I use Blogspot to for my sketchblog. It's pretty basic in some ways, but its entirely free, has plenty of options and does not take a whole bunch of coding on my part to get running. As a result, many of my clients have opted to use it as an easy way for them to have a website and it's worked out nicely all round so far.

Now, however, I'm finding myself less and less inclined to use the service: partially due to the referral spam, the fact Google seems to want to integrate everything into a single account - or at least tie them all together "socially" and, as a visual artist, the lack of display options for me relating to higher resolution art, and a modicum of security in relation to that. As a result, I have not been posting as often (though my life has also been somewhat in the way along with some comissions requiring me to not publish anything outside of certain boundaries).

What I need is a similar free service;

1). Where I don't need a massive amount of coding skill to set it up / tweak it to my liking - there should be base templates that are easily editied without going into code - whether or not I choose to use them (as this may also be a choice down the line for my clients).

2). It should preferably lean towards the display of visual media, but regardless have options for other types of posts.

3). ZERO COSTS!

4). Tumblr is out - hate that service. Have tried wordpress and didnt like the dashboard or "premium enhancements".

5). I also write and would like to see some microblogs that would suit that as a seperate thing (not sites for writers).

Hopefully that makes some sense and someone will have some ideas. I'm really looking at the smaller alternatives to the big names (or at least the big names I'm aware of!).