Embedding a blog into a website

[neilsw]

I am looking to put a blog into a website. Not a forum, but blog style where a community can post and subsequently leave comments to blog posts. Which software, platform, ??? is best for this? Thanks.

[pcthug]

You are restricted to what Server Side languages/Database platforms your host offers you. For the most accurate and beneficial response, please post what options you have.

[neilsw]

Unix
A-la-Carte Feature Quantity Purchased
Web Disk Space 0/7000 MB
Web Data Transfer 0/150000 MB
Web Login Available
Mail Aliases 1/150
FTP Accounts 1/3
File Manager Available
Search Engine Submission Disabled
ImageCafé® Web Site Creator Available
Shared SSL Enabled
Domain Host Header 2/100
Vanity User Available
Directory Pointers Available
MySQL Databases 0/4
phpMyAdmin Available
MySQL Database Disk Space Available
Frontpage 2002 Disabled
Webalizer Stats Disabled
RealMedia Disabled
WindowsMedia Disabled
Web Logs Disabled
Perl Available
Global CGIs Available
PHP Available
Visitor Counter Available
Feedback Form Available
Server Side Includes Available
Backup Available

[neilsw]

still looking for some help. Thanks

[pcthug]

I would suggest looking at a PHP/MySQL solution. Look at Textpattern (http://www.textpattern.com/) or Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/).

[Cratima]

Wordpress is my suggestion too. :)

[Webmarketer]

I personally have been very happy with WordPress for my online retail shop Suzie-Homemaker.com (http://www.suzie-homemaker.com) . The only problem I personally think there is with the free blogs such as Wordpress, Blogger etc. is that they don't allow for theme consistency. You can try to match the colors, but you can't get your theme to really match. You can see this on the previous mentioned site.

For online businesses, I would always suggest using a Web Design Company to design your Blog (or forum) to match your existing site.

Good Luck with your Blog. Gotta love the blogs!

[disembodied]

I too will echo the use of WordPress... but disagree with that last poster who said its hard to get 'free blog programs' to integrate completely with your site. I started with a web design and then found first b2evolution (lower quality then wordpress in my opinion, and not near as upgradable via plugins) and built my site into a theme for its use, and then i switched to wordpress and did the same thing for it. Both used almost the exact same website look (I improved on specific things for wordpress to take advantage of features, but nonetheless the site remained the same).

So anyway, you can get tons of themes for wordpress, etc. and use those if you want - and then you may never be happy with the outcome because you didn't do the design yourself, but its VERY easy to make your own theme for wordpress and they have a ton of documentation on how to do it.

Check out http://www.wordpress.org for the download along with a crap ton of documents to get you started.

Also, if you have Fantastico for your website (it would be in your cpanel if you have one) it usually has WordPress in there and will install it automatically for you, and then you just go from there.

For an example of a website turned blog system you can visit mine (http://disembodied.us) that i just recently finished putting together with WordPress.

Good Luck!

[carastas]

Yeah, go for wordpress, there are many people implementing that, lotsa layouts and plugins, easy to modify, the php is simple and clear... sometimes commented ;)

or you can make your own, making a blog is really simple, especially if you want to keep it simple, this way it'd be easier to integrate your layout, users, etc...

George