What Blog software?

[VegasRook]

Hi,

I started using blogs last year and used Moveable Type. I liked it but wondered if there is a better system out there from a usability and search engine friendly perspective. I have been away from this stuff since the new year basically.

I am looking free first, but would spend a few bucks if the software was worth it.

Thanks

[vincevincevince]

If you have the patience, nothing beats writing it as HTML using Notepad in terms of speed, usability and search engine performance.

Just download the file, add your new post, and save it to the server again.

Every fancy feature and format that your blog software gives you is another % of the spiders and % of your readers who will be lost.

[netchicken1]

Wordpress, its easy to use, free, it comes with heaps of addons to protect your blog - prime targets for spammer programs at the moment. - its great.

Don't bother reinvnting the wheel, just use this one.

Otherwise pmachine looked good as well.

[VegasRook]

Thanks.

I will try wordpress. Doing things by html is an option too, but might be more work than I have time for right now.

[AAnnAArchy]

I use ExpressionEngine and search engines seem to like it just fine (lots of entries ending up in Google a day later), even though it's just a personal site and I'm not attempting anything SEOish on it. It comes with tons of bells & whistles (photo gallery, black/white lists, captcha, etc.) and once set up, is really easy to use. It's not free ($200 for a commercial license and $150 for personal), but it works well and the support is really good.

[mblair]

I second Wordpress. I've used MovableType as well but prefer WordPress as the way the output is done makes it fairly easy to customize into whatever kind of a blog/site I am looking to build.