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Wordpress vs Blogger

Which do you use, and which do you prefer?

I'll be starting a new blog soon that won't be anonymous (ie ppl in my real life will know about it, and pictures of myself & friends etc will be on it, along with my real name) and I'm not sure which host to use!

My current blog is on blogger, and I like it cause it's pretty simple to use and you can customize it pretty easily for no extra charge or anything like that. However, I like that on wordpress you can create 'pages', but don't like that you need to pay to have a customized layout and all that - visuals are quite important to me!

So, any thoughts/advice/opinions?

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Permalink Reply by momochacha on February 29, 2008 at 2:58am

I'm a Wordpress fan, and if a banner is all you're concerned about there are plenty of free templates with all different layouts (1-4 cols) and allow a banner of your choice/design. Some html can be manipulated through widgets, too. I've used Blogger before and I find the Wordpress interface easier to use and more pleasing to the eye. If you ever decide to host your own blog you can also easily export and reorganize all of your content, and the community functions are easy to use, too. I like most of Google's products but I have to say ... I think Wordpress is better at keeping up with (and staying ahead of) what users want.

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Permalink Reply by Maxie on February 29, 2008 at 7:00am

I've only used wordpress, but I've only had a few problems with it. There are less themes to choose from as far as layouts go, but I found someone to do a reasonable custom for me.

I'm not sure how bloggers is different, but I think wordpress is pretty easy to jump into if you're considering a switch.

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Permalink Reply by Jay on February 29, 2008 at 8:01am

It would be worthwhile to have a wordpress.org install on your own domain if you've got one. In doing so you open a whole lot more possibilities because you get a heck of a lot more control than if you have a hosted blog.

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Permalink Reply by Call Me KP on February 29, 2008 at 11:02am

I'm also on team Wordpress. I started on Blogger thinking it was easier to have my e-mail, blog, reader, etc. all through Google. But the more into blogging I got and the less I realized I knew about CSS and HTML and ABCD@##$! or whatever, the more I liked Wordpress. True, you do have to pay to edit codes and layouts and such, but I find that the benefits truly do outweigh that slight setback. Especially when the theme selection is pretty great even without the option of customization.

I've just found it to be more reliable. From the stat counter to the comment tracking, it's just easier. I used to get errors with Blogger all the time. Editing posts took forever because it never seemed to save my text. I've yet to find that sort of problem with Wordpress. I love it.

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Permalink Reply by RA on February 29, 2008 at 11:25am

I made the switch from Blogger to WordPress almost a year ago, and I really like how I'm not restricted by all of the extra programming that Blogger uses to make it user-friendly. Like others have said, the interface for keeping track of things is much easier, and there are a lot of features (like stat counting, subcategories, and plug-ins) available to you, in addition to pages. If you don't have your own domain, you can just get a URL.wordpress.com site and apply a free template to it. There is a ton of information at the WordPress support forums, and there are so many themes out there to choose from.

I think Blogger has its place as a user-friendly, out of the box platform, but WP is pretty intuitive, too. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by cooper on February 29, 2008 at 11:58am

I started with blogger, then as I started another topic specific blog and did it on WordPress.com. I much prefer WP though the themes are limited. My personal blog and my newer blog are both on a self hosted WP blog. I know most people don't want to pay for it but the options are just so unlimited I could never go back.

I haven't used blogger in some time though so it may be better now.

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Permalink Reply by Clueless Cat on March 1, 2008 at 11:11pm

I thought if you wanted a different theme than the ones available from Wordpress you have to pay? I haven't seen an option like on blogger where you can just upload a new template (either one you made yourself or got free from somewhere else).

Am I just being blind?

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Permalink Reply by cooper on March 1, 2008 at 11:30pm

I meant wordpress.com, where the themes are limited though you can pay to be ablw to mess with the css it isn't worth itI did that with my Darfur blog and it didn't turn out well as I had not control over the code.

Wordpress self hosted has unlimited options.

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Permalink Reply by Agitpropist on March 1, 2008 at 3:04pm

You can always change the header on wordpress to get a customized look. I prefer Wordpress because it isn't owned by Google, which was founded with CIA seed money.

You can look at my blog, SystemsDestruction, to get an idea of what you can do with the free features on Wordpress.

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Permalink Reply by RA on March 3, 2008 at 10:48am

When I switched over from Blogger to WordPress, I imported my entries, and everything came over without a scratch, comments, categories, and all. On the dashboard, if you go to Manage/Import, there's a link for the major platforms, and then you just press the magic button. It worked for me!

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Permalink Reply by Call Me KP on March 4, 2008 at 10:25am

Same here. Well, the margins on one post were a little altered, but that's only because of the code I entered while fighting to center the test on Blogger. Aside from that, everything else arrived in perfect condition.