Wordpress or Blogger? (And why this blog exists)

One of the reasons I started this blog was to compare Wordpress and Blogger. I started this blog on Wordpress to start writing a little bit of an ongoing story so that I could force myself to meet a deadline and keep practicing and I've had multiple Blogger sites but I just never really kept up with them long enough to get a feel for it. Now I know that pretty much anyone who has a blog has probably done a post on Wordpress vs Blogger. In fact, I read at least three of those posts when I was trying to decide what to use for my writing blog. I suppose I just want to explain the reason for this one since this is only the second post and I thought that I might as well get out a few rants about both platforms while I'm at it.

Photo: Rob Davies

Personally, I'm a sucker for good design and I like the layout of Wordpress a lot more than Blogger. It's just... prettier, and since I usually write all my posts in the post editor of the site that matters to me.  I like the simplicity of Wordpress and it works well for when all I want to think about is writing.  It's downfall is how limited it is for the people who use it for free. I do understand there is a reason for this. Blogger has Google to support it, so it can offer more for free, while Wordpress is kind of on it's own. On the one hand, I'm all for services like Wordpress being able to support themselves and obviously I'm happy enough with what I can do with it but I think that it's a better site for people who are professional bloggers or using it as a way to have a website that is easy to update. Mainly, it seems like a fantastic blogging platform for people who are willing to pay money to host it themselves or unlock customizable options but for someone who doesn't really have the money to spend and cannot expect to make any money from blogging (i.e. ME) it can be a little... frustrating. I can understand the sharing ad revenues, I can shrug off the fact that they clutter the mobile version of my blog with ads when I don't get anything from it because I want them to have enough money to keep running but what I really dislike is the lack of customization. I can't change the colors of my blog or the default font unless I pay a certain amount of money every year. Really? I think that is a bit miserly, don't you?

Photo: Martin Lafrance

This is where Blogger triumphs. You can set it up the way you want for free. I like that I can customize the design of my blog exactly how I want it. Of course this is within the limits of the site's format but really, I wasn't planning on doing any in depth site building of my own (and I wasn't doing it on Wordpress either). I can also add html in the text widget without a plugin and it will work just like it's supposed to. I have found that on Wordpress, this isn't always the case. It tends to shorten the html in the text so that it does not work. In other words, if you want to put in html for something that Wordpress doesn't want you to have without a plugin or paying money for customization, you can't just add it in the text box. Then there is monetization. I don't expect to make money here, if I'm lucky maybe I'll make $20 in about six months but hey, that will buy me a lot of coffee, right? I added adsense because I'm curious about how people feel about ads on blogs. I tend to think it's a little tacky, especially when it's someone like me who has (at the moment) zero readers.  Then again, it's an easy way for someone who does have readers to make a little bit of money and honestly, despite how concerned I am for what it looks like on my own blog, I haven't even noticed it on other blogs that I'm sure must have some kind of advertising. What I will NEVER do is put advertising links in text. It's like a minefield for your mouse when all you wanted to do was read the content. So now I have to ask for anyone reading to leave a comment. How do you feel about ads on blogs? Is it tacky, is it normal, did you even notice mine?

Now that I'm doing both, I'm hoping to get a feel for what each one is good for. Ultimately I think it depends on your personality and where you are in your progress as a blogger. If you're a beginner who likes to have control over everything or a pro who likes to keep the site designing simple then I would go with Blogger. For someone who is new and wants something that only takes a few clicks to get started and doesn't require much effort for the appearance or if you're ready to spend money and put in the effort to build your own site and host it yourself then Wordpress is the way to go.