Blogger Lift discussion
Blogspot vs Wordpress
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Oooo I can go on all day about this! I have experience in both - let me get back to you on that. :)
Sophia wrote: "Oooo I can go on all day about this! I have experience in both - let me get back to you on that. :)"Thank you!!
Okay, now that I am on a proper computer and can type a little quicker (though this keyboard does annoy me - must I punch each letter, keyboard?! HMPH). Let's chat about Blogger vs WordPress aka the constant debate! I'll keep it a little short.Blogger is a FANTASTIC platform to start your blog on - it's completely free and customizable. I think this is perfect to start out with if you care about customization without much cost. It's also a great place to start if you care about cost and customization, AND you're not sure about blogging long term. You don't lose much.
However, you don't own the content on Blogger. Google does, so they have the right to take down your site at any time. They're also known for abandoning projects like they did with Google Reader... Blogger could be next on their list.
WordPress, however, depends as there are two different kinds: wordpress.COM and wordpress.ORG. They're similar, yet have major differences.
Wordpress.COM is completely free - also a great place to start. However, it is VERY limited. And by very, I mean VERY. You can't upload videos (so if you have an online portfolio, you have to embed it from YouTube), you can't have plugins except the ones WordPress already has installed, you don't have many themes to choose from, and you can't do much customization.
I think this is a good place to start if you don't care much about customization and might want to move to self-hosted one day. You also get comment notifications and the mobile app is AMAZING, which unfortunately blogger does not offer. The mobile app for Blogger is offer and the site isn't responsive. I guess that's the cost of free.
If I recall as well, free WordPress is similar to Blogger - they can take down your site at any time. I believe there is a case about one blogger posting book blitzes and they had their site shutdown without warning. Free comes with a price, unfortunately.
I haven't tried free WordPress as a book blogger, so I can't say what content is okay or not okay. I do think Blogger allows more freedom with posts and they rarely shut down sites.
Wordpress.ORG is not free - it's self-hosted. It's WordPress but you get A LOT of freedom. You can upload your own themes or buy one, use different plugins, use Javascript (Rafflecopter uses this), upload videos (probably won't need it honestly unless you have a portfolio), etc. Most of all, you get the freedom of customization that Blogger has. You also get to monetize freely (or not), if I recall correctly. WordPress.com doesn't allow it if I remember.
It is, however, more expensive. I pay $19.99 a month on self-hosted WordPress, though it is managed by Ashley from Nosegraze. Managed is more expensive, but you don't have to deal with maintenance, backups, etc. etc. which is the case with self-hosted WordPress.
Hopefully that helps! Sorry this is long, so if you have any questions and I don't respond on here, feel free to reach out to me via email, Twitter, etc. and I'm more than happy to help you out. :)
Oh sheesh. Didn't think that would be a SUPER long response. Oops!
It's fine! Thank you so much, that all really helped a lot. I think I'll stick with Blogger for now, until I know if blogging is something I want to do more long term... It also sounds a lot better to me than the other options, except for the part where could be taken down at any time.
Yeah, that's definitely a risk, unfortunately. In the five years I was on blogger though, my site was never taken down, so I think you should be fine. I would definitely make a backup of blog posts often though, just in case it is taken down and you can't get it back. I'd say maybe once or twice a month is good, depending on how often you post.
Sophia wrote: "Yeah, that's definitely a risk, unfortunately. In the five years I was on blogger though, my site was never taken down, so I think you should be fine. I would definitely make a backup of blog posts..."I will definitely have to do that, thank you very much! And thanks for the friend request! :)
What are your thoughts on Wordpress and Blogspot? Which one is better to do a blog on?