigation.

Sergey Arsentiev

CMS for a blog: which engine to choose?

Any modern site is not just a collection of HTML pages, but operates on a specific platform, which is a system of program scripts for dynamic content display.

Such platforms are called CMS (Content Management System) and thanks to them it becomes possible to conveniently edit records, votes, add comments, count page views, etc. Therefore, the choice of this or that CMS determines the future fate of the blog: as a rule, in the future it is almost impossible or very difficult to switch to another system. So choosing the right "engine" for your blog needs to be approached very responsibly.

There are two main types of blog CMSs: paid and free. The most widespread are free blogs, for example, WordPress or Joomla. Their advantages: open code, developed communities, a huge number of plugins, fairly prompt updating of the found "holes", low cost of improvements, due to the large number of programmers and layout designers who have had time to study these CMS well.

Among the advantages of paid engines are lower vulnerability to hacking. Precisely because of their low prevalence, they are not as interesting to hackers as mass free engines. Plus, technical support quickly detects and closes the found vulnerabilities.

But, in my opinion, this advantage does not matter as much for a blog as, for example, for an online store or a corporate website, where lost orders, the company's reputation and many thousands of dollars of direct or indirect losses are at stake. For a blog, hacking, of course, is also unpleasant, but not so critical, because information can be quickly restored, and the absence of a website on the network for several hours is unlikely to be critical. Well, the reader of the blog did not come in now, he will come in tomorrow, when everything will work.
You can even write a fascinating article: "How I got hacked" and compensate for these troubles with new content.

Therefore, I reject paid engines for a blog. With a large number of worthy free counterparts, it's just a waste of money and flexibility in improvements. What costs $ 10 for a free blog will cost $ 100 for a paid one.

All the same applies to the so-called "self-written" engines. This is rare, but sometimes found in our latitudes. This is not about the fact that the author of the blog, being a programmer, writes a platform for himself, but about cases when he orders the writing of a CMS for a blog in some studio. In this case, the blogger becomes totally dependent on the studio for any modifications to the blog, since there are very few people willing to understand someone else's code, and the cost of work will automatically be increased several times.

So my answer to the question asked in the title is, "Is it worth paying for a blog?" - "No, not worth it." But then the question arises, which free CMS for your blog should you choose?

"Alien" blog.

In general, the easiest option is to create a blog based on some portal or community, for example, http://www.livejournal.com/. But I will not even consider this option in detail. If earlier the popularity of such blog portals was huge, then with the development of search engines and their determination of the uniqueness of this or that text, the urgent need for intermediaries for an ordinary blogger has disappeared. Previously, any interesting content, be it articles, reviews, poems, pictures, etc. he stole without a twinge of conscience, and the blogger had no special reason to maintain his own website. And intermediaries, in the form of LJ, served as a kind of means of getting at least some traffic and monetizing the author's efforts.

Today it makes no sense to develop someone else's domain if you can create your own. And to do it in a specific design, with all the necessary "bells and whistles" and optimization for search engines, which is deprived of intermediaries, since both Yandex and Google have announced that they will display only one subdomain in the search results for one relevant query. How it threatens bloggers on LiveJournal is clear: traffic from search will drop sharply.

Therefore, since 2011-2012, there has been an active development of blogs not on intermediary portals, but in the form of independent full-fledged Internet sites. And the development of the most popular free CMS Joomla and WordPress played an important role in this. More than 80% of private Internet projects are based on these systems.

WordPress or Joomla?

It is very important for a budding blogger to work with a common software product: You can ask another blogger for advice, order an inexpensive revision from freelancers, or look for a solution on the forums. And any rare systems, even free ones, are poorly represented on forums in the form of tips, answers to questions, and so on. In such systems, there are usually few developed plugins, plus it is required non-standard approach on the part of programmers, because they used to work with them less. As a result, the cost of any modifications increases significantly, and the search for a contractor for them takes a lot of time.

Therefore, it is important not only free of charge, but also the widespread use of the platform. And today the choice is actually from two CMS: Joomla or WordPress.

If you choose between these two systems, then I definitely recommend WordPress as the free and widespread CMS for a blog that best meets the needs of a modern blogger.

Joomla is still too big software package for the narrow tasks of Internet blogging. It is too universal and redundant, because the same blog is implemented in it only as an additional component, for example, EasyBlog.

WordPress is a specialized CMS for a blog (although regular sites can also be built on its basis). It is several times "lighter" than Joomla, very quickly installed and easier to set up and learn. On this system, you will find the largest number of valuable tips, recommendations, just a huge number of free and paid plugins, sharpened precisely to create a successful blog. So for a beginner and an experienced blogger, I recommend WordPress as a blogging system. Today it is the leader in this market segment.

But it is important not only to choose the right engine for your blog, but also to customize its appearance for ease of use and site navigation. What we will talk about further.