Starting Your Blog

Photo:  FutureShape

Personally, I think blogging is a brilliant concept. You can set up a blog in less than 5 minutes and hey presto you are ready to start writing. The big difference between a blog and a website is a website is usually quite static and isn't updated very often. Whereas a blog is designed to updated as regularly as possible. This can mean blogs are naturally SEO (Search Engine Friendly) which can aid your search rankings.

Before starting your blog you will need to decide which platform you are going to use. The two most commonly used platforms (which are both free) is "Blogger" which is brought to you by Goggle and "WordPress".

Blogger Or WordPress 

So how do you choose between the two platforms. I spent quite a significant time researching between the two when I first decided to start blogging. In all honest it probably doesn't make a great deal of difference which platform you choose. They are both free and they are both very user friendly and easy to set up. If you are a complete beginner I would argue that Blogger has the edge over WordPress for ease of use. In addition to this I also feel that Blogger has increase functionality than WordPress. That is unless you are prepared to pay for the premium version of WordPress. If you are then WordPress' functionality is increased significantly.

Perhaps another major advantage of Blogger over WordPress is it is much easier to monetize. If monetizing is something you are not considering then you don't need to take this into account. However if you have read about Google Adsense and would like to take advantage of it then 'Blogger' is your only option when comparing these two platforms.

The biggest limitation with regards to Blogger is the templates available or rather lack of. You may find that many Blogger sites have a similar look and feel about them due to the lack of customization available. However some how the number of great features within Blogger means that this does not really bother. After all people will be visiting my Blog for the information not because of how it looks.

If you are prepared to create a blog using a self hosted option (in other words you pay for a host) then I would recommend WordPress.org. The host I like to use for this option is Arvixe I think they are great and their plans start from as little as $4 a month. In addition they have Softaculous a software which allows you to install Wordpress.org in the click of a button. The look, feel and functionality gained from $4 a month is significant and gives you a website that allows you to build a very professional brand.

To summarize if you are new to blogging, or are blogging for a hobby, or don't want to pay for a self hosted blog then 'Blogger' is probably the platform for you. If you want a blog with significant functionality, a professional and almost unlimited customization options then you will more than likely want to be going with WordPress.org.

If you would like to read more about the benefits of blogging check out this article Create a Blog for your Website

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