No Passive Income

Take Action, Build Your Business!

5 Things To Consider When Choosing A Blogging Platform

By

One of the most important choices bloggers have to make is which blogging platform they will use. Since Blogger and WordPress are the best (are they?), you only have to choose between them. The blogging platform you choose determines your future as an influential voice on the internet.

If you make the right choice, a platform can help you stay committed long enough to earn money. But because bloggers have different preferences, factors must be taken into consideration from a personal standpoint. That way, you can find out which is perfect for your taste.

When starting a blog for the first time, individuals are usually torn between the Google-owned Blogger and the independently owned WordPress. People often wonder which between the two is better and there are several things that must be considered. Among them are theme options, cost, features, monetization opportunities, and ease of use. [Technorati: 7V8X6FDC2H9F]

how to chose blogging platform

1. Theme Options

Between Blogger and WordPress, the latter offers more theme options. WordPress also offers more beautiful themes but there’s a catch. If you want to have your blog designed or intend to use a custom theme, you would have to pay extra to unlock this feature.

Its competitor offers the same functionality without additional costs. Then again there are thousands of paid WordPress themes to choose from so customizing your blog can be attained with a few clicks. With Blogger you either need to have some knowledge on codes or hire someone else to design your blog.

2. Cost

Both platforms host blogs for free but if you want to get a custom domain, Blogger and WordPress charge an annual fee of $10 and $18 respectively. Whether you signed up for a free blog or bought a domain, Blogger enables you complete access to features including the ability to upload videos.

Furthermore, Google throws in complete access to Google Apps and will allow you to create a custom GMail account. A free WordPress account is limited and to make matters worse, users have to pay separate fees to remove ads, upload videos, and change the font and text size of content – even after getting a custom domain. All in all, a WordPress blog will cost you about $100 a year for all its quirks.

3. Features

WordPress owes its features to plug-ins which have a wide range of uses. Plug-ins can be used for SEO optimisation, extend the blog’s functionality, as well as improve its design. It is worth noting that plug-ins can interrupt with the loading time of a website so unless a reader has access to high speed internet providers like Broadband Expert, you are at increased risk of getting a high bounce rate.

Blogger has widgets but they are yet to reach the scope of their competitor’s offerings. What makes Blogger unique is its association with Google Services like YouTube, Picasa, AdSense, and Analytics. You have to manually tie these accounts to a WordPress blog if ever you make one.

4. Opportunities For Monetization

Blogger gives you the option to squeeze in Google Ads in between posts and all over your blog. All you have to do is sign up for an account and enable this feature via the Blogger platform.

WordPress has no such feature and the ads displayed are actually for the benefit of their own company.

This is a price you have to pay for not paying the required fees to remove advertisements. If you want to display your own Google Ads, you’ll need to install a separate plug-in on a WordPress blog. People who are planning to monetize their blog through advertising spaces, sponsored posting, and affiliate marketing can benefit from both platforms. For those who intend to make money by selling their blog, WordPress is more ideal.

5. Ease Of Use

WordPress can get confusing at times due to the availability of plug-ins. The layout of Blogger makes it a friendly blogging platform for beginners. If you learn fast, you will do fine with WordPress and find it just as easy to use.

Final Verdict

Without a doubt, Blogger is the best blogging platform for beginners because of its simple user interface and full access to features regardless of whether or not you paid for a custom domain. Unless you are willing to invest $100 a year for a full-featured WordPress blog, it is definitely your best option.

WordPress is only good for bloggers who are willing to make a big investment right away and value design more than anything else. It is also intended for people who want to monetize their blogs by selling them.

Wait! Before You Go, Read:

Is Seeking Alpha Worth It? A 2024 Overview Pinterest pinboard11 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Pinterest How Real-Time Data Can Help You With Better Trading Decisions eAngel: Useful Business Tool for Proofreading Your Emails What John Lennon Can Teach Us About Blogging Top 10 reasons, why your site may be downranked by Google in SERPs 5 Factors that Small Businesses Overlook in Their Website Improve Your Reputations Using These 5 Off Page Techniques 7 Reasons a Blog is Crucial to Your Brand Currency Symbols On Laptop Screen Showing Exchange Rate And FinanceMaking Money Through Affiliate Marketing – Some Tips by the Experts Is Funding a Profitable Way to Start With Trading? What Should You Consider Before Taking Out a Small Business Loan Business Graph with blue backgroundSurefire Ways To Increase Page Views Using These 7 WP Plugins 10 Blog Habits to Help You Being Penalized by Google 150 Great Topics and Ideas for Bloggers facebook cover photoHow to Enhance Your Facebook Timeline Page With Images Commercial Real Estate Investing: Building Wealth Through Diversification How To Attract Your Blog Posts – 20 Tips For Normal People DesignEvo: An All-in-one Online Logo Design Tool That Helps You Make Custom Logo Designs Easily What Is The Best Platform for Real Estate Investing?

