Category: Blogging

I did a 30 day trial blog at Typepad tonight. Here is the experimental blogsite:

http://andyrowell.typepad.com/

I’m thinking about moving to TypePad from Blogger because I am sick of having trouble posting photos on Blogger. I’m also sick of not having categories in Blogger.

Most people I know who are serious bloggers are on TypePad though $89.50 (annual) for the middle version of TypePad is a lot considering Blogger is free. I may cancel before August 7.

My first impressions:
1. Blogger still looks better. Though there are a lot of things you can do to customize the appearance of TypePad, the initial styles are not that impressive. Still, there is a lot of room to customize the appearance such as adding a photo to your header. (You can do these things in blogger as well but you have to do in HTML language).
2. TypePad is very easy to use and the features are great. I love being able to post files (audio or PDF, etc.)
3. You can also customize your links, etc. very easily. Again, you can do this in Blogger but it is all with HTML. I’m actually quite blown away by the ease and number of features with TypePad.

Here is an article that summarizes blogging from PC World. Then here they rate the various blog providers.

Here is a formal study of various blog providers from the Online Journalism Review.

Note: July 7 11:00 pm.

My latest idea is to move toward a free account at WordPress.com

I would appreciate your feedback if you have any.

Note July 18, 2006.  I decided to make the switch. 

My blog has moved here to http://andyrowell.typepad.com/

This blog content from my Blogger blog First Move Thyself has been moved over here.

I switched over to TypePad even though you have to pay for it because of the categories, more design options, less hassle posting photos, the ability to post files and audio files, and for their domain hosting.

Blogger is a great place to start for free. I would recommend it.

How to use this blog

Please use this blog in three ways.

1. Feel free to comment on the latest thing I have written. Some of you will want to "subscribe to this blog’s feed" so you be notified whenever there is a new post rather than coming back here to check. You can just click on the "subscribe to this blog’s feed" button and it will walk you through the steps. I use the free NewsGator Online.  [Update March 2008: I use Google Reader now]. See my post entitled How I Keep Up Reading Blogs to learn more.

2. Look through the articles or "posts" and browse to find subjects you are interested in. (See About Categories later in this post). I hope you will find things of interest. Feel free to comment on those old posts as well. If you want to see everything I’ve written, you have to scroll through the months (August 2006, July 2006, etc.)

3. You may have been directed here by a search engine. For example, maybe you are interested in the megachurch and you searched google and found my post "Strengths of the Purpose Driven Church and Sober Advice For Those Considering the Megachurch." Regardless of how you got here, welcome to my site.

Intent of the blog

My hope is that my writing will be fair and responsible, not mean-spirited or careless. At the same time I hope the entries are thought-provoking, relevant, and helpful for those of you involved in church leadership.

About comments

Like all bloggers, I enjoy hearing from readers. Whenever you comment on my blog, I get an email with the comment so I will be sure to read what you have to say. You do not have to sign in to comment. Feel free to leave short comments. Tell me you agree. Tell me you disagree and why. Also feel free to leave comments that direct me (and others) to other blogs (even your own is ok), websites and books that pertain to this subject. That is why I call this "church leadership conversations." The idea of blogs is to share ideas and learn together.

About categories

The categories serve as an index.  If you click on a word such as "megachurch," you will get all of my blog posts that touched on this subject starting with the most recent.  This enables you to pick a category you are interested in and see the posts I have written that touch on that subject.  The larger the font, the more posts that touch on that subject.