Comparing Blog Platforms #2: First Blog on Typepad

Posted on December 13, 2007 by Dana Kunz

As a follow-up to Comparing Blog Platforms #1: WordPress.com, here is my installment on Typepad.com.

Blog Platform Comparison Test Rules

Some of my personal rules for this comparison test are as follows.

  1. The Anyone Can Do It Standard. I am looking for an intuitive platform that gets me up and happily blogging in no time. It should be obvious how to set-up, customize, and promote my blog. In other words, anyone can do it.
  2. Rapid deployment. I am doing my best to make rapid decisions initially in order to get different aspects of the blog up and running quickly. While aesthetics are important, I’m not stressing over them right now.
  3. No customization outside of available templates. I am using standard features, widgets, and themes that appear on the normal menus. No editing CSS or HTML for me.

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Today I wrote my first blog on Typepad.com using their “14-day free trial.” You can see it at www.blogcastgirl.typepad.com.

Time to First Blog: 10 Minutes On Typepad v. 1 Hour On WordPress.com

I have to say that I was impressed with the Typepad experience. I was able to get from account activation to first blog in about 10 minutes, much faster than the hour it took me to get up and running on WordPress.com. You can see an account of my experience on Comparing First Blogs on TypePad and WordPress.com.

  • I gave Typepad the edge for ease of use in getting to the first blog.
  • I gave WordPress.com credit for teaching me a lot about menu navigation.

Basic Features That WordPress.com Has And Typepad Doesn’t

There are a few features that WordPress.com has that I truly miss in Typepad.

  1. WordPress has an “Undo” button in the editing panel.
  2. WordPress supports automatic emoticons when you type in “:)” you get :) .
  3. WordPress has tags. In addition to categories, WordPress.com has tags. I think that these will help with content navigation over the long haul.
  4. WordPress has page navigation tabs built into some themes. Typepad has pages. But for the life of me, I can’t find a standard theme in Typepad that made the pages into tabs at the top of my blog (instead of just lists in the sidebar).

Basic Features That Typepad Has And WordPress.com Doesn’t

  1. Typepad Walks You Through To First Blog. The TypePad account activation system dumps you seamlessly into choosing titles and themes, then brings up your first blog. WordPress.com dumps you into their dashboard menu and you hunt and peck from there.
  2. Typepad Gets You Started On Traffic Generation. Typepad has a “publicity” tab that starts the process of electronically inviting the web world to your party. While you can certainly accomplish this task in WordPress.com, I haven’t yet found a handy tab or menu item labeled “click here newbie so that people can find your ?!@# blog.”

Filed under: Blogging Platforms, Getting Started Blogging, Wordpress.com, typepad | Tagged: , ,

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4 Responses

  1. sulz, on December 14th, 2007 at 12:19 am Said:

    newbies can get help by browsing the faq http://faq.wordpress.com and if you need more help, there’s the wp.com forums where volunteers can assist you. :)

  2. blogcastgirl, on December 14th, 2007 at 1:13 am Said:

    Thanks! The WordPress.com FAQs and Forums have been indispensable to me. Plus, tech support responded quickly and fixed a problem with themes.

  3. husdal, on December 16th, 2007 at 6:36 pm Said:

    Thanks for this great review. I’m a sworn Typepad’er and I never regretted it. I tried WordPress first but I just couldn’t cope with the utterly confusing control panel.

    Some comments to your post and the comments:
    Undo Button: If you’re using Firefox, right-click your mouse for Undo.
    Emoticons: Ok, too girlish for me anyway :-) I don’t need that.
    Tags: Typepad has Technorati tags and keywords, WP does not.
    Help: support.typepad.com has detailed answers to all you need. I never found what I needed at the help/FAQ section at WP. Maybe because I consider myself an “advanced” blogger who likes to play around with his HTML.

    In conclusion, what I like most about Typepad is the clear structure and intuitive layout of the control panel (i know right away where things are) and all the options for control. WP may be nice for a newbie, but for a guy who can still remember how to type in MSDOS, WP just isn’t the right thing. Besides, I prefer to pay and get what I pay for.

  4. blogcastgirl, on December 17th, 2007 at 1:14 am Said:

    I’m so glad that you commented. I really appreciate your expertise. I’m in a conundrum right now, because I like the TypePad interface a lot, but all signs seem to be pointing towards implementing a “real” blog on WordPress.org. Your guidance would be appreciated.

    1) Pay to Play. My intention has always been to be on a scaleable and “monetizable” platform, and so I expect to either stay on TypePad or transition to WordPress.org…and pay for hosting and support. I started on WordPress.com to replicate the experience of a newbie blogger. It’s working ;) .

    2) Control Panel Better in TypePad. I totally agree with you on this. Don’t even get me started on WP’s template customization menu. It isn’t pretty.

    3) SEO. The few comments so far have all been on the WordPress.com site. To me, that indicates that it is easier to find in the blogosphere, and I haven’t done anything to promote any of the sites. How did you find me, if I may ask :) ?

    2) Horizontal navigation. I LOVE having the page tabs across the top of the WordPress.com site. I haven’t seen this on any of the TypePad sites or templates. If I upgrade my TypePad site, will I be able to get horizontal navigation? My search of the “Knowledge Base” came up empty.

    More input! Thanks!

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