Niche Blog Hosting: WordPress vs. Blogger
UPDATE: 4/24/2010
At this time I strongly recommend that you avoid using Blogger blogs for any internet marketing purposes. It seems that Google has changed the rules and even totally legitimate blogs with good content are being flagged as spam and are being taken down and deleted.
Where should I host my niche blog projects? Should I purchase a hosting package and a domain and self-host WordPress? Or should I simply setup a free Blogger/Blogspot site and save some money? These questions get asked quite often. Other bloggers have talked about it from time to time. So I thought I’d examine this topic by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of each in several key areas and putting in my own inflation adjusted two cents worth (I’m not including WordPress.com hosting because they don’t allow any monetization.)
Cost
Blogger is free. You can’t beat that price. You can start as many Blogger blogs as you want. Some people have hundreds of them and it doesn’t cost them a cent in hosting costs.
For a self-hosted WordPress site you’ll need to buy a domain, which is usually between about $2 and $50 a year depending on the top level domain selected (.com, .net, .info, .tv, etc.) and additional features, such as private registration. Then you’ll need to buy a hosting package that usually start around $5 and go up from there depending on the features. This will give you a monthly fixed cost of at least $5 and probably more. Multiply this out over 50 or 100 niche blogs and it can really add up.
Advantage: Blogger
Control
Blogger is owned and operated by Google. Your blog is subject to their whims. While they’re unlikely to make massive changes to Blogger anytime soon because they probably make considerable Adsense revenue there, you are still subject to their rules. For example, many Blogger blogs saw a decrease in readership when Google changed commenting rules in December. You don’t have any control over these gyrations. Plus Google owns controls your data, even if you self-host Blogger on your own domain. Also, there is a ‘flag as spam’ button where malicious people can make your life on Blogger more difficult plus the Google/Blogger anti-spam bot that can flag innocent sites as spam when an algorithmic flag is flipped by accident.
Self-hosted WordPress is subject to the rules of the hosting company. That’s why you’ll need to find a host that fits your needs and has a good reputation for customer service. You can even use co-location where you rent or even own the server where your blog runs if you want. If you need to move to a new host, this is relatively easy to do.
Advantage: WordPress
Hosting
Blogger runs on multiple servers that are generally well protected against hacking and huge traffic surges. The only disadvantage here is that you won’t get your own Blogspot based email address.
If you run self-hosted WordPress site on a shared server you’ll not only be at the whim of the hosting company but of other users, maybe even 1000 or so, on the system. If one of them does something stupid or malicious, your site goes down too as the server crashes. If you co-locate, you’ll have to pay a considerable amount of money to purchase the security Blogger provides for free. In most cases though, you will get multiple email addresses.
Advantage: Blogger
Flexibility
Blogger provides a simple blog interface that’s hard to extend and customize. While some have done it, it isn’t the easiest thing to do. If you want to keep it simple and color inside the lines, Blogger will work for you. But, many find it lacking if they try to go beyond this.
WordPress is a full blown content management system (CMS) in a blogging software disguise. There are so many things you can do with it in terms of modifying the core PHP code or constructing themes and plugins that it boggles the mind.
Advantage: WordPress
Extensibility
While there are Blogger add-ons and templates available they’re fewer in number than those available to WordPress users.
There are a huge number of WordPress plugins and themes available with new ones appearing every day. There are many designers and software developers who know WordPress well and who can create new ones to fit your specs.
Advantage: WordPress
Search Engine Optimization
Google loves Blogger blogs. It’s no wonder, it’s their company. Do their algorithms give Blogger blogs an unseen advantage? In a way, yes. First, by being a subdomain off of an established Google owned domain this seems to allow them to get recognized quicker than comparable self-hosted WordPress blogs. Second, the default Blogger templates are rather SEO friendly and can be made even more so. Lastly, you can find a keyword targeted URL name easier than you can in the domain marketplace although the Blogger names are also becoming more competitive.
Many WordPress themes are poorly optimized for SEO so you will need to take this into consideration. You will also have the challenge of getting Google to recognize your new domain. While rapid indexing techniques can help you’ll sometimes encounter domains that Google stubbornly refuses to recognize for various reasons. Lastly, finding a keyword rich domain name for your niche blog can be difficult. You may have to buy one from a domain broker or auction which can be pricey.
Advantage: Blogger
Reputation
Let’s face facts, Blogger blogs don’t have the best reputation. Many blog directories and services simply won’t recognize them. As of July 2009, you can’t use them with eBay’s EPN advertising network and many other advertisers shun them as do many paid review and link brokers. Many people see them as spammy. Other’s find their interface, particularly for comments, user unfriendly.
