In my testing of WordPress as a possible alternative for TBODC I discovered a few things.First and foremost, I learned that I'm better off staying with Blogger, at least for now anyway. The reasons are pretty simple, but to give WordPress a fair shake I'll explain some of things they have to offer first. In case you didn't already know WordPress comes in two flavors; you-host-it and they-host-it.
Let's look at the difference between the two...
1. WordPress.org is a blogging software program that must be downloaded and installed on a web server – that’s a computer that is set up to serve web pages over the internet. Your personal computer probably isn’t a web server. So, to make the free WordPress.org software work, you have to own a web server or rent some space on one.
2. WordPress.com provides blog hosting free of charge. The free blog hosting does not come with the ability to upload plugins or themes. Because any change in the software affects every blog on the system, some of the things you can do on your own hosted WordPress.org blog are disabled here.
Here are the feature comparisons...
WordPress.org Benefits
- Ability to upload themes
- Ability to upload plugins
- Great community
- Complete control to change code if you’re technically minded
WordPress.org Cons
- You need a good web host, which generally costs $7-12 a month
- Requires more technical knowledge to set up and run
- You’re responsible for stopping spam
- You have to handle backups
- You must upgrade the software manually when a new version comes out
- If you get a huge spike in traffic (like Digg or Slashdot) you site will probably go down
WordPress.com Benefits
- It’s free and much easier
- Everything is taken care of: setup, upgrades, backups, security, etc
- Your blog is on dozens of servers, so it’s highly unlikely it will go down due to traffic
- Your posts are backed up hourly
- You get extra traffic from blogs of the day and tags
- You can find like-minded bloggers using tag and friend surfer
- Your login is secure (SSL) so no one can get into your account if you use wifi
WordPress.com Cons
- Limited customization of themes (though we’re adding more every day)
- You can’t hack the code behind your blog
- taken from the WordPress FAQs page
In all honesty WordPress does offer more in the way of optimization and gadgets. However, keep in mind that the majority of these you'll have to pay for. On the other hand, with a little effort and ingenuity, most of the things you can do on WP can be done on Blogger - for free.
So now, looking at what WP offers above, let's take a look at the seven reasons why I love Blogger...
1. Only one version of Blogger - and it's free
2. You don't have to download any software or go out and buy a server or hosting
3. Just sign up, choose a name for your blog, pick a template, and go
4. The ability to easily modify themes and page codes
5. Blogger has a large FAQ, Guides, and Help Group base
6. Large selection of free add-ons, widgets, and themes
7. Buy and host your own domain - $10 a year for the domain and Blogger will host it for free
Need I go on?
So after all the cards are on the table Blogger is still the better deal. In the end it really boils down to personal choice and what you really want to accomplish with your new blog or web site. Personally I prefer Blogger not just because it's free and my domain is hosted through them, but because the whole process of working on my blog is simpler and feels more user friendly.
Oh, what's that you say? I didn't list any Blogger Cons? Hmm...
Blogger Cons: You don't have to pay for anything :)
Think I have made the right choice for my newly started blog www.herebeanswers.com
I thought a lot over it and had almost decided to go for wordpress. But I was afraid that I won't be able to recover the costs in terms of revenues from the blog. Also, there's a lot f hassle as I am not technically minded guy.
I liked it that some one else other than me also thinks Blogger is great :)
As you know...I'm a blogger kind of girl :-)
Another pro for Blogger is that it is becoming more and more accessible for people with disabilities. Ok, not a 100 percent yet, but it has received lot's of attention recently.
Yes, probably the newbies will find blogger easier than WP at the beginning, but it requires HTML skills also just to put adsense on...
Dan
Haha, good to see you finally figured out what a "list" post was.
Now, although WordPress completely tromps Blogger... I do have to say this is one of the best Blogger blogs I've seen. Color scheme is near perfect for the eyes.
And I was a Blogger user in the past, so you know I'm not just talking outa my ass here.
Good work.
