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Blogging Software: Page 4 of 7

SquareSpace is a hosted application that's easy to set up and offers a variety of functions that make it suitable for business use. Pricing ranges from $7 per month for 100MB of storage to $30 per month for 600MB of storage, 15 editors ("editors" are, in SquareSpace-speak, people who are authorized to manage the site), and 100 members (authorized viewers). SquareSpace also gives you the ability to edit your templates, and has simple drag/drop publishing.

I was able to establish a 30-day free trial account in only a few minutes. The process included selecting a layout from a somewhat limited list of templates, and creating a name for my blog. Once I was logged in, I was able to add pages to the site by simply selecting the kind of content to be displayed -- for example, I added a photo gallery, file storage area, discussion forum, and a Journal (blog). The system also includes tools for organizing the pages and navigation menus. As a result, SquareSpace goes beyond the realm of blogging into the realm of a full Web-site manager.

SquareSpace lets you create groups (which it calls "audiences"); each audience is assigned a specific set of permissions and other settings, and will direct members to specific pages when they log in. You then assign your visitors to one of the audiences, where they inherit the permissions and other settings assigned to that audience. This makes managing your memberships simple and understandable.

SquareSpace is a great place to start your first business blog, and even a good place to start a full Web site. Business users will want to sign up for its Advanced membership, which includes the ability to customize the template to better resemble their Web site.