WordPress is considered the premier blogging platform in the world today. While they can be used for ill purposes or have exceptionally ugly themes, they generally have a much better reputation in the web marketplace.
Advantage: WordPress
Resell
You can’t resell a Blogger blog because it’s against the Google terms of service. While resells do go on under the table from time to time, the price is generally much lower than a comparable separate domain since discovery of the deal by Google would destroy the transaction.
A well established WordPress blog on it’s own domain can sell for thousands of dollars.
Advantage: WordPress
The Bottom Line
For a social blog, the choice is clear, self-hosted WordPress is your best bet. The advantages beyond the basic operating costs are enormous. But, with niche blogs, which is best? It depends a lot on your goals with the blog.
For establishing a quick niche blog on the fly for free, Blogger is the ticket. It’s quick, cheap and easy. You can go from concept to execution in minutes with no money out of your pocket.
But, if you’re wanting something more long term, particularly if you want to setup domains for resell, develop a presence beyond simple search engine marketing, establish a local niche blog or have a greater degree of control then a self-hosted WordPress install is what you want.
My own niche blog strategy is evolving around using both, Blogger for the quick and cheap niche or for testing ideas and WordPress for the long haul niche development. What’s your strategy?
Do you have anything to add to the differences for using Blogger vs. Self-Hosted WordPress for niche blogs?
Wow, very timely post! And nice comparison as well.
I have niche sites on Blogger, and I am contemplating on using Wordpress. I’ll give it a shot by using sub-domains (kinda like niche-name.blogspot.com, but replace blogspot with my domain name).
I wanna compare the performance and whichever is better, i’ll stick to it.
Thanks Saedel,
I’ve also been thinking about subdomains as well for self-hosted WordPress but I didn’t bring this up in the article since I didn’t want to muddy the water.
From some comments he’s made on his blog, it seems that Court doesn’t seem to care for the idea too much, preferring the resell value and authority of the top level domain. But there could be some value in grouping similar ideas into sort of a network. I’ve got a niche domain that’s unused right now where I may try this out to see how it works.
Another thing to look at if you do this is to get a hosting plan that allows unlimited subdomains and MySQL databases or at least into 3 digits worth of them.
Superb Article. Well I like Wordpress so I will go with it.
Personally I have used both… and I agree for quick cheap testing… blogger for long term wordpress
and Google Loves Wordpress!
SirNicolaus
Who doesn’t hate leaving a comment on a Blogger blog?!
I complained about it on Blogger’s Help Blog (I’m sure 100s other than me complained also) lets hope they upgrade the system soon.
Hi Y.S.,
They could make it worse, that’s for sure. Some sort of AJAX based editor would be nice. It’s not like Google doesn’t have plenty of software engineers sitting around playing Wii and sipping cappuccinos. Or they could just hire some of those people Yahoo just fired today to do it.
indeed. at least now it’s possible to post comments directly from the post page itself. but would really love to see threaded comments built into blogger.
I’m actually a fan of wordpress.com for little niche blogs, even if you can’t run ads on them. (It’s the familiar interface/ease of use.)
But for the most part my strategy is on par with yours.
Hi Sucker,
It’s good to have a small entourage of blogs.
I disagree with a few of your items not in favor of Wordpress because you can ameliorate issues with hosting, cost, and SEO (Google preference aside, what can you do?
) with a little bit of research, though it would be accurate to say Blogger would be easier by default to set up.
I gave up commenting on Blogger blogs, but I guess even some others that make commenting unfriendly, like when you set the “must register to comment” option. I don’t have issue with moderated comments though.
Hi Robert,
With Blogger being free to build as many monetized blogs as you can handle with no bandwidth restrictions it’s hard for any hosting plan to come close. Host Gator’s plans are about the best I’ve seen although you could have bandwidth issues. SEO is always part guessing game but the right WP theme can help.
Wordpress rules, if you utilize a variety of SEO plugins and have some of your own SEO knowledge you will win the battle!
How’s it going Frank? Hopefully all is well, I see you are killing me in the Alexa ranks, hehehe.
Bye for now,
Fabien
Hi Fabien,
You also have to have a SEO friendly WP theme. So many themes are designed poorly for SEO, from hidden links being inserted to poor sidebar placement in code to mismatched header tags. But even if you get that right, it won’t address Google’s apparent preference for indexing Blogger blogs first.
On the Alexa, it’s really not that important. While having EntreCard helps with boosting this number, I have a niche blog with 4 times as many daily unique visitors as I get here but it has an Alexa rating of around 900K.