P.S - WordPress FTW! ;)
Darshan: Your site loads quick and looks nice and clean. Blogger is definitely easier for people without that much coding knowledge and it makes more sense especially if you're not generating the income to justify the cost of WP.
annie: Yes and a Blogger Guru, too :)
Tom: Yes, it has, and that's what's great about a place whose main objective isn't centered around making money. Let's hope Blogger continues in this mindset.
Ikaro: Putting AdSense into a Blogger blog is very easy. I gave it a go myself, but I opted out because it slows down my load times.
FitJerk: Thanks. I spent a while concentrating on the complimentary colors for this blog. I also wanted to keep consistency with my portfolio site.
Great Post! I made the decision to use blogger for http://5ft2view.blogspot.com simply because I was more familiar with google tools rather than wordpress. I started having second thoughts after seeing some of the great bells and whistles offered for WP. Your post reaffirmed my decision!
I don't feel such an orphan anymore. I don't want to hassle with technical stuff and posting from a mobile, loading pics is all so interactive. I did look at Wordpress but found it intimidating.
What I am doing now is loading from posterous which makes promoting the blog easier via twitter etc.
But Blogger remains my favourite.
(linked from Problogger)
Holy cow, Doug! I just posed this question to a few people (on Twitter but no one answered of course). I really didn't know what the difference between the wordpresses and blogger was. Especially the difference between the workpresses. Thank you!
Missy: Thank you for your comment. I'm glad it helped :)
Santacruzrulz: Yes, that was one of the big sellers for me - user friendly. If I want to tweak my design or my code I can do so without having to pay for it.
dubiousMa: You are welcome :)
I have never got used to Blogger coz I joined the WordPress cult but your post makes sense. To each his one, ya?
Doug, maybe you can consider changing the blogger benefits list to a numbered list so that the 7 benefits becomes obvious.
See ya at pb.com :)
Kuzzuk, that's an excellent idea. I added numbers to the Blogger list. Appreciate your feedback. Thank you.
Wow, blogger has come a long way. Nice blog...I really like the design.
Started on Blogger and even though I have one blog on wp.org I still think in blogger.
Being able to effortlessly change themes or elements on Blogger is a plus. But now with the latest WP you can change themes right through the dashboard and no longer have to upload it through host.
I noticed they added the more feature (I forget what they called it) to blogger but it's not working with the newest template I'm playing around with.
I love Blogger in Draft because it feels like getting a store sales ad before everyone else.
Brilliant reference to Almost Famous. I actually laughed out loud. I can't even comment on the list, but I had to recognize that........
I can see why you like blogger because of the amount of customization you have done to your theme. it looks great!
Personally, I like wordpress best because of the power of plugins that I can write myself. That's probably because I'm a geek so I can see the advantage of a blogger account for someone who just wants to click and go.
joshmac: Thanks :)
C. McKane: You may be able to change themes, but you still can't mess with the code. Unless you get the paid version. Blogger in Draft has a lot of cool features. It's like Blogger's version of Beta.
nintendo ds r4: I don't know what the reference is you mean.
FiddyP: Thanks for the compliment. Blogger isn't just "click and go". True it has widgets, but I spent countless hours with the code getting the design and the layout the way I wanted it.
To be fair, and I don't know if it's Blogger's fault or the people who generally use Blogger, but this is the most professional Blogger site I've seen. Most are complete garbage and scream "Hi I'm here today, but I will not be saying anything tomorrow." If more people put effort into customization like you, Blogger could be a contender in the serious blog world.
Matt, thanks for the comment and the compliment. I agree totally. The majority of Blogger blogs resemble Homestead. Nine times out of ten people just pick a basic theme or grab one off the Web and then leave it at that. It's like the Thesis theme for WP - it's very popular but everyone is using it and they all look the same.
This is my goal with the business side of my talent - to give people and their sites character and personality so that they stand out from the crowd. I just wish I knew more about the coding aspects so I could offer even more in the form of customization.
