There are many factors to consider when choosing a blog platform, such as:
- What is the purpose of your blog?
- What type of layout do you want?
- Will you offer advertising?
- How tech-savvy are you? Do you want something simple or advanced to operate?
- How much or little do you want to invest, monetarily, in your blog?
There are many blogging platforms available. Here is a brief overview of three of the more common ones that I have used personally:
Blogger
Blogger is a common choice for both new and experienced bloggers. Benefits include user-friendliness and free hosting. Although you can publish a Blogger blog with private hosting, I’ve seen no benefits from it. You still login at the Blogger website, and upload your info to your host when publishing posts or making template changes. If you decide to move your blog later or switch to Blogger’s free hosting, you may have trouble importing photos that you’ve uploaded and stored on your server.
There don’t appear to be any design option benefits to private Blogger hosting. You can buy a custom domain (I recommend purchasing directly through your dashboard) and still enjoy free hosting. That’s what I do with my business blog, Barefoot Blog Designs: free hosting and $10 per year for my own domain name.
[This is what I've seen in my limited experience with Blogger on private hosting, so feel free to leave more info in comments.]
As a blog designer I love the original Classic Template, which is still an available option. The newer widgetized templates are user-friendly for making sidebar modifications, but as a blog designer they make me want to beat my head against the computer. Extensive modifications lead to error messages and if you change templates Blogger will most likely delete your sidebar widgets. Not nice.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com offers free hosting and attractive theme options, and WordPress’s blogging software just keeps getting better. If you want to customize your style sheet, you will need to purchase a Custom CSS upgrade for $15 per year. Advertising is not allowed on WordPress.com sites, eliminating options like BlogHer.
WordPress with Private Hosting
This is my personal favorite; both my personal blog and this blog use the software from WordPress.org on a private server. While this is not free and requires more technical knowledge, the WordPress software continues to improve and plugins have been developed to handle more advanced options like software upgrades and database backups.
There are loads of attractive, free, and functional themes available and hundreds of plugins, which can “extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine.” I just changed my personal blog design, modifying a magazine-style theme that I downloaded for free. The box at the top of the content area that shows revolving pictures and previews of individual posts is an example of a WordPress plugin, the “Featured Content Gallery.”
Which blogging platform do you use?
Related Posts:
- Choosing a Blogging Platform
- Top 10 Free Blogging Platforms
- 5 Plugins to Make Your Site Look More Professional
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I always like hearing info on better blogging. Thanks!
Hi Dawn,
Thank you so much for posting this.
I am wanting a better blogging platform.
I have heard a lot of people talk about Blogger and seen a lot of Blogspot.com address. Seems more than wordpress.
So, I was afraid that wordpress would be more difficult than Blogger. It’s true tho, I have been beating my head up against the wall trying to figure Blogger out.
I am wanting to venture out and explore new avenues. So I think I am going to check into wordpress.
I don’t totally understand buying your own domain. Can someone come in & buy my name and I lose my site and everything I have on there? What exactly does all this mean?
Sorry, I am very new to blogging, computer challenged and basically have a lot to learn.
Thanks,
Michelle@JourneyHome
I use WordPress.com mostly. I also have one at Blogger, but I just like WordPress’ functionality much better. The only downer is that we can’t use advertising. There are things I would love to change, but to do that I will need to self-host and use WordPress.org software. I’m not sure if I am up to that yet! Then there is cost involved too…
I blog on all of these platforms plus Drupal.
My main personal blog is a privately hosted WordPress blog. I like WordPress the best for blogging, but after three years on WP I still need help with all of the add-ons.