I’ll agree with Robert in that Blogger will be easier to set-up and that if you search properly, you can find a lot of help with the cost. For example, the company that I’m hosted with has blogging plans starting at $1.50 a month.
Back to the set-up part, Wordpress is tricky if you try to tackle it yourself, especially if you’re not the most PHP savvy. I remember I had a lot of trouble trying to work with it when I first started and well, let’s just say I’m much better at it now, but am still missing a few areas (like the widgets)
I’ll also agree with Y.S. that the damned Blogger commenting system isn’t the best around. I like that Wordpress allows you to have three different input areas and I don’t have to worry about my email being exposed for the bots to see.
Hi Maria,
Most of the sub $5/month hosting plans I’ve seen had some pretty tight bandwidth restrictions or other limitations. The last thing you want is to get a good niche blog established that starts getting a good amount of Google traffic and then gets shut down quickly.
WP setup can be a little tricky but if you put together kind of a set build order it can go a lot smoother.
Blogger comments are pretty bad. Fortunately, you don’t depend on comments that much in niche blogs unlike in a primarily social blog.
Having been on Blogger for quite awhile, and now on Wordpress, I definitely prefer Wordpress. Courtney Tuttle’s SEO Wordpress Themes are great and I highly recommend them.
I haven’t stopped commenting on Blogger blogs at all. For me, building relationships with other bloggers has nothing to do with what service they use to host their blogs.
Hi Lin,
Sorry about the moderation delay due to the link. I’m going to have to look into whitelist comment plugins at some point.
I try to comment on them as well although I’m a lot more likely to comment on a WP blog than I am a Blogger one. Having to switch pages really disturbs the chain of thought for me.
Frank that was a very good comparison. As a blogger user my single biggest complaint is the comments - it boggles me that a company like Google can’t or won’t update this feature. Surely they must know by now just how crappy it is and the fact that they don’t mind being embarrassed by wordpress is amazing to me. I would think they would want to be the cream of the crop but they seem oblivious to this. With their talent and money they could certainly produce a better product.
If they suck at many things (and they do) I still use them for 2 simple reasons - it is so easy to use for set and forget niches (using adsense) and of course it doesn’t go down often and when it does it’s fixed in a jiffy. Google makes a lot of money off of the platform so it ensures that it stays up.
There is no doubt that Social blogs are much better on wordpress and niches can work with both platforms but each has some downsides that need to be taken into account and I think you’ve listed them very adeptly.
Great post Frank
Thanks Grizzly,
I don’t think the commenting system is a priority to them, probably because it doesn’t impact their advertising cash flow. I also doubt that any of the bright young Wii playing cappuccino swilling Google engineers who could work on it during their 30% “do what you want” time would select this over something much cooler like cloud computing or video context searching.
What about comment moderation on blogger?!! You just have two options: Publish - Reject ! It seems that they forgot to add the Edit button!
Anyway, in the beginning it does seem that you can’t do much with your blogger blog ( in terms of creativity ) but everything changes once you get a little savvy!
Forget the basic blogger options and start experimenting with your blog’s HTML. If you have an idea or saw something cool on another blog just do some googling on how to do it. You’ll be amazed how much you can do.
Hi Y.S.
Edit comment would be a nice feature to have. I’ve used this a few times on WordPress to fix up some comments that needed it.
I have played around with some of the Blogger HTML. I am a web and software developer after all so I can’t resist. But, since you don’t have access to the backend server processing this limits some of what you can do.
Oh Frank, do I get a gift or something on my 20th comment!
Take care
Hmmm….
Maybe I can move your blog up to the front of the line in the review queue.
[…] or another. I think it’s obvious enough from my end which I prefer for niche blog hosting: Wordpress or Blogger. If you want to be taken seriously as a blogger, you need […]
thats all very nice information, thank you for that!!!
You’re welcome Zobibi.
I think blogger is perfect for beginners and also for people who wants a simple place on internet to share their experiences. If you want something more professional, you should use wordpress
Hi Javo,
That’s part of the reputation thing. Beyond something simple to get started blogging with, it’s also a good and cheap place to setup a “set and forget” niche blog.
[…] at Blogger or get your blog self-hosted with Wordpress should read up on OpTempo which did a cost-benefit analysis between blogging host Wordpress and Blogger. Personally, I have experienced blogging on both these platforms as I started out with a blogspot […]
[…] Niche Blog Hosting: WordPress vs. Blogger from OpTempo […]
[…] Can’t focus? Carl Ocab has 5 Tips To Grab Hold Of Your Focus When Writing […]
Is there anyway to use a different comment system on blogger? I’m not sure, but I remember blogger blogs with modified commenting forms.
