So, I’ve been raving about Typepad here and there, but I wanted a whole post about it so you’d know why it rocks.
(Also, I love being able to cut posts so easily. Typepad rocks.)
First, I started with a 90 day free trial by using the code: movable, that I got when I was investigating Movable Type. I was going to use MT and get hosting space, but my domain name expired, and I couldn’t come up with one to use. Either way, I’m glad I stuck with typepad.
Before, I was paying 10/month for my hosting space, and then paying a yearly Supergold membership at Diaryland. Now that my free trial is up, I’m paying 8.95/month for my Typepad service, which is already less than what I was paying, and it’s so much easier to deal with. Maybe in the future, I will go back to my own domain and use MT, but for now, daaaaammn, Typepad is awesome.
Here’s why:
–Multiple blogs. This seemed sort of ridiculous to me at first, and then I got it. I have my default site as my family-friendly site, and I’ve given the link to my family and friends. Since I was only ever using crumple.org to store pictures, this is a perfect setup. One of the things I had to do with the previous arrangement was upload to two different sites; I didn’t want to send family to an image hosted on Diaryland, for obvious reasons. Instead of the password-protected former diary, I have this one blocked on google-spiders, and you have to know the specific url to get here. I also didn’t use my standard username, like I had on Diaryland, which may help, too. Starting from scratch means that I can be a little more cautious about what I reveal (workwise, etc) and I won’t get googled.
–Image hosting. Uploading is easy, the indexing is easy, it doesn’t get all advertisement-y like yahoo pics does, and I can share between blogs — or not. I don’t have to upload multiple times, and I can password-protect photo albums, if I choose. Plus, typepad automatically resizes thumbnails, and everything looks cool. I love it, seriously.
–User-Friendly interface. Links are easy, lists are easy, everything is SO EASY. Diaryland required html editing; typepad lets you just highlight and click a button for text formatting or links or anything. It’s so easy.
–Remote Updating! I LOVE this feature. First, if I wanted to log in, it looks so professional that people might think it was email or something. It doesn’t scream “I’m SLACKING!” like the purple Diaryland does, there is no possibility of questionable material flashing in a banner ad, it’s just clean and sleek and KLASSY. But, I can update from school, or anywhere, by emailing an entry in. Before, if I were visiting my folks, for instance, I wouldn’t update (even though there were some GREAT moments to capture, heh) because I didn’t want to go through the whole cache-clearing thing every time. Emailing an entry is fabulous — anytime I’ve updated from school, it’s been via email.
–Comments. Commenting is great, and not an extra feature. The whole reason I had Supergold on Diaryland was for commenting, but it’s included here. I could also ban commenters, etc, if I wanted to, which Diaryland doesn’t allow.
–I’m sure there’s more. The templates are great — clean lines, simple designs, no worries. There isn’t great stats tracking, but I added a free tracker with no problem.
Anyway, like Gmail, I love Typepad. Both come highly recommended.
If you’d like a GMail invite, email me.
Typepad 90 day free trial code: movable