Anyone who wants to make use of weblogs to communicate to a wider audience, without the hassle of managing them, can now take advantage of Yahoo!'s Web Hosting product and the blogging solutions of Six Apart. Under an agreement announced this week, Yahoo! will offer its customers the ability to create weblogs hosted by Yahoo! and built using Six Apart's Movable Type software.
Six Apart has optimized its Movable Type software specifically for Yahoo's hosting environment, resulting in performance that is 140% faster than the vast majority of hosting environments. Additionally, Movable Type is the most popular business blogging software in use today, and is the choice of most major corporations, organizations and professionals.
"Blogging is quickly moving into the mainstream as companies grow their businesses by using blogs for marketing purposes, for internal workgroups and even for content management," said Anil Dash, Six Apart's vice president of professional products. "By partnering with Yahoo! and customizing Movable Type specifically for their environment, we have created the best Movable Type experience on the web. Professionals now have an easy way to install, customize and expand their Movable Type weblogs, all hosted and managed by the recognized leader in website and blog hosting."
"With tens of millions of existing blogs and an estimated 70 thousand new blogs being created everyday, Yahoo! is committed to meeting the needs of the growing blogosphere, by helping bloggers focus on their content and their audience, rather than on their infrastructure," said Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Small Business, in a written statement. "Yahoo! has created a best-in-class hosting solution for bloggers, and by integrating it with Six Apart's leading Movable Type software, we offer users a flexible, easy-to-use blogging product with unparalleled scalability."
The latest version of Movable Type blogging software can be installed on Yahoo! Web Hosting in seconds, claims Yahoo! As with all Yahoo! Web Hosting services, the blogging solution includes a free domain, blog/Web site hosting, and business-class email.
The service is available immediately upon purchase of a Yahoo! Web Hosting package at www.sixapart.com/movabletype/yahoo, starting at $11.95 per month.
ECommerce-Guide asked Yahoo! spokesman Ed Bryson if this feature has been something Yahoo's e-commerce customers have been asking for as a new marketing method.
"Based on research and interaction with our customers, we expect use of blogging to continue to grow for small online businesses. In addition, as the overall blogging community experiences rapid growth, Yahoo! wants to offer bloggers an integrated solution, combining the best and most popular blogging software available, with Yahoo!'s reliable and affordable hosting services," said Bryson on Thursday.
"Whether the blog is used to help market a business or to promote an interest, hobby, or opinion (a 'traditional' blog), bloggers want to focus on their content, rather than their infrastructure. So we are offering an easy-to-use solution that enables anyone to launch a blog in a matter of seconds."
Given that many blogging solutions and Web sites are free to all users, ECommerce Guide also wanted to know why Yahoo! is charging for this service.
"The Yahoo! blog hosting platform enhancement announced this week is a great solution for bloggers of all sizes, but its focus is on enabling semi-professional bloggers to maintain high-traffic blogs on a scalable, reliable platform. The Yahoo! solution better meets the needs of high traffic blogs than free blogging solutions with more limited capabilities," said Bryson.
"Also, it's important to note that as a professional blogging solution, Movable Type is not free from any source. Yet, Yahoo! offers Movable Type solution in conjunction with its hosting services, starting at under $12 (the service also includes a domain, etc., per their product/pricing info: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting/). So the Yahoo! offer is really the least expensive way to get this great blogging tool, since Yahoo! does not charge an 'extra' fee for it," he added.
Bryson later clarified that the Six Apart product is free for personal use, but not for commercial use. He said the commercial license is what customers get when they use Movable Type via Yahoo! Web hosting services.
Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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