If its not possible I wont google it.
Hi Y.S.,
I’ve heard of some but none that are anywhere near as trouble free as what you get with WordPress. That’s what make WP a much better social blogging choice. Google around and you’ll probably find a few of them.
This is directed at those of you out here who were not brought up on computers. . .Wordpress is a tough nut to crack. If you don’t have the code background along with other strong computer skills, Wordpress will be difficult for you to use. For instance, Wordpress tells you to do something, but nowhere does it explain how it’s done if you do not know the procedure. Now, having said the above, you will be able to complete some of the steps required rather easily, but then, you’ll run into a brick wall. It is not easy to use unless you’re well-versed with computer skills. It does have much more options if you have the required skills.
Hi Dan,
That’s an interesting thought. Sometimes I have to force myself to think like a regular computer user since I’ve been programming professionally for right at 20 years.
A lot of users do need a certain degree of hand holding and this can be hard to find with many open source projects like WordPress. Blogger is fairly easy for a non-tech to work with although modifying beyond the default gets tricky.
I have to agree with that… I have a wordpress site privately hosted, and need to move hosts (hence why I’m contemplating just ditching private hosting and using blogger), and having used wordpress, I’m a little intimidated with the idea of continuing to use it. A friend who is a programmer set it up for me and helped me get everything looking just as I wanted it, but I find that I have to ask her for help just about every day when I’m trying to do something with the site, so whether I get anything done with my site depends a lot on her schedule and whether she’s available to help me out. As a result, I’ve had the site for about two years and haven’t done much more with it than create a few static pages and post a few articles, because every time I try to work with it I end up running into that brick wall that Dan mentioned.
I think I’d do a little better with it if I’d done everything start to finish instead of my friend helping — at least then I’d have a better understanding of how everything works — but it probably would’ve taken me years to do it all, if I’d even been able to finish it. I actually do have a computer and programming background — I was a website designer for about ten years, and am working in publishing now — but programming isn’t a passion for me and it’s been so long since I tried to keep up with it that now my skills are dinosaur-old. ;D I can tackle HTML no problem, but my CSS skills are a little rusty and PHP is just way beyond me. I don’t know how you young whippersnappers do it. 
I had the same trouble when I was setting up Gallery 2 for my photography website… I wanted to be able to sell my prints online, so Gallery 2 seemed ideal because it was very customizable and could be linked into several 3rd party vendors so visitors could order prints. I ended up giving up because I was having such a hard time getting the Gallery and vendors to communicate properly. I’m now on Smugmug, which took a little getting used to but now is easy as pie for me. I think a lot of these projects, especially the open source ones, are wonderful for “power users” who can really open up the throttle on them and use all the terrific options that are programmed into them, but for the rest of us they can just be really frustrating. I think for some us there’s a need to weigh the coolness of the app — be it Wordpress or whatever else — against whether we’ll actually be able to get anything done with it. I’d rather use a service with less features that I’m more apt to actually get something done with.
Has anyone tried http://disqus.com/ ?
Feedback would be appreciated.
I have something special for you. You might have heard of Blog Advertising before and how you can make some good money by blogging. But what about the payments?
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Tasks will be sent to you via your nominated email address to either accept or reject each task. Once tasks are completed by you, you get paid. Simple huh?
You might want to be an Advertiser as well. You will need to sign up separately as an Advertiser and submit a task. It’s as easy as that.
[removed] has brought the best practises of all Blog Advertising services together under the one roof. No more strict rules, no more waiting around and bigger payouts for Bloggers.
Sounds good? You know what to do.
Enjoy!
Colin, Colin, Colin,
This is how you get flagged as spam by Akismet. I didn’t do it but someone probably will soon. That you’re going around spamming comments doesn’t engender a lot of trust among bloggers who you want to use your service. You should seriously reexamine your marketing strategy.
Nice post.
I have a free Blogger account and I have tried to modify my blog the best I can, but WordPress definitely has got advantages. I think one big one is this comment box right under the post. In Blogger, you have to click on “Post a Comment” to go to another page and put your comment; and not many people will do that.
Hi Ashutosh,
The commenting system is certainly the weakest link in the Blogger system. Maybe someday soon Google will address this properly.
http://www.bloggeries.com/forum/blogging-basics/3005-never-ending-controversy-blogging-what-your-stand.html#post11739
I’m a wordpress for life person myself unless of course another third party script rivals it which would be difficult considering all the mods and free templates already available for it. Blogger is great for a first blog if you’re unsure but seriously it runs at ~70$ a year to maintain; easily within most people’s budget.