Comments

  1. Hi Judene,
    Yes, you have highlighted the correct points and I do agree with you. We need to take care about these points while choosing a blogging platform. Those who are going to accept blogging as their source of income, they need to check out the opportunities of monetization before choosing a platform as you have highlighted in your points. Secondly, I would also suggest to start with host blogs which are available in free for those who are going to start blogging for the first time. I am sure this post would definitely be a great help for all the bloggers. Thanks for the share!!

    • Hi Aditi,

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’m sure a lot of bloggers out there will find your opinion helpful and hopefully come to a decision so as to be able to start with their blogging career already.

  2. Hi Judene,
    thanks for your post. I prefer to have my sites on paid hostings, with own domain name. But some people don’t want to pay for hosting – and I agree with you that Blogger and WordPress are great if you want free and stable platform.
    Chris

  3. Hi Judene,

    Nice article and it is really helpful for new bloggers who is thinking to put a step into blogging world.

    I agree that for a newbie whose sole purpose is to start a blog for Googel AdSense then blogger is best option but if your thinking to start a blog and want lots of customization with more monetization option then one should go with Self Hosted WordPress blog.

    • Hi Sandeep,

      Thanks. Your suggestion will surely help a lot of newbies out there who are still pondering on which blogging platform to start with.

  4. Hi Judene,

    This is absolutely a fantastic post for people who are having a dilemma in choosing the right platform. Choosing the right platform is very important when you are planing to start blogging. I would say, this is the first step. I like blogger and it has the advantages and disadvantage. I feel that Google secretly favors blogs on blogger platform, although, they may not admit it.

    Some experts argue that if you are completely new to blogging, start with blogger. I really can’t agree. You should know, what you really want to accomplish. If the blogging is for fun, I would say blogger is the best and will cost you only maximum $10 a year. By the way, I really like the new addition of the dynamic themes from Blogger and it is really good for amateur photographers.

    I have seen, several forum posts where people started blogging in Blogger and later wanted to move to self hosted WP. So much confusion about losing PR, etc. It is a real pain, although you can export it to WP.

    Setting your goals and plans ahead of time and choosing the right platform will definitely help the blogger in the long run

    • Hi Annetta,

      Thanks for sharing your idea. Indeed, choosing the right platform is vital. Bloggers can use either of the two blogging platform, what is important is that bloggers should be able to provide their readers valuable content and not just some meaningless stuff in order for your blog to gain popularity, right?

  5. I agree that WordPress can be a bit more expensive to start with, but I think that it not being for beginners is way off. I recommend it to every beginner everytime – budget permitting or not.

    Here’s the real spin on it – WordPress isn’t only for those trying to make a buck. I used WordPress for about five years (steadily) without any desire to make money. The SEO, speed, and other contributing factors make it a far better and more stable platform. I’m not just pulling words out of my butt, either – I’ve used both platforms on a very large scale basis and have found that Blogger just isn’t the right solution.

    And if you were going to go on later and say that it is better to start with one and move to another later, I will go ahead and say never to do that. Building up one blog and then switching over to another platform is a pain, it causes SEO problems (404), frameworks have to be adapted. It’s just a mess.

    Do yourself a favour and stick with WordPress.

  6. Hey Judene — You’ve mentioned some great points. I started blogging with Blogger which costs nothing. All the things that I wanted like templates, hosting and domain was free. I had no enough budget to handle all these costs but when my blog grew up I moved to WordPress which has more advanced features than Blogger. Simply, it just fulfills all the features I need for blogging 🙂

    • Hi Anup,

      Great! I’m so happy to hear that you succeeded in your blogging venture. More power to you!

  7. These are five essential features to be consider while choosing a blogging platform..you have explained it clearly..we must pay more attention to choose a platform..

  9. Hi Judene & Chris,

    Don’t forget there’s also WordPress.com, which is the hosted version – it’s like Blogger in the sense you can “try before you buy”.

    Pretty sure you can you can choose to use your own domain name (though there might be a small fee for that).

