The new current fad seems to be switching from Blogger to Wordpress; BRK just did it yesterday but a lot of other bloggers have done it recently as well.
What I'm wondering is... would it be worth it for me to make the switch as well? I know a lot of people have been praising Wordpress for being more customizable and whatnot... I guess I'm just curious to know a comparison of some of the features they offer verses some of the ones Blogger does. Because up 'til now I've sort of been taking the view of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", which is why I've been sticking with Blogger.
Another reason I'm wary of switching is because I don't want to annoy people with having to update bookmarks or RSS feeds or blogrolls. And I worry my readership might take a bit of a hit-- not that I'm super popular or anything, but 60-70 hits a day really isn't too shabby, and I kinda like those hits... makes me think I might actually be a decent writer or something! =P
So I will leave the opinions open to you guys; because you guys are the ones who read my blog so I'd like to know what you think. Do the benefits of moving to Wordpress outweigh the possible cons? Are there any other good blogging software or sites out there that I should consider also? My personal journal is over at LiveJournal (and has been for over three years) but even though I love LJ it's more for exactly that, personal journals, instead of blogging.
What do you guys think?
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9 comments:
Hard to say :) "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", but... I love fiddling with stuff :) So I would probably make the switch.
I'm not a big Google fan in general, and I find the Blogger pagination is horrible. Blogger also seems to have recently changed it so that people without Google/Blogger accounts can't put their email address or a link to their website when commenting. Wordpress is pretty flexible (tons of plugins and themes out there), and open source.
You should email BRK and ask him why he made the switch :)
By the way, were you planning on getting a hosted blog at wordpress.com, or setting Wordpress up yourself? I do the latter; I'm not sure what the differences are if you get a wordpress.com blog.
Have you had a look at some of the charts and articles out there? Most of them are a bit out of date though :(
http://www.weblogmatrix.org/
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050714gardner/
Make the switch.
But I guess it really depends on what YOU want to do. If all you care about is writing and just writing, then you may as well stick to Blogger. You seem to be an IT guru, so messing around with open source wordpress would be second nature I assume.
The power with wordpress is the various capabilities it offers. I can't list any off the top of my head (and I have to leave for my final in 5 minutes so I souldn't be leaving this comment for you so early in the morning). I utilize a lot of widgets on my sidebar. You can completely customize Wordpress, whereas blogger offers you limited HTML/CSS ability.
If you're not going after any kind of monetization of your blog or whatever, then maybe blogger is what you need. It all boils down to what you're looking for and what you intend to do. I knew my blog was going to expand and I'm still not finished yet. I'm currently in the process of redesigning it entirely. With Blogger, that would not have been possible.
Again, I really recommend you to read this:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/15/choosing-a-blog-platform/
Hopefully it will help! =)
Personally, I think aspectofthehare.com does sound rather appealing.
Also, do you really want Google to "own" all your data?
</conspiracy theory>
;) ;)
I agree with Matticus on the customization part. I had originally started my blog on Wordpress.com, which is similar to Blogger. But the lack of customization really bugged me so I soon switched to hosting it from my own site (and using Wordpress software). If you're curious, I know some great places to get cheap hosting and domains. We're talking like $20/year for the domain and hosting combined. :)
Just be careful about the $20/year combined deals: Often, that means your site is ad-supported, and that can interfere with things such as RSS feeds (esp. FeedBurner).
I just made the switch to wordpress after reading this post, just to check it out, and it seems fine so far. It's really up to you, so far I've found wordpress to have more options, but its more confusing.
In response to Kestrel, I just want to add that my website (which does cost me $20/year) is not ad-supported and I have my own domain. I've been into making websites long enough that I've found great deals in regards to it. If you don't believe me, check out my WoW hunter blog or my main site (which has been updated in months :(
@game dame: Wordpress from wordpress.org isn't "paid"! It is free, open source software, released under the GPL, that you download and install on your own server or a web host that you might rent. :) (As opposed to wordpress.com, where they will host the blog for you, also for free.)
I also hate the fact that you can no longer link to your own non-Blogger website without registering with Google/Blogger. :(
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