Wordpress all the way; it’s been debated to death but if you’re serious why not own it straight up for ~$70 a year compared to something you COULD loose to do a wrongful TOS violation etc…
[Edit: I blended your moderated comment, with a link, with your unmoderated comment.]
Hi Bloggeries,
It depends on what you’re going for. I do think WordPress is better for a social blog. For a monetized niche blog, Blogger has some things going for it, particularly if you don’t want to throw away that $70 you mentioned on a test market.
This is a very thoughtful comparison.
A couple of items:
a) hosting WordPress
This will give you a monthly fixed cost of at least $5 and probably more. Multiply this out over 50 or 100 niche blogs and it can really add up.
That assumes you have a host where you have to pay for a new hosting account for every site/blog. I have an account with a well known provider (rhymes with elevator) on which I can add sites at my pleasure without affecting the monthly fee, which is modest anyway.
b) degree of difficulty
While I recommend people don’t use Blogger for business for the reasons you have listed, I have to say that there is merit in the argument that WordPress can be a killer for people without the tech background. I’ve been fiddling with html for years and can put up a (not very elegant but functional) website fairly unaided, but I would not like to even think about the hours I have spent getting WordPress to work for me and not the other way around. Legions of volunteers and support forums are great - if you speak the language (WordPress experts can be very cruel and arrogantly rude to newbies on the support sites).
Too often I’ve seen total newbies led up the garden path by well-meaning people, who might not actually see themselves as techies and even attest that they are not, telling others that setting up and managing a WordPress site on your own server is easy/a breeze/you just use Fantastico to install/.
The option of an own domain, hosted WordPress site, ie from WordPress.org not WordPress.com, may be not attractive to multiple niche site players but useful for others - for around $10 a month people can have someone else take care of the basics, make sure the site is set up, security managed etc. As far as I know, with this option you would get the multiplication you have mentioned, i.e. a new account for every site.
Hi Des,
I assume you’re talking about the Host Gator plan. It’s not a bad option although you could get burned by having too much traffic. Also, a cost to consider is the domain renewal at about $15-20 a year, if you get privacy, which I highly recommend. If you have 100 blogs on 100 domains you better be making enough to cover the cost or else use subdomains.
The thing about WordPress.org is that they don’t allow you to monetize, period. Blogs there can be useful in other ways but they’re still fairly aggressive about dealing with what they consider spam.
Great Article. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me question my reasons for being online. Most of all it made me think. Think about life, love and happiness as well as making me most of all think about what is acceptable on the Internet. That’s what a great article like this does. Thank you for writing such a fantastic article about Blogger and WordPress.
Your two word spam comment was a little too short. I fixed it up a bit for you.
I found this:
http://js-kit.com/comments/?wow
I’m using it as a commenting platform on my Blogger blog. Till now it is working very well for me.
I hope you like it.
Thanks Y.S.
I had seen this commenting kit before, almost a year ago it seems, but it was kind of buggy at that time. Maybe they’re improved on it since then.
I prefer to buy domains for a simple reason: as they age, they gain more and more in value, and they become a real asset. This doesn’t apply to blogspot blogs though.
Hi Steve,
That is true. If reselling is part of your business plan for a niche site you want to go self-hosted all the way.
Hi JFC,
Thanks for the excellent site and the Ebay Blogger Template. I’ve long wondered if it is really possible to make money from Ebay via blogs, so I’m giving it a go to find out. I used your template to set up a Coach Designer Bags site as you can see above. Is it a good idea to put the Ebay ads. up immediately or would it be better to wait till the site is indexed and maybe has a few more posts on it ? Vic
Hi Vic H,
The strategy I go with for eBay niches is to monetize shortly after I getting indexing, maybe a day or two after. This is much shorter term than Adsense where a 60-90 day wait is preferred.
I’d also recommend not using any pictures other than the pictures in the eBay link if you want to have a straight-up marketing site. Having pictures will distract visitors from the objective, for them to click on the eBay links.
Now, if you want a flagship or part-informational blog such as I have here on OpTempo go ahead and include pictures and videos. Just be aware that your click thru rate will be lower than that on a marketing blog.
Neither…Bloglicio.us lol
Its better because it has a revenue sharing program where you can earn money by putting adsense ads on your blog.
Neither of those platforms allow that.
Hi FWH,
Blogger allows you to put just about any ad you wish on your Blogger Blog. As long as it’s not something that’s legally questionable it’s fine.
