Friday 27 March 2009

Wordpress or Blogger - How To Get The Right Blogging Platform

Choosing the right blogging platform is very important when you start a blog. It is as if you are finding the right car for perfect driving experience. With so many platforms available, there is no doubt that each and every one of the platforms will allow you to achieve your goal but then again some of the platforms are better than the others. You need a reliable platform if you are serious about blogging.

The first kinds of blogging platforms are the free versions of popular software. Blogger.com is the one that is owned by Google and it's very easy to use and completely free. The only issue is that you don't really own your blog as it is hosted by Blogger. While the software is great, you're pretty much out of luck if they decide to pull the plug on you.

Another free version blogging platform would be Wordpress.com. Just like Blogger, Wordpress.com is totally free and your blog is hosted on Wordpress.com. The only problem is you cannot place advertisements in the blogs that are hosted on Wordpress.com or else, Wordpress would delete those blogs without notifications. Be sure to read through the rules and regulations before you start a blog on Wordpress.

As you can probably tell, it is generally a better idea to self-host your blog so you have total control over it. As you start getting good traffic you'll definitely want to ensure that there is nothing anyone can do to take your blog away. Setting up a free hosted blog is like putting all your eggs in one basket, and that's never a smart idea. Of course that doesn't mean you can't set one up that is secondary and meant to help you get backlinks.

Hosted blogs are much better for most people. One of the oldies but goodies is the Moveable Type software. You do have to pay for this, but many people think it's worth it. It's a very powerful way to blog.

You can also try Wordpress.org that is available for free. You host the blog on your own server but you use Wordpress.org blogging platform to manage your blog. It is easy to use and the most popular blogging platform apart from Movable Type.

There is a huge community set up based around Wordpress. You can find plugins to help you with SEO, to run a membership site, to backup for you, to sell eBay items, and a lot more! There are also an incredible number of themes you can choose from to make the blog completely your own.

Have you decided which one to use for your blog? Wordpress is possibly the best if you want to earn money blogging. Besides, you get everything you need with Wordpress. It takes a short time to set up and blog so you can run your blog instantly.

It is also important to note that most tutorials written in the IM arena are focused on Wordpress. It seems to be the gold standard for bloggers, and you might want to select it if only to avoid the hassle of trying to learn another system that not many people use.