I'll admit I've never been much of a blogger, but seeing how much traction people get for their websites - whether it's a product, service, personal or business - I wanted to jump in and give it a try. This site - Refinery.net - is simple and low maintenance. It's been setup to give clients a basic idea of what we do (what is a development shop without a website!) and we're going to keep it pretty simple. The site is powered by Strikingly, and I wanted something just as simple when setting up the blog.
Strikingly has a Blogging feature that's integrated directly with their service. So rather than having to create a new WordPress site, redirecting a subdomain, or hosting a site myself, the blog can be hosted right along with the other pages and content on the site.
The blogging tool has all the basics in place. I can add pictures:
And videos:
And buttons to do stuff:
I can save drafts, add graphics to the top of each post, and in general get the posts created and published with a minimum of effort.
Overall Impressions
The blog posts - like the rest of the site - look good on desktop, tablet, and mobile. The editing process feels exactly like other Strikingly features - it's super easy to write and publish posts. If you are a professional writer you'll probably want the extra features (and need to integrate with other sites/services anyway), but for straightforward sites like Refinery.net the blogging tool is the perfect size for the job.
The blogging feature is added just like other features on a Strikingly site - just add it to the left control panel, position it where you want in the site, and start managing posts. One caution - it looks like if you delete the section, all your posts are deleted too (and there's a message saying it can't be undone). After checking the site I didn't spot any comments about archiving the posts - so just be careful when removing sections on your site!
Overall, the new blogging feature is an easy to use tool, and a welcome addition.