I think Wordpress.org is something I will get to once I feel that my blog at blogger is growing and worth paying for hosting for. I paid for a domain name which is good for now. I tried setting up wordpress at my current host and while I do have technical skills, I’m by no means a developer and I got frustrated trying to set everything up. The 5-minute installation process turned into 50 minutes and then my database connection was lost, tech support was no help, I uploaded, erased and uploaded WP and still one problem after the other. Finally, I just gave up. I think if you’re starting out (like me), you should just concentrate on getting quality content first, and then worry about the other technical stuff later. When I am ready for the switch I’m going to go to a 1-button push installation.
Hi Rose,
Some hosting companies are better than others when it comes to hosting WordPress blogs. Some are a huge headache, requiring a lot of hosting administration and MySQL knowledge, and others are as simple as filling in a few basics like the blog name and where to put the files. Always find out how well a hosting company does with the basics like this before using them.
You should try out a WordPress.com blog to get a feel for how WordPress works. It’s free, like Blogger, although you can’t put advertising there of any type.
Wow, so many comment here, hope its never too late to comment about this popular post.
I am using Blogger at this time and still in process getting my own domain and hosting for Wordpress. I agree with you that Blogger can be indexed faster. Example my site index within 24 hours and this is advantage for me when I’m joining some SEO contest.
I’m using blogspot for learning and testing about search engine optimization and there still too much to learn. So blogger is suitable for me before I’m using my own domain.
Good. Tnx, i post this news in my blog, OK?
Yet another spammer trying to take advantage of the bug in Top Commentator that I fixed. Comment URL was restored to the real commentator.
Ummm, what just happened? I feel like I’m the victim of a drive-by commenting, but I don’t think I understand how it was done.
Hi Jacob,
As mentioned in the article I linked, Top Commentator has a bug where it doesn’t exclude moderated or Akismetted comments and it orders by the most recent comment for the link to use rather than using the oldest. This allows somebody, a spammer, to take over a top commentator spot by impersonating someone who is already there.
I have actually found that there are now some really attractive magazine style blogger themes available - who would have thought! I have a question - what is the best way to move a blogspot blog onto your own domain: if you change to ftp’s the site does that automatically fix the moved pages or do you have to redirect every page Thanks!
Hi Vacation Tips,
Sorry, I don’t know about that. I’ve never done self-hosting on Blogger. I just didn’t see the point because I’d either use WordPress if I wanted a blog or a simple HTML mini-site if I wanted a lightweight site.
Ive been playing with the wordpress.com free blogs: they are dead simple to setup - probably the easiest 2 setup for a complete newbie. No monetization though - rumour has that they are well regarded by G because of this though. Their default themes are lot more attractive than the default blogger ones too Lissie
[…] I hope this small blog post help anyone that is still choosing a blogging platform and wants to get the inside scoop of Niche Blog Hosting WordPress vs. Blogger: […]
What about Moveable Type Blogs? It seems like Google and Yahoo! love them. But it is a pain in the ass to use unless your a rocket scientist. Any thoughts?
Hi Injury Lawyer,
I’ve not looked at Moveable Type blogs beyond visiting a few of them on occasion so I don’t know how well they would perform.
Great Post! keep it up. what did you mean by “set and forget” niche blog? If Blogger is good for the SERPs, well i guess its cool, i mean if you have good ranking that translates to high traffic. This can also be much profitable with Adsense on it. Though my site uses Wordpress.
If you want it free - Blogger is best …If you can afford it hosting - wordpress best.
The Blogger Spam ‘bot seems to be more OK with links appearing in the sidebar, perhaps because it writes these off as ads.
Movable Type blogs used to be quite popular - wordpress overtook them awhile ago because they were completely open source, and development moved much more quickly and they passed MT in terms of what they offered. In other words, unless you have a movable type blog that you’ve invested time in, probably best not to bother.
This was great post, I think people from the warrior forum should read this.
Terry aka ninjanewbie
Its simple, blogger is for newbies. A more advanced version is wordpress and it doens’t gets much time for the newbie to learn what benefits wordpress offers. But surely if you want a special place on the net without wasting time and energy then wordpress is the way to go.
Just my 2 cents.
Wish u all a happy new year.
Best
Brandy Piles
i’m using blogger is it a good choice? It is my first blog and I wan’t to get more traffic. oR i must go with wordpress?
I prefer Wordpress much more. When I see a Blogger blog, I feel immediately turned off and most of the time, I will exit the site right away. They just seem cheap in a way to me. Wordpress also has all of those plugins which is extremely nice.
[…] We’re going to go cheap here and not buy a domain and put WordPress on it. Instead, we’re going to use a plain old ugly Blogger blog. There are some potential drawbacks and pluses associated with using them and if you want to review the pros and cons, check out this article I wrote a while ago on the subject: Niche Blog Hosting: WordPress vs. Blogger. […]
You are exactly right Brandy…Blogger is for beginners. Spread the word!
