Should you have to dirty your hands with the intricacies of blogging software?

I gotta say that I'd run screaming the other way if I were a manager reading Andy Wibbels' recent blog entry titled Blogging Cheatsheets. Andy offers four PDF downloads, each a mindmap illustrating in (terrifying) detail how to use the various features of the popular Blogger, WordPress, TypePad and Movable Type blogging platforms.

The fact that he needs to do this makes a crucial point for where we are right now with blogging as a business tool: it's still too techie. Even TypePad, which I use and am a huge fan of, is too confusing for some execs to jump into quickly. (Andy's done a great job, BTW, if you want this kind of info.)

By contrast, usability guru Jakob Nielsen scored big in the blogosphere when he published his latest column:  Weblog Usability: the Top Ten Design Mistakes. These are easy to follow and make a lot of sense. (For ex., include a photo and a brief bio of the blog publisher. Amazing how many blogs don't do this.)

Comments

[Ted Laskaris]

Execs take a look at SquareSpace at www.squarespace.com // I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm experimenting with the tool right now and have already gained enough expertise to build a multi-page blog without really sweating. Quite a revelation, if I may say so...