The first consideration when creating a blog is which tool to use. There are countless options with a variety of different features. Some tools are free, others are open source, some require no IT help, while others require quite a bit of programming and configuration to get up and running.
Which tool you pick to build your blog depends largely on your commitment to this blogging thing. Before doing anything, ask yourself if you're unsure, kinda sure, or whether you feel strongly about a blog for your organization.
If you're unsure if blogging will work for your organization and you're deciding whether to move forward with it, then Blogger is the tool for you. It costs nothing, it's stable, easy to use, and even the hosting is free. To use the free service, simply sign up, and you're on your way to becoming a bonafide blogger.
Do you feel more sure? You know that you want to do this and you've assigned someone to update the blog, but you don't want to invest heavily in a technology infrastructure. Enter Typepad . Typepad provides a few more options than Blogger -- notably trackbacks and categories -- that add to the managability of your blog. It costs more than Blogger, but the extra options could be worth the investment.
Do you feel strongly that you want to host a blog on your own servers? Do you want to be able to build and customize as you see fit? If so, there are three good options for you: WordPress (which is now available as a hosted service, too) or Drupal (which we used to create the NetSquared blog and website). And there's also Six Apart's Movable Type , which offers not-for-profit pricing.
In addition to their blogging capabilities, WordPress and Movable Type can act as good, lightweight content management systems. Drupal, on the other hand, is like a big box of legos, but it offers powerful tools for organizing your Web site. That said, I don't recommend trying these options if you don't have good, confident technology assistance.
Adapted from Ready to Start Blogging? on TechSoup.