A multi-author blog, or mulitple blogs?

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I'm looking for some advice on the best way to set up a multi-author blog. I'm in the process of setting up a blog that will have 4-6 authors, all blogging once a day, M-F. The topic (and consequently, the blog entry's subject) they are blogging on will be the same for each author each day, with each author's view of the subject being the main difference.

I need advice in two areas.

First, would it be better to set this up as one multi-author blog, or as 4-6 blogs which are linked to each other? If it is set up as one multi-author blog, would it be better to have 4-6 posts, all with the same title, or 1 post, with each author's view in a different color? (The problem with the single post method would be the lack of ability to read just one author's views. The problem with the 4-6 posts on one blog is the redundancy of subject. And the problem with multiple linked blogs would be controlling the feel and connectedness of the blogs as a group.

Second, where would be the best place to host these blogs? I'd like to use a service where readers of other blogs can stumble upon this blog (or series of blogs), and preferably one that is free. I don't have facebook or myspace, and would like those to be last options at best.

I realize that much of this is personal opinion, but I'd appreciate those opinions anyway. Thanks for your help!

 

[PlaceofDis]

wordpress would work easily for a multi-author blog.

as for hosting im not so sure.

 

[xfiftyfour]

Personally I would set up one blog with 6 authors, and have it so that it only displayed that day's posts on the index. I think wordpress allows you to single-out an individual author's posts, but if not, you could alternatively make each author a category to get the same result. Titles could be "Joe's View: Subject Matter" so it reduces the blatant redundancy and clearly communicates what the difference between the posts are.

The only hitch is hosting. I too would go with Wordpress, but I'm not sure the free version (wordpress.com versus hosting your own instance) is the best choice. 1) I don't think it allows for multiple authors and 2) it doesn't allow for custom CSS/design...so you wouldn't have the flexibility of styling the authors differently (which may or may not even be something you'd have wanted). You can get cheap hosting though and run your own instance..but that'll be up to you.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Thank you both. I am familiar with hosted Wordpress blogs...I run two of them, and one of my authors on this new venture is an author on one of the other blogs. Using something I already know would be an advantage, but not really that big of one in my opinion.

The downside of a hosted Wordpress blog is that it is not inherently linked to other blogs the way either the wordpress.com blogs or Blogger blogs are. One can stumble upon another blog pretty easily based on blogs they already read or like...that kind of connectivity is something I'd like to have, if at all possible.

xfiftyfour, I like the idea of only viewing a single day's posts. I hadn't gotten to thinking about that yet, but I think that is a wonderful idea. Thank you for that.

Please keep the suggestions/opinions coming.

 

[notjustjay]

I've been quite happy with Blogspot/Blogger/Google. You can invite other authors and it's all integrated with your Google accounts, even Picasa for uploading photos to your blog.

Lots of templates, categories, and a gazillion widgets you can use to customize the look and feel. Free, of course.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

xfiftyfour's idea about setting up a category sounds eerily familiar to how a forum works (and forums these days like phpBB and vBulletin, etc., all have means to create RSS newsfeed export just like blogs) but it's an excellent idea.

 

[design-is]

If you decide to go down the multiple blog route, Expression Engine has this capability and I always hear good things about it.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Thanks for the recommendation, design-is, it looks very interesting. I don't think it will be the solution to this problem, but the software does look promising and could be useful for future endeavors.