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My decision to switch (I know, finally!)
By Moriah on April 16th, 2009
Several of you have asked me why I decided to switch to self-hosted WordPress. If you were one of those people, well, today is your lucky day!
There were a few major reasons, and then several little ones (icing on the cake) and I’ll get to both. But I need to state up front, if you are a beginning blogger and have no idea what CSS or FTPing is, stick with the training wheels of Blogger.com for now. It is the easiest and most beginner-friendly platform. I was (mostly) happy with it while I was there.
(Except, yes, you can shell out $150+ to have someone switch everything over for you and show you around your new and improved blog. I did not have the money to do that and so I did everything myself. Trust me, it’s INVOLVED. Shout out to Lisa, who helped me with a few tweaks.)
The first major reason was my pesky blog address. It used to be www.pleasepassthesalt1(dot)com. That “1” was a detail that people would have to remember. I wanted to drop it, but pleasepassthesalt(dot)com is unavailable, and has been as long as I’ve been blogging.
The next best option was pleasepassthesalt.net, which I’ve actually owned for over a year but couldn’t use it on Blogger. So there was a time-sensitive issue with my domain name (or “web address” or “URL”) and I decided to take the plunge and have it transferred, so I could actually use it. I can now tell a stranger pleasepassthesalt(dot)net and they can easily remember it. Or at least that’s what I hope.
The second major reason was the clunky photo uploads into Blogger. I HATED how when you upload a photo, it would automatically go to the very top of the post, even if you wanted it down under some text. And if you uploaded more than one photo, they’d usually be all out of order and I’d have to cut and paste several times. WordPress inserts photos how and where you want them. (I was running out of free storage on Blogger anyway, so there’s that (although yes, you can code them in from places like Photobucket OR purchase more storage space from Google).)
After I began writing for Chic Critique, which is run on WordPress, I began to notice how much better the photo uploading system is. There’s also a media gallery where all photos, videos, etc. are stored in a central location (instead of solely within individual posts on Blogger). You can also add or edit photo titles and descriptions. Oh! And you can edit or resize photos, even after they are in the post — no having to delete and start over.
The third big reason was the WordPress Preview feature. LOVE. On Blogger you can ‘preview’ a post but it’s within the posting box and you really don’t know where the text is actually going to fall within a published post. The WordPress preview loads a separate page of the WHOLE BLOG and it looks like a fully-published post. I can see EXACTLY what my words and photos are going to look like.
Now that I’ve been here a little while, I would also say the Dashboard is more streamlined and functional, once I got used to it. I can see recent comments, quick edit posts, add in sidebar links and all that kind of stuff very easily without having to click around much. Drafts also have their own little space.
I like that WordPress lists my permalink to a post, even in draft. Handy. WP gives you details like the word count for your posts. The Categories (like ‘labels’ in Blogger) are also a little easier to apply.
More technically speaking, I like that I can have static pages (i.e. the links under my About section right there to the top right) and WordPress also has thousands of plugins that make the platform even more customizable and functional. You simply have more control with absolutely everything. And it’s MINE. I host myself, Google doesn’t.
(Which brings me to another thought; there IS a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is another free platform that uses the WordPress software (but you’ll have wordpress.com in your URL and you have to purchase an upgrade in order to customize your stylesheet, etc). It is hosted (not by the blogger). WordPress.org is where self-hosters download the software to use on their 3rd party server and it’s an open source. However, you also have to pay for the hosting whereas Blogger and WordPress.com are free.)
A good explanation of the difference is here. I chose BlueHost for my server and downloaded WordPress.org onto my server. Then I chose a customizable theme on the internet, downloaded it to my computer, uploaded it to my server, and then made it look like my blog is supposed to look. (It’s a little bit more difficult than that, but I’m sure I’ve bored everyone to tears by now anyway.)
So basically, WordPress is better, more powerful software (“industry standard”), you have total control and ownership, more room to grow and way more options. BUT AGAIN, unless you’re wanting to take your blog to the next level and willing to pay someone to help you make the switch (or are committed to teaching yourself how to do it), I’d recommend sticking with Blogger. Especially if you’re just starting out with this thing they call blogging.
13 Responses to “My decision to switch (I know, finally!)”
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So once you switched over how long did you hold on to pleasepassthesalt1 on blogger to help your readers find you?
I’m definitely sticking with blogger for now, but the photo uploading thing alone would make me interested in switching in the future when I’m (hopefully) not so clueless.
thanks for the ‘splanation… I’m sure it will come in handy one day when I actually begin blogging…
Agh, now you got me wanting to switch! I was definitely not bored to tears. I am sure I’ll be back later to read this post again! Cuz when I get my mind on something, I can’t let it alone.
I’ve been wishing lately that I could rename my blog anyway, to encompass more than just frugality and fabulousness (I just made that word up lol) :) But I have no idea what. I can’t think of anything catchy.
Fascinating reading, but all a bit too scary for me I think!
If I ever decide to change over I will let you know, and you can talk me out of it!
Yeah, I’m thinking I’ll stick with Blogger for now, but would LOVE to figure out a third column. Any hints or can you point me in the right direction?
Wow! I ‘ve been thinking about switching for along time (after four years of blogging!) but now, maybe not. Of course, Lisa lives down the road from me so maybe I could sweet talk her in to helping me out!
Thanks for the details…I am definitely NOT WordPress material yet. :) Glad you’ve found something more workable and enjoyable to use!
Intriguing…but until my one year with google is up…I’m committed to Blogger. May be calling you next january!!
As for addressing ANY blogging posting/uploading problems I have one HUGE recommendation. WINDOWS LIVE WRITER. Download it. Use it. Love it. I promise you will be amazed and NEVER look back! Do it, Do it now! It resolves nearly all of the issues with posting that you mentioned! And no preview necessary. It downloads your blog layout so that what you write your post in IS the preview! And making photos the right size and appear where you want to appear? Easy peasy! I cannot recommend it enough!
Looks like I got Rebecca hooked on WLW, eh? Someone asked if it works on the Mac…being a Microsoft product this is not the case unless you are running VMWare Fusion or Parallels, in which case it works great. Oh and it works with WordPress, too (and Typepad, Livejournal, Blogger…almost all blogging platforms).
Super informative – so glad you wrote this. I’ve been wondering about a lot of this.
Also – silly question – but how can you find out how much storage you have left on Blogger? I never even considered that.
except I’ve lost you. When I clicked on my reader it told me there were no new posts…until I followed the link, so I gotta refind you :) Life got busy on my end, and then it took me a while to realize I’d quite reading you! hopefully I’ll be back into your regular readerage soon.