Very nice comparison. Im a WordPress fan all the way, especially now with the new version 2.7.
I have about ten blogger blogs that I update regularly. But the one I earn the most money is a self hosted wordpress blog with a good domain name. It was not a difficult choice as I got the domain and hosting for three years for 50 €. Not a bad deal
[…] found helpful: A three-step method to choose your niche; some ideas to do keyword research; what platform is best (hint: It’s WordPress!); and joining a niche blog network if that suits […]
Yep — Been using w/p for a while. The learning curve was about - 3 sites.
Still learning as it goes. The setups are pretty easy with a good host.
Mine has an online chat which has been great when needed.
Blogger does look cheap - Just trying to determine the traffic advantage, I will do that by setting up both - Using similar content and seeing if Google is going to favor one over the other.
Could i use the same content ? Or would i get a same content slap ?
Hi Tony,
It’s because Blogger is ‘cheap looking’ that makes it so nice for niche blogging. I wrote about this on my new blog here: Earn Online Cash with Ugly Websites
On the duplicate content, it’s best to create something that will make the sites different while using the same basic content. One of my favorite examples of this are music lyrics sites. However, it’s important to remember that your ability to build incoming links to promote your site is important and, unless you spend a lot of money, your time to do this is limited. Therefore, it’s best to try to get one site to rank well for each keyword set you want to target. Of course, you could use keyword sets that compliment and support each other.
Well saving money blogger wins hands down - but being cheap I would say that!
Great post. I have been going through Griz’s stuff on starting multiple Blogspot blogs to serve as niche sites for monetizing with Adsense. There was something about Google getting angry over seeing too many under the same email account; hence the need/wisdom of using multiple email accounts. But of course there shall be the same adsense account! If you could please elaborate on this aspect of Blogspot, and the possible workarounds. Thanks.
Hi EssEtch,
With Google, it’s all about the ‘bots in most cases. In this case, we’re talking about two different ‘bots, the Blogger anti-spam bot and the Adsense ‘bot. The Blogger ‘bot gets antsy if it sees the same email used on a lot of accounts but it doesn’t take the Adsense ID into account.
Now, if you were to do something that triggered a manual visual review then this might come into play but that’s unlikely if you stick to the rules fairly well.
Hi jfc,
Thanks. You do clarify; still if I were to follow the gurus and aim at a hundred blogspot blogs at the base of the pyramid (albeit small from their perspective), I would need to use around 20 email accounts.
With 5 blogs/account with no overlap of the niche subject within a single account, I know from the general instruction of Griz et al, that I would be sticking fairly well to the rules.
However, all this real estate will ultimately need to drain revenues into a single Adsense account. And this is where I am not clear or perhaps have a fear of the unknown.
All help is greatly appreciated.
Hi EssEtch,
As long as the content on your blogs looks reasonable you should be OK with more blogs per account. The only annoyance is that if they decide to do a visual inspection that your blog is locked during that time. I’ve had that happen twice but I got the blogs back later.
There’s always a fear of the unknown. It’s the old risk and reward scenario. The best thing to do is to have several different streams of income in order to insure that you won’t take a huge hit in income if one source has a problem.
Still an extremely relevant post. For me there is only WordPress, and WordPress all the way! If you’re running 100’s of marketing blogs (or flogs, rather) then Blogger makes sense, but if you’re aim is to build a piece of serious internet real estate that has resell value, WordPress is the one!
I just recently started setting up Blogspots, and I noticed that in Monetize you are given the option of using “a different Adsense account”. I assumed from this, I could have more than one adsense account. After all, I have several Gmail accounts, so why not several adsense accounts?
I loved the way you broke down each category and analyzed it with a clear winner. I think it’s interesting to note… that Google’s very own engineer Matt Cutts, uses the wordpress platform over the blogger platform.
Till then,
Jean
I am not sure if Matt is done with his beta testing though. He did say that he might switch back in a few weeks if he doesn’t like the feel of wordpress.
I think I will take Wordpress over Blogger any day. Wordpress just has so many features and possibilites. I am a wordpress supporter since day 1.
Great article - I’ve seen many top spots in Google occupied by Blogger blos so you don’t have to host yourself but of course the main downside with Blogger is that you are reliant on a third-party.
And later if you decide you want to customize stuff you will be limited.
It all depends on what your application is going to be at the end of the day. If your a hobbyist it is one thing, but if the internet generates revenue for you, and is your business, it is another thing altogether. To me there is only one, and that is WordPress!!!!
