Introduction to LiveJournal:
LiveJournal
is a blogging application and community that debuted in 1999. Users can
create free blogs or pay for an account that offers more features,
fewer (or no) ads, increased customization, and more. LiveJournal began
as a place for people to publish online journals, join into communities
of users interested in the same topics, friend one another, and comment
on each other's journal entries. Over time, the site became known as a
blogging tool because of the structure of publishing posts and
commenting on posts. However, LiveJournal is very much about community
and friends rather than a stand-alone blogging tool.
More LiveJournal Features:
Free
LiveJournal accounts offer limited functionality, but for casual
bloggers, that functionality might be enough. Many bloggers need the
ability to upload a lot of images, publish polls, control ads, control
design, track analytics and performance, and more. To get those types of
features, you need to upgrade to one of the paid LiveJournal accounts.
All users can receive private messages, join communities, friend other
people, and publish posts to their journals, but there might be limits
on each of those features. Be sure to check the most recent pricing and
account features before you start using LiveJournal.
Who Is Using LiveJournal?:
Over
10 million people use LiveJournal. In recent years, the user audience
has skewed to a younger demographic while power bloggers and business
blog owners migrated to more robust blogging applications. The price
tags and limited functionality of LiveJournal compared to a free tool
like the self-hosted WordPress.org application keeps many people from choosing LiveJournal. Furthermore, newer, simpler tools like Tumblr have stolen some of the types of users who like the community aspect that a tool like LiveJournal offers.
Is LiveJournal Right for You?:
Do
you already know a lot of friends and people you want to communicate
with who are using LiveJournal, and do you like the community aspect
that LiveJournal provides? Will you be satisfied with the minimal
features and limited control of a free LiveJournal account or are you
okay with paying for an upgraded account? Do you have absolutely no
plans to grow your blog, make money from it, use it for marketing your
business, or other big goals that will require you to use a more
flexible and robust blogging application? If you answered "yes" to the
previous questions, then LiveJournal might be a suitable tool for you.