One more thing I was wondering since you made that comment - even though I get tons of compliments on my blog design my comments on the blog are dwindling. Except for this post, but that's mainly because I posted a link to it in the "Challenge" thread at PBC.
Would be nice to have more of my 1,400 subscribers leave something on the posts I write.
i love wordpress verymuch, though using blogger too, btw i like your theme, it's cool and just wanna stay here for a long time, the pics here're very good, how did you create those pictures?
I have my own reason why i love blogging. Blogging is a great way for me to express my self. My own thoughts and it helps me lot in my study work.I have running two blogs.
yoan: Thank you. What pictures are you referring to?
Batteries: The post was more in reference to using Blogger than actual blogging, but thank you for commenting.
Very informative post. Thanks for pointing out the cons of Wordpress.org. I was actually thinking of switching from Blogger because there's more themes available. I've decided to stay with Blogger:) God bless!
Your blog has a great look to it and your "list post" is a good one. I went with WordPress only because I ... just did. LOL However, I write for another blog that uses Blogger and like many of its' features.
Wordpress and most of its plugins are free.
It's been my opinion that you can do almost anything on Blogger that you can do on WordPress as long as you have some HTML and coding knowledge. However, almost all of the big "problogs" are hosted on Wordpress. I've seen plenty of Blogger blogs as well, though, with over 10,000 feed subscribers. I have to disagree with you about a WP.org blog going down due to a spike in traffic. As long as you have decent hosting and ample bandwidth available, that won't happen. If you try and host a WP blog on $2 per month hosting, you'll definitely have problems. When it comes to hosting, you definitely get what you pay for. One thing I love about WP that Blogger doesn't offer is that there is a plugin which allows you to show a commenters last few blog post titles below their comment and they are clickable links. This gives readers much more incentive to comment on WP.org blogs. Great post.
Chris, that comment about the spike in traffic comes from WP's own FAQ.
For me, the Blogger cons were these:
It looked too unprofessional. I love your theme, but for those of us who are not graphic designers, it often looks much too unprofessional.
Commenting on Blogger is like pulling teeth. WP makes it much easier for people to leave comments without having to deal with the hassle of the dropdowns and capchas.
Search engines hate Blogger blogs more than WP due to them being a part of a network (or so I've heard).
It was a total pain to add images or have the posts do anything except have a stock wall-of-text look to them. The moment I migrated to self-hosted WP, I was able to customize the look of my posts more and use images and media more readily than I could in Blogger.
And yes, there are a lot of Widgets available for Blogger, the plugins/widgets for WP are much easier to operate and run much more smoothly (at least the ones I have had experience with).
For me, WP was the better option, but it might not be for everyone.
Hi Professor. Thanks for your comment. Now that I'm on WP I find the one thing I miss about being on Blogger is the ability to tweak things the way I want easily. With this blog it was easy to find tutorials or help to tweak the design, but with WP it is rather difficult. Once you get a theme you are basically stuck trying to get help from the theme designer and that doesn't always turn out well.
On Blogger knowledge of HTML and CSS is a big help, but with WP you have to learn about PHP, hooks, and more advanced coding structures. So while WP is indeed better in many ways it's also more difficult for the layman to adjust to his/her liking.
I have create a one blog in blogger. I love to update the content in my blog. My blog is related to download free softwares.
I absolutely agree to you, Doug. Blogger is easy to use, easy to redesign the template, and easy to find its guide when I face a trouble with my blog. :D
Ok, you just swung it for me! I've been wanting to start a blog for a long time, it's time to sign up to Blogger I think! Thanks.
I agree, sometimes Blogger is a better choice. And you don't get hacked mercilessly on Blogger as you might on a self-hosted Wordpress blog [for your own mistakes/ignorance]
Yes i'm a Wordpress theme coder now, but still first love lasts long :)
Blogger is good for some projects but not for all.
Really a topic to discuss. Its really informative. properly differentiated.
Thankyou for sharing
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