Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#1

Post by lucaspiller » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:05 AM UTC

I'm wondering what I should use for my company's blog. I actually remember reading a good article about this a few months ago but I can find it. I'm not after anything too complicated, but have a few requirements:

- Easy to edit by non-technical people (i.e. not Jekyll / Octopress)

- Not hosted by us, so when we go down our users can know what is going on

- Relatively customisable, so we can brand it at the very least

- Something that isn't going to be shutdown (Posterous looks great, but the acquisition is worrying), I don't mind paying to get this guarantee

- CNAME support, I want to be able to use http://blog.mycompany.com/

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#2

Post by nvartolomei » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:10 AM UTC

Try tumblr.

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#3

Post by mariusandra » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:19 AM UTC

How about wordpress.com?

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#4

Post by antidoh » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 2:01 PM UTC

Your last requirement (CNAME) is the most important part of the answer. As long as you can do that, your platform choice isn't a nailbiter. Choose and start writing.

Your blog service should include RSS.

Wordpress is nice in that you have the option of them hosting it for now, then migrating to self hosted later if you want. Just because it's self hosted doesn't mean it has to be hosted at the same place that your company is hosted, so you still don't have to worry about you going down and your blog.

Here's the result of a little searching around ...

A comparison of services. Don't know if the comparison is valid, but you can just use it as a list. http://blog-services-review.toptenreviews.com/

Flickr supports these services, if you care: http://www.flickr.com/help/blogging/

Here's what the top 20 blogs use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog_software

A long list of blogs. Doesn't say what they use, but you can sometimes find a "powered by" link on a blog. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blogs

Longer list, same comment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Blogs

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#5

Post by Igal_Zeifman » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 2:18 PM UTC

nvartolomei wrote: post #2

Try tumblr.

Sorry, have to disagree... Not "official" enough for company blogging. Great platform tho, just not for business.

WordPress will do just fine.

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#6

Post by redspark » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 2:48 PM UTC

Unless your blog is core to your profitability right now, seems like you are overthinking it.

Don't be held back by indecision. Pick something like Wordpress.org and move forward!

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#7

Post by smartwater » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 4:29 PM UTC

company.com/blog is better than blog.company.com

Google treats incoming links differently when they are pointing to a subdomain. Incoming links to your main site are more beneficial than incoming links to a subdomain.

If you are going to put the time and effort into a blog, you mine as well get the full benefits of it.

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#8

Post by tnorthcutt » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 4:39 PM UTC

WordPress. Use WP Engine for hosting.

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#9

Post by tdorrance » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 5:08 PM UTC

wordpress is the way to go

Re: Ask HN: What should I use for my company's blog?

#10

Post by checkmeout » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:39 PM UTC

I usually use Wordpress for self hosted blogs. I find it unbeatable so far.