As part of hosting I am happy to help people set up Movable Type (MT) blog. The great thing about MT is that from a user perspective it is really easy to use and customize, and out of the box looks pretty good. Some of the folks using MT here (see below) have even offered to help out new users!

People who have a Movable Type blog here

To get an idea of what an MT blog looks like, can do, etc, take a look at any of the following:

• David Rosam
• David Jennings
• Jem Finer
• Paul Makepeace
• Stephan Samson
• Tracey Shirtcliff

My blog for example is using the default template. Seems perfectly reasonable.

(Incidently, most of those folks are from the business networking group, ecademy.)

How much?

MT hosting is a free extra on top of hosting here. So you pay for hosting only (currently £10 a month, per domain).

Having said that, it does take some time to set it up and if you are suddenly overwhelmed with generosity I wouldn't say no to a pizza or something ;-)

Six Apart (the creators of MT) request a donation for the use of their product based on what it's worth to you. US$20 or over they'll do some interesting things for your blog–see their "benefits of donating".

Licensing

MT is a commercial product. Thankfully, its licensing is pretty generous. My understanding of the two licenses that operate these days with MT is that there is no charge for personal, non-commercial use. Check the Movable Type Personal, Non-commercial Use License. They request you display a "powered by Movable Type" logo (details in the license) just like I request a link to my homepage. Seems fair enough. The discreet logo is displayed by default with any of their "themes" so you don't have to make an especial effort here. The commercial license costs US$150 (at time of writing) and applies if you have any commercial use of MT. Check the Limited Commercial Use License.

If you feel the commercial license applies to you, it is your responsibility to take care of that directly with MT. It is none of my business.

Support

Support exists here as far as installing the blog which is essentially where my knowledge of MT finishes. So that users here can support one another, there is a MT-users mailing list on paulm.com which has a collection of friendly folk who are hosted here and can help out. It's also where I post announcements about upgrades etc. You'll be subscribed to this unless you specifically request not to be.

Caveats

There are some trivial caveats with the MT hosting here.

FAQ

• Q. How often can I post?
  A. As often as you have something to say! There is no restriction on posting volume.
• Q. How long does it take to set up?
  A. As soon as I read your email I can have it up and running in an hour or so. What'll happen then is you'll have a temporary domain like your.domain.paulm.com until the domain switches over. You can do everything like post, read online, transfer files, etc with this domain, so there's no hold-up there.

Yes, please!

Do drop me a line if you're interested in learning more about having an MT blog here!

Once you're set up, check out some first steps with Movable Type.