Very nice post! In my opinion, wordpress is the best choice for pro bloggers.
i vote wordpress, it simply the coolest thing i’ve ever seen
it gives you all the freedom you need as a blogger
I really enjoyed your article thanks!
One thing I would say is that for someone just starting out, blogger is definitely the way to go, its good practice and requires no monetary commitment. Definitely a self-hosted wordpress blog is the way to go on a long term serious blog project.
Helpful information. One other comparison is the difference of how each handle leaving comments. Wordpress allows a handy comment box with the post. An annoying feature of Blogger is that it opens another window that does not match the theme of your blog. There are hacks, however, that can be made to the code to simulate wordpress that way. This is my only beef with blogger.
It would be Wordpress all the way for me but that’s just my opinion as it suits my needs and I am more familiar with it. Just as a side note can’t you get the same sort of free blog on Wordpress as you can with Blogger now??
Still an extremely relevant post. For me there is only WordPress, and WordPress all the way! If you’re running 100’s of marketing blogs (or flogs, rather) then Blogger makes sense, but if you’re aim is to build a piece of serious internet real estate that has resell value, WordPress is the one!
And later if you decide you want to customize stuff you will be limited.
[…] than Blogger. Here are a few related articles: Why Business Blogs Shouldn’t Be on BlogSpot.com Niche Blog Hosting: WordPress vs. Blogger | Product Reviews and Buying Guides from OpTempo Blogger - Review of Blogger as a Blogging Software Your best bet is to spend a few dollars on […]
Some of the most professional looking websites I’ve seen have been wordpress based. So even if you are looking to have a company website made let alone a blog, wordpress is the way to go. If you are an affiliate you can always take advantage of blogger’s free hosting and multiple free blogs.
for me…both have their own benefit. But the important thing is for me is the hosting. Its better to have a good host and fast access for visitors.
I would definitely have to side with Wordpress! FTW.
Wordpress blows blogger out of the water. Are you kidding? WP all the way.
Good info to beginners like me. May be missing something, but Blogger themes / designs seem to generally be “narrow” fixed width where WordPress has wider format options or themed layouts(?) I’m looking to start with the right option for me - thanks for any thoughts.
Recently, there has been a great deal of litigation by the
American FTC against blogs and website developers
for not publishing advertising profits, or existing
relationships with advertising agencies.
What are your thoughts concerning how this could impact
the blog world?
One other comparison is the difference of how each handle leaving comments. Wordpress allows a handy comment box with the post. An annoying feature of Blogger is that it opens another window that does not match the theme of your blog.
Hi Top Coafuri,
This is a setting you can adjust inside the Blogger control panel. You can show your comments on-page if you wish. Also, you can use third party commenting solutions, such as Disqus.
yes I agree wordpress is to go far as this what we to give our client with web packages.
Great comparison. The most important part to me is Google and Google loves Blogger. It has been very helpful for me. I just wish I could figure out how to get my images larger.
This article is very good but you missed to include the SEO part… Which one has an advantage in SEO… Which one is easy to rank _self hosted wordpress or blogger?
Take a look at the following:
nichekeyword.blogspot.com
nichekeyword.com
Which of the 2 above is easy to rank in Google?
Thanks
Hi Home DIY,
Neither will have a particular advantage so far as ranking goes.
Basically, it’s going to involve which site gets the best links. When this article was originally written, Blogger had a slight advantage in initial indexing although this doesn’t seem to be as strong now.
To see just how competitive Blogger blogs can be in terms of SEO, do a search on competitive terms like ‘lost spoilers’ or ‘make money online’
Great article comparing the two. I’ve got both a blogspot and a wordpress blog and pretty much agree with what’s been laid down here. We (a friend and I) are teaching a blogging class to some learning-in-retirement types in a couple weeks and I’m here doing research.
Plan to put up a blog or two or twenty in the class and good info like this blog is like finding gold. A big THANKS!!!
-Terry
I actually use both, and they both have their ups and downs. If I had to make a choice I would choose Wordpress, as I have more experience with it.
I would also say both are great for SEO, maybe blogger is a bit better because it is Googles baby.
Great Post!
I have experienced both WordPress and Blogger and found that they are similar up to some extent. It depends, what is your reason to use them.
WordPress is extremely easy to use and it also has support of lots of themes to make your site good looking. And WordPress is having great flexibility and user friendliness, even novice users can work with WordPress without investing much effort.
Between free and paid CMS, it is always better to opt Paid one because it give your great authority to maintain your Blog/Domain.
—
Robert D.
I’ve got a niche domain that’s unused right now where I may try this out to see how it works.