Posted by: Karen Renzi
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Q. I don’t blog, but I’ve had several clients ask me about good sites to start their own. I know you’ve mentioned it, do have any recommendations?
A. Well, first of all, thanks for giving me a quick topic to look into for my own blog post today! The 2 main sites for setting up free blogs are www.wordpress.com and www.blogger.com. They are both incredibly easy to set up. I only wish it was just as easy to keep up with regular posts!
I have to admit I didn’t do hardcore evaluations before choosing a blog provider myself. We obviously are using WordPress for our own blog, primarily because down the line we would like the option of fully customizing and hosting it which seemed to be easier with WordPress.org – their free software option. For now though we are making do with a customized template hosted on WordPress.com. And I guess we’ll be staying with WordPress because from the bit of comparison I’ve looked into today, Blogger.com does not allow you to import blogs – and I certainly wouldn’t want to lose my history of posts!
Blogger is owned by Google, which might lead you to believe that their posts would be better optimized for searches and more frequently indexed. I don’t think that’s the case – first because I think Google is pretty fair with their algorithm and also because I have Google alerts set up for my company name and I get an email alert almost instantly everytime I post an entry – which means Google already indexed the page.
Anyway, a quick Google search on “blogger vs. wordpress” turned up dozens of useful sites with comparisons and opinions – Surprise! Most of them were Blogs! Anyway – here are a few I looked at:
http://pulsed.blogspot.com/2007/07/blogger-wordpress-chart.html
http://www.searchforblogging.com/index.php/2008/03/11/blogging-wars-wordpress-vs-blogger/
http://www.bloggingtipsonline.com/index.php/2008/02/06/blogger-vs-wordpress-which-is-better/
http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2008/02/blogger-vs-wordpress-review-for-newbie_07.html
In the end, since it’s SO easy to set up blog accounts on both platforms, I would recommend each individual to set up accounts on both platforms – so you can really get in there and try out the functionality. That way you can see which you like best before making a long-term commitment. Take a look at some of the comparisons too, especially if you have specific things in mind for future developments outside of just posting (i.e. high level of customization, running ads, needing lots of storage space, etc.)
And remember, one of the best ways to grow your blog is by comments and trackbacks – so COMMENT on the blogs you like and trackback to those you reference – what goes around comes around.
“Blogger.com does not allow you to import blogs – and I certainly wouldn’t want to lose my history of posts!”
You might want to check this out: http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-feature-import-and-export.html
Thanks for nice article!
Hi, Thanks for this post. A friend just saw the new blog I set up last night and sent me this link. Of course, I’ve already set up my blog so I probably won’t be also starting a wordpress account. lol
Anyway, I was wondering if wordpress allows you to have ads on your blogs through adsense? Is that a concern?
Hi
I’m kind a newbie in the blogging system, but I have find that WordPress is very intuitive and easy to set us and use.
I like the idea of a huge community support with a lot of add-ons & templates.
It makes my life easier to publish my stuff.
Thank you for the post, definitely learned something today
Amit
ehh. thanks