07 February 2008

Blogger vs WordPress: Review for the Newbie Blogger

I am still a newbie blogger. When I started, somehow I naturally get to the Blogger. However, moving forward, I am trying to define is the Blogger platform right for my purposes. There is a choice, and all the alternative solutions should be investigated. Usually, you can find anything on the Internet, but it appears to be challenging to locate a comparison tables, highlighting vital features of different blogging platforms. The best comparison I found on the Online Journalism Review page. The table updated for the last time on May 18, 2006. For the blogging platforms development, almost two years are ages. So, what is new there? In the PC World top blogging platforms review (January 22, 2007), the only two free platforms presented are Blogger and Wordpress with slight Blogger priority. Based on that post, and in order to limit the spec of this review, I will focus on these platforms comparison.
There are indeed serious differences between platforms that might influence on your informative decision on using one or another. Bear in mind that I am referring to the developer hosted wordpress.com, not the self hosted wordpress.org. So, let’s review several factors on the platforms differences:

  1. Blog Import: In Blogger - limited availability to import and export only in the same blogging platform; in WoordPress - you can import from several other platformd, including from Blogger.
  2. Image Storage: In Blogger - 300 MB; in WordPress - 3 GB.
  3. Static Pages: In Blogger - not available; in WordPress - static pages can be listed in separate menus.
  4. Post by Email: In Blogger - accepted; in WordPress - not.
  5. Categories: In Blogger - not available; in WordPress - arranged with no problem.
  6. File Uploading: In Blogger - not available; in WordPress - files can be uploaded.
  7. Indexing Time: Here Blogger produces far better results, as due to the tight connections with Google, it can appear in the Search Engines very fast.
  8. Blog Monetization: WordPress has serious restrictions on the publishing ads, so if you plan to use AdSense, your preferences will probably lean more to the Blogger.
If you are shooting for the blog monetization, there is no doubt that it is much easier to get started with Google Adsense if you have a Blogger account. In fact you can now apply for Adsense from within a Blogger account. Not entirely surprising considering the fact that both are owned by the same company.

With Wordpress, it can get tricky. The default installation is not enough. You’ll need a couple of plugins and even a better theme to really maximize the Adsense potential. However, this seems to be getting easier and there’s even “Adsense revenue sharing” plugins around that allow you to share ad revenue with other contributors and writers for your blog.

Based on all information available, I would definitely recommend Blogger for all the beginners, while WordPress might be considered preferable for more experienced bloggers.

Additional Reading:
http://onestoryeveryday.com/blogger-vs-wordpress-10-features-for-beginners.html
http://pulsed.blogspot.com/2007/07/blogger-wordpress-chart.html
http://michaelsync.net/2007/04/01/wordpresscom-vs-bloggercom
http://www.searchforblogging.com/index.php/2008/03/11/blogging-wars-wordpress-vs-blogger/
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6 comments:

  1. Random J5/7/08, 4:36 PM

    I think it's quite even Stevens myself. For every fault I can find with Blogger, I can find one with Wordpress too. Being able to edit your blogs' HTML and pretty much have complete control over your layout on Blogger is going to be a major attraction to those who know a bit of code and want to be able to tweak their blogs for free without having to result to paying for Wordpress.com's CSS editor or Wordpress.org self hosted blog. Being able to embed whatever video or object you like and work a bit of Javascript is also an attraction to Blogger.

    Wordpress has a far superior dashboard and wealth of options though. If the CSS editor were free and the categories didn't link to tags - I'd go for wordpress. But as it is, it's on the same level as Blogger.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7/23/08, 2:44 AM

    For me, it's mainly been a style and usability issue that took me to Wordpress as opposed to Blogger. Much of the styles Blogger offers reminds me of Geocities. Wordpress just seems so much cleaner and easier to use, and it allows you to keep your own identity (as opposed to Blogger which is trying to build the Blogger name up through your blog). Seriously, look at how much Blogger infiltrates your blog as opposed to Wordpress. I just think Wordpress looks more professional, and feels the same way.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7/25/08, 3:24 PM

    Your post is a bit out of date.

    Blogger now has:
    - categories (called "labels")
    - scheduled posts
    - blog list
    - RSS
    - Photo galleries (via Picasa Web Albums)
    - Thumbnails (same)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Michael Pekker7/25/08, 10:32 PM

    Hi, Smith,
    Thank you for your notes. Indeed, Blogger introduced the new features that are not reflected in the comparison table. I do not agree with claim that labels are the same as categories. Every post can be tagged with multiple labels, but it is not necessary that the category would be the same. I would personally prefer if the post can be tagged with multiple lables, and the one or two category can be chosen for the matter of easy classification.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous11/11/08, 4:02 AM

    Very simple comparison between Blogger and WP but you hit the bull’s eye. Just one thing that I noticed between this two – the ability to accept affiliate links.

    In the field of Affiliate Marketing, I suppose Blogger wins. Blogs in Blogger platform can correctly convert affiliate HTML codes while in WP it cannot be easily done. Correct me if I’m wrong but hope you can comment on this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Michael Pekker11/11/08, 11:20 AM

    Hi Portraits,
    Thanks for your comment. I agree that HTML codes conversion is easy in Blogger. And, for the beginners, who want to make some money, Blogger is definitely a big winner. For pros, its limitations probably overweight its advantages. But, I did not get to the pro level yet :) So, for me is still acceptable.

    ReplyDelete

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