I am a novice blogger and have already determined that setting up a blog can be quite simple. There are a number of free hosting services that will permit you to get your blog up and running in a matter of minutes. Among these are Blogger and WordPress.

I started my blog on WordPress and quickly decided that there were some limitations that I did not wish to deal with. Mainly, WordPress would not permit me to add any JavaScript's to the HTML code. Very basic HTML tags are permitted in the body of the posts.

Blogger would permit me to add JavaScript's, however, I could not save any server side files. This is understandable considering most novice bloggers may not be too meticulous with their code which could pose security threats.

Since I had established a hosting service for other projects while I was in college, I decided to migrate my blog to the server that I had established access to. I chose Serendipity as my blogging engine because the software is open source and free. The software was easy to install on my server and there are plenty of third-party plugins. Serendipity may be a little hard to get used to at first but the user is in total control of what is placed on the web pages. I like the control and the ability to examine the source files of the blogging engine software. I can also post pages that do not use the standard template if I so choose.

The main determining factor in developing a blog should be the content, not the means of setting up the blog. For newbie's like me, cost is also a factor. You should not pay a great deal for an activity that may be mainly a hobby. Choose a topic that you are passionate about so writing the content will not be a problem. The topic I chose is distance education. My blog can be viewed in two versions. The original blog is at Journey Into Online Education and the new version that I am migrating to is at Journey Through Education Online. The original address will redirect to the new one after the migration which is a very considerate service provided by Google who owns blogspot.com.