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[JasonPickering]

Hey Guys, so I have had a lot of people asking me about a website for my game and I think a blog is the way to go. its easy to handle, I can continually put new posts about development, and I can keep a build at the top for everyone.

The only problem is I don't actually know how to make a blog and have it not look like I just grabbed a random template. Has anyone had any experience with Blogger?

P.S. if this is in the wrong area feel free to move it.

[zacaj]

Learn CSS.

[JasonPickering]

I have a decent handle on flash. will it be similar?

[zacaj]

Not really (although I don't know much about flash).  CSS is basically how you position and color,etc everything on the web.  Its not really a programming language so much as just setting properties.

[Moczan]

I would recommend you to read about WordPress, it's free, have enough features for a personal blog and there are thousands of themes out there on the internet that you can modify with little knowledge of html/php/css.

[sigfarter]

Get WordPress, many hosting providers will offer you a very easy way to install a WordPress blog through your control panel. Writing your own themes is quite simple if you look at the source code for the themes already available.

As an example, here's my WordPress blog with a theme I created: http://braindamage.vg

[InfiniteStateMachine]

+1 for wordpress, there's a billion free templates and they are very easy to modify

it's great for people who just want to make posts and not do web coding

[Gabriel Verdon]

I've gotten pretty good at tinkering with blogger. It's actually super customizable because they give you access to the HTML straight up. I find the best approach is to just Google each thing you want to change one by one, and there are tons of articles walking you through how to make the changes.

It does help to have some HTML/CSS knowledge (both of which are super easy to learn), but you don't really need it.

I've also heard great stuff about Wordpress, and I've used it a couple times as well. But it's quite difficult to create your own custom themes (for the install version anyway, I'm not sure about the free blog service). Definitely worth a shot though.

I've done for quite a few blogs with Blogger now though, so if you decide to go that route just PM me if you need help! I'd be more than happy to lend a hand.

[Evan McClane]

tumblr is super easy to set up and choose a theme if you're lazy like me.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

i'm confused by the first sentence -- people are asking you to set up a website, and you think the "way to go" is to make a blog? a blog alone is not a website; it can be a part of a website. most indie game sites are more than a blog -- e.g. different sections for a person's games, a forum, a screenshots section, an "about me" page, and so on. so i'd recommend keeping that in mind, because users usually come to a person's site looking for particular things (such as a game download), and blogs can be hard to navigate, even with tags

anyway, drupal (which i use) hasn't been mentioned yet, and i prefer it to wordpress (which i've also used) due to its greater flexibility

[moi]

Do people read blogs anymore anyway?
If you have nothing to say don't adopt a blog format, jusgt make an information site about the game. An empty blog will looks worse

[Gabriel Verdon]

Do people read blogs anymore anyway?

Yes.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

yeah of course but i don't think as many people do now as in blogging's heyday. there was like a gold rush for blogs around 2005 where everyone had to have one and some people had like 10 or 20 different blogs, but now it's diminished a lot, sort of like myspace. i can't remember the last time i checked my rss reader

i think it was largely replaced with facebook pages (more people check a game's facebook page than its blog) and tumblr; i don't really use tumblr and don't see the appeal but far more people seem to use it now than blogs

[JasonPickering]

the main thing people have asked for has been just a dedicated site to get the latest build. but the reason I wanted a blog was for the ease of posting updates about the project.

[Rat Casket]

the main thing people have asked for has been just a dedicated site to get the latest build. but the reason I wanted a blog was for the ease of posting updates about the project.

I would recommend a tumblr over a blog. Tumblr gets a lot more use, and its easier to share content. Getting traffic to a blog is much more difficult than getting traffic to your tumblr.

[Ant]

Yeah I used to have a Tumblr as my site, the main page had all the blog posts and each game had their own static page. I tried out Blogger at the same time but preferred Tumblr, just found it easier to edit the theme.

[Fallsburg]

Try out blogger, tumblr, and wordpress, use the one that you like. 

As for blogs, yeah people still use/read blogs, they are just a standard subsection of a website now instead of the hot new thing reported on by the mainstream media.

[Moczan]

i'm confused by the first sentence -- people are asking you to set up a website, and you think the "way to go" is to make a blog? a blog alone is not a website; it can be a part of a website. most indie game sites are more than a blog -- e.g. different sections for a person's games, a forum, a screenshots section, an "about me" page, and so on. so i'd recommend keeping that in mind, because users usually come to a person's site looking for particular things (such as a game download), and blogs can be hard to navigate, even with tags

anyway, drupal (which i use) hasn't been mentioned yet, and i prefer it to wordpress (which i've also used) due to its greater flexibility

WordPress lets you set up normal HTML pages using the same theme used for blog posts, so it's more than enough for a dev sites. People use it for news sites, portals, arcades, e-commerce, etc. While Drupal may be more flexible, I think that WordPres is really the GameMaker of blogging software.

[Gabriel Verdon]

Adding to what Paul was saying, I think when blogs were first introduced they were The New Thing so they were really popular just because they were blogs. But now blogs are in everything and everywhere - I mean there is one on the frontpage of this website. They've become one of the default channels for sharing information on the internet, so yes, of course people still read blogs.

[brettchalupa]

I think blogs are still largely relevant. They aren't tied to a specific account based platform like Facebook and they aren't limited to 140 characters like Twitter. Their purpose has slightly changed over the years, but I believe for the better. I subscribe to a bunch of great game developer's RSS feeds, and it is my favorite way to read new and interesting content.

What's important is that you actually update it and that what you right has a purpose.

As everyone is suggesting, there are a ton of free options for creating a blog. Tumblr and Wordpress are probably your best bets. You could easily do it all for free too (file hosting, the blog, etc.). The only think you'll have to purchase is a domain name if you don't want bananasplit.wordpress.com or whatever you choose as your username.

Each has their own benefit, which really depends on what it is that you want from a blogging platform.