Since both of these blog services have their pros and cons, let’s just cut to the chase and investigate what those are.
Why Blogger?
- Blogger’s dashboard doesn’t look overwhelming. Although for a shiny new internet user, it would likely still be cause for concern, even a novice can pick up on its formatting, configuration and customization options. Things have changed since Blogger first set out, their updated custom design and template features are an incredible tool for those with little experience in this area.
- Blogger has built in stats that will help you track your traffic. You may also add any third party tracking scripts for monitoring.
- If you want to create a private blog with only designated access, Blogger has no restrictions on the number of allowed users per blog.
- As far as Bloggers commenting system. It comes with captcha and spam filtering options, but no ability to edit comments.
- For an individual that is new to online business and indeed even new to being online, Blogger is a great place to set up your first shop and learn the ropes.
Blogger Cons
- This may be a perfect blog option for personal users more than business. As although there are tagging features to help increase traffic to your site, there is little else besides the power of your own words to drive viewers to you.
- You may only import blogs from other Blogspot user pages.
- Blogger has no gallery options for users who need to upload multiple photos.
- There is no available contact form.
- The simple fact is that although you may tweak Blogger to look like most any other available, for the business owner looking for a busy blog server to hawk their wares, it just doesn’t have those all important bells-and-whistles.
- You will likely need to invest a bit more marketing funds into Blogger than WordPress.
WordPress
- One of the main trade-offs that become glaringly obvious is the overwhelming number of folks that use WordPress. This could have a good effect, or an entirely negative one, depending on your writing, aesthetic and marketing strengths.
- WordPress will import from Type·Pad, Israblog, Live·JournaI, MovabIe·Type, Vox.com, Posterous, Yahoo! 360, Blogger, Blogli, or another WordPress blog.
- While Blogger supports one gig of image storage, WordPress supports three gigs. They also have optional paid upgrades for more image storage if needed.
- WordPress offers comment editing and Akismet spam protection.
- WordPress is highly functional for affiliate marketers, business owners, niche writers, online storefronts, and the many endless options in online businesses blogging. Its SEO features and options will allow a person who targets the proper keywords and information to quickly raise their blog to the top of, at least, WordPresses website relatively quickly.
- Although WordPress does a bit of marketing for their users with their own high rankings and blog system, it may also take the more ‘novice’ user a bit of time to fully understand, and therefore fully utilize properly its many options and functions.
WordPress Flaws
- WordPress can be quite overwhelming. A person new to the internet will most likely be highly intimidated by some of its more technical features. Those who have a working knowledge on the World Wide Web may have a bit better luck, but if they want their blog to succeed, and in a relatively quick manner, they will need to do quite a bit of studying, and picking and choosing the right plug-ins for their sites needs.
- WordPress is a web designers nightmare. Want a custom theme? First thing you will need to do is get your WordPress, off of WordPress. WordPress free blog accounts do not allow users to create their own custom themes, but do provide thousands of options to choose from. Even once you have your press on its own domain, the ‘average’ web designer, meaning one who is adept at managing their own site, will find WordPress to be a bit cranky when it comes to creating templates.
- If you want to remain on WordPress’s server, you will find it pretty costly and for this reason it is not optional for a lot of small struggling businesses, or even larger ones in the struggling economy.
With WordPress most of your investment will be in the time you spend learning how to utilize its many helpful tools and features correctly. It is a good rule of thumb, however, to keep up with trends in blog services and aspects of what each has to offer. Dependant on your course of business and your plan for the path to success, there may be better options, free or paid, that can help you target your specific niche visitors.
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Blogger and WordPress.com are free. You can’t beat free. WordPress costs whatever your hosting service charges.
nice write up, the comparison is very true. I personally use Blogger for its simplicity but wish I had the SEO and traffic utilities that WP has.