Weblog Archive

Possible New Year's Resolution: starting a webpage (free)?

Is one of your New Year's resolutions to start that webpage or weblog that you've always wanted (and to get it done right) without paying too much? I found this deal advertised at Techbargains.com for free webpages with no banner ads, nothing, at 1and1.com. Well, free for 3 years and who knows what they will do with it after that. Use their service at your own risk; however, the features sound pretty awesome. But I am also fairly skeptical this will last for long -- or even for the 3 years they advertise. Why? Well, the accounts provide you with access to your site via ssh. Sounds like a shell account to me. Who knows what kind of havoc a 133t h@x0r will do if certain scripts were allowed to run on the server. I can't say for sure what executable access is allowed until I sign up for an account, but if I do sign up for one, I'll let you know.

What's the advantage of going this route and starting a blog on your own website rather than going with the cookie-cutter style of Xanga and the like? Well, customization is, in my opinion, the reason why you should go with personal blogging software like MovableType (MT) or Wordpress (the new development arm of the highly popular b2 blog engine). The nice thing about the account from 1and1 is that it also provides all the nice backend database tools like MySQL and scripting languages like PHP so that you can install MT or Wordpress in your site. You can ensure your site is strict XML compliant or Transitional XHTML compliant. Don't get me started on why web standard compliance is important (although I still have yet to make my site fully compliant). The sky's the limit in terms of design elements. And best of all, you control the advertising on your site. Want to make a little money on the side? Provide some very useful information and then apply for Google's new service called Adsense -- ooh, wait, I'm giving away all the secrets. After all, the more people who sign up for Adsense means more diluted advertising payouts to those already in it, right? I think not. In the best case scenario, all the content providers who are not really in it for providing good content but rather a quick buck from Google, may end up finding their site denied from Adsense.

So please, go ahead and start that site you've always wanted to start. You probably also want to get a unique domain name to go with that site of yours. You can purchase cheap domain names nowadays from lots of different registrars -- check out Dotster, Verisign, Register.com, Godaddy.com. If you happen to start a site that provides information about life science, scientific publishing, graduate school, etc., please comment here about your new site (if it's an obvious attempt to bring traffic to a spam site, I will delete your comment). Good luck with your venture and if you happen to blog, please blog often, blog well, and stick with it -- I've seen too many blogs put by the wayside (understandably so, since I will eventually have to retire this site sometime in the future when I am no longer able find time for it).