Plasticbags essay Mainstream Publishers and Weblogs covers why weblogs hosted by mainstream publishers may not be a good idea. I'm more interested in learning about the Salon-blog community, and to see if I'd recommend a new blogger to get started there.

The Salon blogs FAQ answers why you'd pay for a blog when there's free alternatives: "No other blogging tool gets a non-technically skilled user on the Web as quickly and painlessly. Also, Salon Blogs users will automatically be part of a community of Salon-based bloggers, which will help you get the word about and bring visitors to read what you write."

I haven't played with Radio in a long time, and can't really make a comment on how easy it is to get to work. While it has advantages, I can see independent thinkers who want to start a weblog, be unwilling to appear to be joining a herd.

As for needing help getting visitors, I've always believed that's a function of your content and you outgoing links. I'll cover this subject in another post.