There is a multitude of ways and methods to post content on the web, but I have never come across one so easy as Posterous. Simply email the content you wanted posted on the web to an email address and, uh, we’ll, that’s about it. A few moments pass and you get an email back with a link to your webpage. You don’t even need to create an account.
For something that is so simple, the application is surprisingly feature rich when it comes to multimedia. Attach photos, documents, video, presentations and MP3’s to your email and they will be converted, resized and embedded into your web page. Include URL’s and they become links. Include a YouTube link, and the video will be embedded in your final page. That is slick.
Here is an example of a page I created. I sent an email to post@posterous.com. Attached to the email was a PDF document and an image. The subject of the email becomes the page title, while the email itself became the post.
There are options once the page is created to then create an account, which then let’s you have a permanent website to post content to. But that isn’t necessary. You can one off publish content quickly and easily just by firing off an email. Doesn’t get much easier than that.
Thanks, Clint! I’d never heard of Posterous. Check out my first post:
http://kate-is-pre.posterous.com/
I sent it originally from email, attaching various file types to see what would happen to them. I was amazed it took and used all of them: .jpg, .pdf, .doc, .txt, .html
I have my own server, blog, etc., but this was just so much fun I set up my own posterous URL right away.
What a great service — not only for “even my mom” but for anybody who wants to just share/show something quickly online.
James: I agree. It will take something pretty special to pry WordPress from my hands. But for some of my clients, a tool like Posterous removes any technical barriers for entry into the blogging world.
If you are looking for an aggregation service that pulls all of your online pieces together, I’ve found Swurl is pretty cool – http://clintlalonde.net/2008/07/04/using-swurl-to-aggregate-my-life/
Alan: I love the “even my mom can do this” test. The filter I will use to evaluate many tools with in the future no doubt!
I agree totally; it passes the “even my Mom can do this” test:
http://cogdogblog.com/2008/08/21/posterous/
WordPress has a post mailing (either plug-in or core, can’t remember) functionality. What I have problems with is the multitude of places posts can and will show up when using web services.
I’d rather have one place I used to aggregate what I do with several services, than yet another place to go to see a little piece of my lifestream.