  10. Hey Judene,

    I have never tired anything than a self hosted wordpress blog and I”m really happy with it.
    You just can’t go wrong with it especially if you blog for money.
    no doubt!

    thanks for the valuable insight you’ve shared here!
    Akos

    • Hi Akos,

      It’s good to hear that you are doing well with wordpress. Continue your blogging venture with wordpress, what is important is you are successful with it. 🙂 Happy blogging!

  11. I will say I love blogger, but then I can’t leave wordpress. My first blog was on blogspot, and it got its position in alexa below 120K but then out of sudden google blocked my access. ( They gave me some freaky reason : back in 2010 )

    Then I moved to wordpress.com, I paid them for the domain, but still I was not getting the full customizations. Then finally move to self hosted wordpress. It cost me less than $30 for hosting ( ipage : I just started ). So overall wordpress is the winner since the ratio is 1:2..

    Overall you made a great in-depth comparison. Thanks

    • Thanks Vivek. The choice of blogging platform really depends on the blogger – whichever platform they feel comfortable with and bring them good ranking is always the best option. Both blogger and wordpress are excellent platforms, although for me blogger is simpler and less expensive as compared to wordpress 🙂

  12. Well blogger is the best platform for newbies,I suggest all the newbies to first create a blog in blogger,get use to basics of blogging like seo etc. then after 1-2 months go for self hosted blog,I n fact every pro blogger started his/her journey with bloggers blog.Anyways thanks for sharing this useful article for newbies.

  13. Thanks for the post Judene Macariola, I started out with blogger like 11 months ago, I loved the ease of use. But since I’ve launched my second blog (a self hosted blog), powered with wordpress (which I’ve started like 15 days ago) I’m in love with features that WordPress has to offer with a little bit of investment. So by comparing Blogger with WordPress, I guess wordpress is the winner.

    • Hi Fahad,

      Thanks! I’m glad that you have been very successful in blogging and have found a platform that can enhance further your blogging venture.

  14. Hi Judene

    I’ve never used Blogger. As a newbie I went straight for WordPress because that is what most internet marketers recommend.

    I would always use a self-hosted WordPress blog over a free one as it gives you far more flexibility and the overall cost is minimal. Yes you need to buy a domain name and a web host but it’s really not expensive at all. I found it very easy to set up too. Pretty much point and click.

    Thank you for sharing.

    Tim

    • Hi Tim,

      Thanks for sharing your opinion. I wouldn’t say you’re wrong nor insist that I am right. As I said, WordPress and blogger are the two top blogging platforms there is that bloggers can use. Although base on my experience, I found blogger as an excellent stepping stone for newbies. 🙂

  15. Hello author , thanks for sharing these great tips with us. For a new bloggers these are really great thins which we should consider before choosing a blogging platform. But i thing wordpress s one of the best blogging platform for all the new bloggers as this is very user friendly and easy to use.

    • Thanks, I’m glad you find my article helpful. I wouldn’t disagree with you if you find wordpress easier to start with although blogger is simpler than wordpress 🙂

  16. Hi Chris,

    Thanks, and I’m glad that you are already blogging successfully using wordpress platform. I hope a lot of newbie out there can already find their niche and start blogging soon.

  17. Hi Judene,
    These are certainly great points that you have here and may require some considering for the newbie blogger who is not yet accustomed to a certain platform. I have not used blogger as of yet, but I have used wordpress for many years now. I personally like the thesis theme used in wordpress because it gives me the ability to make changes to it that are according to my liking.

  18. Hey Judene, just a simple question – Does using a free or a paid theme make some difference in the revenue generation?

  19. WordPress and Blogger are two of the most famous blog sites these days although other seem to bubble over, but still, these two are head to head in this industry. If you look at the side of Google, blogger seems to have an advantage over WordPress. On the other hand, lots of SEO people are more comfortable using WordPress. Nonetheless, if you consider your very self as a neophyte blogger, take the article’s tip.

  20. Hi I set up a blog on webeden it was just a bit of fun to see if I enjoyed it. Now though I am but think the platform is not that great and am thinking of setting another one up somewhere else. The problemis then my works really wasted. Either that or I do two???

    Thanks for the heads up lee

    • Blogs are an integral part of the internet and it is gaining popularity for many reasons. With internet becoming a household concept, the concept of blogging has entered our daily life and had become a part of it. We may not even understand the aspects of our life which are touched by this concept. Blogging is very useful in the advertising and marketing for the online marketing of your business.
      These points may be advance feature of blogging :-
      1. For the business advertising on internet
      2. For specific business marketing like hospitality industry
      3. For improving the search engine ranking of your business
      4. For interacting with likeminded people all over the world an also bring awareness about social issues.

Recent Posts

Archives

Pin It on Pinterest