A few weeks ago I moved the blog from Blogger to WordPress, and I thought I would take the time to compare the two for any of you trying to decide where to blog.
One of the ways I justify the time-consuming habit of blogging is by reassuring myself, “At least it’s free,” so keep in mind that I am comparing strictly the free Blogger to the free level of WordPress. I don’t know how things differ once you pay to upgrade. I am also a very basic blogger, so the supposed benefits of WordPress over Blogger for the dedicated geek are lost to me.
Ways Blogger is better than WordPress
1. Blogger allows you access to the html (the basic code of the website) for free. Once you learn how to use it, you can fiddle around and make any changes to your site you want to. WordPress only allows you to change code if you pay for the upgrade, and even then not all the html is accessible.
2. WordPress does not allow any advertising, so you can’t make any money with your blog. Blogger lets you advertise whatever you want and even has some helpful widgets to aid you.
3. For Mac users, WordPress has an annoying habit of dropping spaces out of posts. I cannot double space at the beginning of sentences or place two hard returns between paragraphs. WordPress will simply disregard those spaces, even if I place the html code in my post.
Ways WordPress is better than Blogger
1. The dashboard for WordPress has many more features located in one place, which saves time clicking.
2. WordPress has its own Blog Stats section, so you don’t need to use Sitemeter.com if you don’t want to, or if their site is down.
3. The several dozen default templates (WordPress calls them “themes”) are much, much prettier at WordPress. (If you pay for the upgrade to change your code, you can also use any of the hundreds of free, open-source themes found here. There are also free templates around the web for Blogger, which you could use without paying for an upgrade. I’m too clueless about html to know what I am downloading, and too untrusting to download without understanding it, so I haven’t used any.
4. WordPress tracks your comments on your dashboard and lets you know where people have commented most recently. This is wonderful, and one of the things that made the move worth it. At Blogger, if someone left a comment on an old post, I never knew. At WordPress, every new comment appears at the top of my dashboard, no matter how old the post being commented on.
5. WordPress lets you schedule posts. This is the other great benefit to WordPress that makes me happy I moved. I can set the timestamp to some future date, hit the publish button, and the post will publish on that date. This is great if you are traveling, or if you want to take a break from blogging while still publishing regular posts that you’ve written ahead of time.
All in all, I’m pretty happy here, though the spacing thing occasionally drives me crazy, and I still haven’t figured out how to post photos. If any of these things are incorrect in your experience, let me know in the comments.
Personally, I like your wordpress digs better. Just my opinion.
As for the hard breaks, go to the code screen where you write and put them in there. On mine, wp continously deletes paragraph breaks so that’s how I fix it. You know, if it bothers you.
So glad you’re writing!
Daren, as I said, I already try using the code for hard returns. It still only allows one and disregards the others, no matter how many times I insert the code.
I use blogger and I know if someone comments because I get an e-mail. Just f.y.i.
I like how your blog looks over here. It’s pretty… I’ve tried to make my blogspot pretty — but it just looks pretty sterile, if you ask me. I’m not big into all the EXTRAS…
… wish I were… I’ve seen some pretty neat stuff.
I enjoy reading your blog… came here from A.M.’s link.
Thanks for the comparison. I’m too stuck in a rut to change… especially if I can’t put in 2 returns. LOL
And I love PHOTOS!! Yeah — those are fun sometimes…
Well — look it there… that’s something else you got that I don’t. Smilies…
Jennifer, I know Blogger has that email option (so does WordPress), but I hate it. I don’t want an email for every single comment I get. I still like WordPress’s system better.
When I left Blogger for Typepad last June I was frustrated with the former’s limitations. I like Typepad a lot better, despite the improvements in Blogger since I left. I did experiment with WordPress, but I didn’t like it much. The spacing thing would drive me crazy.
Hey there,
I see others have already noted the use of the code screen for avoiding the double return thing. I also found it odd but got used to it (after I switched from Blogger). I agree that the stat page and comments format on WP dashboard are better.
Have you solved your photos problem yet? I find it easiest to post my photos to flickr, and then right click on those photos to get the “copy image location” option (i.e. the website for the image alone), and then use the little world icon in WP to paste in the web address of the photo. I also find it easiest to use flickr’s image size selection option, rather than trying to resize using the fields in the WP dialog box.
Does this make sense? I am not at all a code-head, just learning as I go.
Julie
I’ve been actually contemplating a move to Squarespace, which is not free. I’m not sure, though. This post was very helpful, as I’ve considered switching to WordPress from time to time as well.
I don’t mind Blogger when I’m posting from my desktop (PC), but I hate it when I’m posting from my otherwise awesome MacBook.
I am a homesteader. I blog over at homesteadblogger.com. I have considered moving here or at blogger but then no one would read my blog. Over there I have something of a captive audience. LOL!!!
I really enjoy your blog no matter where you have it.
All for His glory, ~Rhen
I’m on WP installed – which I think is a little different that WP.com – but for me the picture installer thingy (and I do believe that is the technical term) is right under the box where you create posts. You click on “choose file,” select a pic, then click on “upload.” And then you just click on the image and then “send to dashboard” – and somewhere in that same menu you can elect to post the image as a thumbnail or as the original size.
Of course, if your “write post” page looks nothing like I just described, then I have wasted your time, haven’t I?
Hm. WordPress sounds great. I’m pretty cheap, though.
I have all of my comments from my blogger blog emailed straight to me – it’s just a setting in the comments area.
“I don’t know how things differ once you pay to upgrade.”
They differ A LOT. Actually, I didn’t pay to upgrade. Instead, I host my own. (I already had hosting for my professional site and it didn’t cost me anything extra to add a blog.) I am a dedicated geek, though, and I can assure you that when you host your own all the html is accessible. And all the php, for that matter.
The dropped spaces and hard returns are a problem with the text editor (TinyMCE), not WordPress. I have sometimes been able to get non-breaking spaces to “stick” by inserting them the very last thing before publishing. But if you go back into the post to edit, they drop out again. It is very annoying. There are better text editors out there (like Textile) and it’s theoretically possible to replace the one with the other. But I’m not nearly geeky enough to know how to do that. Yet.
I’ve been thinking about starting a blog, and it’s really interesting to read a comparison of the two main sites from someone who knows. Thanks!
Thanks for this, Veronica, and for commenting back at my place. I like your item by item comparison of what’s good about each service.
Since I’m going with independent hosting, it looks like I’ll avoid the no-advertising drawback as well as the pay-to-upgrade to play with the html issue you mentioned. FWIW, I’ve always used haloscan for my comments and it’s SO much better than Blogger’s comments – but it sounds like WP’s comment dashboard and system is similar.
I’m just waiting for them to transfer my domain to my web host and I should be ready to make the jump myself. I’m so excited!!
Hi Veronica, I am a new kid in the blog. I have started my blog in blogger 2 weeks ago and now I thought I wordpress seems to be better and allows you to structure your site in a neater way. But I found there is no perfect world. Blogger has its own advantages but not as many nice templates.
my blog address are:
janet-ceo.blogspot.com
janetching.wordpress.com
Now I have been trying like you to create a page with the links (your favorite links). I am trying to link my recipes posts to a page called iCook and travel posts to iTravel but ended up appearing in both pages. Do you mind to tell me how to create your Favorite Posts page?
I have now created a Table of Content page but this is not what I want.
Thanks in advance. Janet
Many thanks.