I am excited to be writing a blog again for the gazillionth time. Truthfully I hate blogging from the standpoint of being an ENFP. It involves not just starting something, but following all the way through with it, and sticking to it consistently. Either that or wasting your precious oxygen sitting in front of a screen, getting obese, and hastening your already brief life span.
So, in this first post I would like to outline off the top of my head (because everyone wants to totally read what you have to say off the top of your head) why having a blog is a royal pain the keister.
PICK ME! PICK ME!
First, finding a platform that is half decent is nightmare in and of itself. Half the SAAS on the internet is some new startup service. There are only a handful of services that have been around for a while, among them being blogger, livejournal, tumblr, and wordpress. WordPress reigns as king for blogging platforms, but involves forking out dollars for hosting which many a young teenage blogger doesn't wish to do. Not to mention it can be intimidating as hell to install, customize, and keep up to date. Heck, a regular memory limit exceeded error is enough to give any newbie mom blogger a heart attack. Let's not even talk about the living hell that was the recent XSS vulnerability.
THEMES
Once you choose a "platform" or whatever you want to call it, the door is open for frustrating world of themes. Themes are a way for SAAS developers to proudly display how little they know about user-friendly GUI. The themes you can choose among fall into three parties: minimalist, busy, and below average.
The minimalist themes are anything but minimalist (something with the essentials). It's more like a smorgasbord of an interface where the essentials are lacking, and the accessories are at the forefront. It's clear that these companies' idea of what bloggers want is a place to post dumb photos of themselves or chicks wearing trendy hipster garb.
The busy themes are just that: busy. They intend to wow by recycling your post archive in one hundred different ways, "deceiving" your readers into thinking you have a really active site. Instead, it's really annoying.
Finally, there are your sub-par themes (which really are your best choice). These themes look websites constructed a decade or two ago but with some creativity and decent know-how are always the most suitable for your blog due to their customizability.
EDITING TOOLS
Most blogging platforms love to brag about the incredibly awesome drag n drop editing tools they offer. Most of this is a lie. Spacing is always a mess because most platforms have some crazily-coded auto paragraph function written in php or some language that further deprecates your posts/pages into meaninglessness every time you hit the "Save" button. As you work more and more with the platform of your choice, you will notice insanely frustrating kinks such as these.
POSTING
If you don't journal or write on a regular basis, while having a blog may seem cool, it is likely to go off the tracks of the blogging world pretty fast. You won't be on page one of google and chances are good that something far more interesting or productive will fill the void that temporarily is your blog.
If you or I make it past these hurdles and can consistently write good content, market the blog, and grow a following, then there is hope for us in the blogging world. If not, go cut your lawn, ride a bike, volunteer at your local soup kitchen. There are a hundred things better to do than wasting your time writing a blog.
Now how's that for a first post?