My blog software:

For my DebbieOhi.com and Inkygirl.com sites/blogs, I use Squarespace.

As for the design, I use one of Squarespace built-in templates ("Engineer") and tweak the design.

I used to use Wordpress software on a Dreamhost server, but my blogs kept getting hacked. The final hack was so bad that despite a lot of (time-consuming) research online and appealing to tech types, I was unable to fix some of my blogs. 

I had originally picked Wordpress software to give me full code tweaking abilities, plus I liked the choice of all the plugins. I gladly sacrificed some of the code flexibility and plugins for a more stable blog environment -- I didn't want to go through all the hassle again, and would much rather have someone else worry about the tech issues.

I ended up choosing Squarespace and have not had any security/hacking issues since I made the switch. Not ONCE.

Squarespace isn't perfect and the user interface isn't the greatest, but I'm more than happy to work around that for the peace of mind.

Traffic monitoring:

I admit I don't keep tabs on traffic and visitors as closely as I probably should. There's only so much time in the day, after all, and I enjoy content creation much more than I do admin.

I tried Statcounter for a while but quit to cut costs (they are a paid service).

As of May 1, 2012, I'm using Google Analytics instead. Looks like a powerful tool but I'm finding the interface confusing, so I'm taking a course on Lynda.com to finally figure out how to properly take advantage of all the features.

My illustrations:

Also see info about the tools I use in my illustration work.

Last updated on May 1, 2012 by Debbie Ohi