Wordpress:
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL, which runs on a web hosting service. Features include a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by more than 18.9% of the top 10 million websites as of August 2013. WordPress is the most popular blogging system in use on the Web, at more than 60 million websites.
BLOGGER
PROS:
• Free.
• Powered by Google, so if you have a Gmail account, you already have a Blogger account.
• Easy to use – the interface is pretty intuitive and with a little exploration, will be self-explanatory even to novices.
• Design runs off HTML and CSS, and there are plenty of designers out there who are well equipped to design templates for Blogger (often at very competitive rates).
• Free.
• Powered by Google, so if you have a Gmail account, you already have a Blogger account.
• Easy to use – the interface is pretty intuitive and with a little exploration, will be self-explanatory even to novices.
• Design runs off HTML and CSS, and there are plenty of designers out there who are well equipped to design templates for Blogger (often at very competitive rates).
CONS:
• Photo uploading can be a little tedious and Blogger may automatically resize photos into much smaller dimensions (in other words, depending on your particular blog design and the images you’re uploading, you may need to adjust your photo sizes each time you insert them into a post).
• Limited image storage space. Blogs each have 1GB of file storage, which is shared with your Picasa Web Albums (so if you have a lot of personal photos in your Picasa albums, this diminishes the available photo storage for your blog)
• Fewer bells and whistles than other platforms. Many bloggers can’t get the design functionality they want, especially if they are looking for advanced features.
• Stats can reportedly be incorrect – we recommend you install Google Analytics and use those statistics instead.
• Most of the templates aren’t aesthetically appealing, so you’ll probably need to hire a designer to get the look you want. However, you may find that custom Blogger designs are more affordable than WordPress ones.
• Photo uploading can be a little tedious and Blogger may automatically resize photos into much smaller dimensions (in other words, depending on your particular blog design and the images you’re uploading, you may need to adjust your photo sizes each time you insert them into a post).
• Limited image storage space. Blogs each have 1GB of file storage, which is shared with your Picasa Web Albums (so if you have a lot of personal photos in your Picasa albums, this diminishes the available photo storage for your blog)
• Fewer bells and whistles than other platforms. Many bloggers can’t get the design functionality they want, especially if they are looking for advanced features.
• Stats can reportedly be incorrect – we recommend you install Google Analytics and use those statistics instead.
• Most of the templates aren’t aesthetically appealing, so you’ll probably need to hire a designer to get the look you want. However, you may find that custom Blogger designs are more affordable than WordPress ones.
Be sure to check out more of the Blogger ‘limits’ here.
WORDPRESS
PROS:
• 100% control over your blog. You can edit PHP, HTML, CSS, run ads, and make the site look as professional as you want.
• Huge number of designers that design and develop for wordpress.org sites.
• Same interface as wordpress.com, so if you’re upgrading from .com to .org, the platform will look exactly the same.
• Access to thousands of ‘plug-ins,’ which are essentially apps for your blog. You can search for plug-ins and one-click install them to your site.
• 100% control over your blog. You can edit PHP, HTML, CSS, run ads, and make the site look as professional as you want.
• Huge number of designers that design and develop for wordpress.org sites.
• Same interface as wordpress.com, so if you’re upgrading from .com to .org, the platform will look exactly the same.
• Access to thousands of ‘plug-ins,’ which are essentially apps for your blog. You can search for plug-ins and one-click install them to your site.
CONS:
• Have to self-host your blog, meaning you will need to purchase server space and your domain name with a third party company (such as Media Temple, Go Daddy, or Blue Host). This can range in price from $6-$12 per month, or a lot more if you have high traffic and require the use of a dedicated server.
• You will need to hire a designer to help you design and develop your site, and get it installed on the server.
• Overall, WordPress.org will give you the most control of your site long term, but has the highest initial investment.
• Many bloggers find WordPress.org a bit more intimidating than free platforms, as tweaking certain elements of your site will often require knowledge of HTML or CSS.
• Have to self-host your blog, meaning you will need to purchase server space and your domain name with a third party company (such as Media Temple, Go Daddy, or Blue Host). This can range in price from $6-$12 per month, or a lot more if you have high traffic and require the use of a dedicated server.
• You will need to hire a designer to help you design and develop your site, and get it installed on the server.
• Overall, WordPress.org will give you the most control of your site long term, but has the highest initial investment.
• Many bloggers find WordPress.org a bit more intimidating than free platforms, as tweaking certain elements of your site will often require knowledge of HTML or CSS.
Me personally? I’ve blogged on Blogger, WordPress.com AND WordPress.org (along with a few others too!). In my experience, WordPress.org has offered me the most control over my blog, and I absolutely love plug-ins! For my own blog, WordPress just provides the most power, flexibility, and capabilities versus Blogger. However, if you are a brand new blogger and don’t want to spend a lot of money up front on your new venture, starting out with Blogger isn’t a bad thing. You’ll find the platform easy to use, and I swear because of it’s integration with Google, Blogger blogs get better SEO (I don’t have data to substantiate that, it’s just something I’ve sort of noticed! It likely has to do with how some WordPress bloggers have their sites set up, which can encourage or discourage good SEO).
If you’re currently on Blogger and are thinking about making the switch, be sure to work with a designer/developer who has migrated sites from Blogger to WordPress before, and knows how to do things like re-direct your domain (so that if people go to your old myblog.blogspot.com address it’ll send them to your new page), export your comments, etc. It’s also helpful if the person can help you re-direct any feeds and install plug-ins or write code that will help you retain your current Google page rank and blog subscribers, so your traffic won’t suffer quite as much when you make the switch.
Here are some additional articles and resources to check out, whether you’re investigating pros and cons or are about to make the switch…
No comments:
Post a Comment