What's Better Than Choosing Your Blog's Platform?

Recently I joined Book Blogs and one member asked for a better blog format (or blog platform---to be exact) in the discussions. Looking at other sources with comparative stats between varied platforms and providers (not counting out that most online statistical data can be manipulated) and looking at my own experience since 2004, I think it's becoming a subjective inquiry since choosing your platform depends entirely on what you want and need to do with your blog.

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There's a platform suitable for free hosting as well as for paid hosting. The latter is good if you want to own your content but you have to pay for it. Some like to earn money from their blogs while others choose to be free from ads (like this blog). Another criteria is the design. Some would prefer the professional look, others choose personalized (widget/gadget intensive) look, while some would prefer the simplified text-heavy look. Some would consider user popularity of the provider like this list did. Considering the boom in the social media sphere by Facebook and Twitter, and in the geek sphere by iTunes Podcast and Technorati, integration between domains also is a big factor. If your platform can easily link to potential readers, the better for your blog. Additionally, it's also important to choose a secured and spam-free platform and a provider that continues to improve and evolve to suit every user's needs. User support and forum is also a good criteria, with the current trend in "cloud" communities. Choosing a provider to keep a constant eye on what sites link to your blog and the detailed statistics of your blog (crawl errors, live feeds, search queries, etc.) will also give the blog owner a sense of control and overview.

Now if you ask me what's my choice in blog platform, I will answer its Blogger. Sorry to disappoint you Google haters, but this platform worked for me since 2004. I have current blogs in Tumblr and Posterous but for a book blog, Blogger is the platform that suits well with my needs. But this is actually, not relevant. There's something more important than merely choosing a platform.

The choice of specific criteria stated above will not guarantee a quality and loyal readership for your blog. The bottom line is still about what you write in your blog. Content is more important than  platform. I have seen a lot of blogs with professional looking templates but the content speaks differently (mostly candy-coated childish posts and memes). I saw a blog with an old and simplified template but the writing is very good and very informative. I saw a blog loaded with graphics but what I like about that blog is not the graphics but what the author consistently writes about.

So once again, what's better than choosing your blog's platform? It's what you write in your blog.