One sided phone conversation with a new blogger:
Photo from: Coffee 2 Go
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So you want to blog eh? Well, you’ve come to the right place. I love helping people start their semantic journey. It reminds me when I started making a personal website on Geocities way back in 1997. You had to do everything in HTML back then and the closest thing to a blog was a guestbook I suppose. It was still freagin fun! But let’s get back to you. I understand you are on Blogger. No, I don’t mean you smoked the ashes of someone who used to blog, I am referring to the free blog platform owned by Google called “Blogger.” You are? Oh ok great. Actually not great. Did you know most school and public institutions block that provider? Why? I don’t know, ask them. Maybe the word “chat” pops up too much who knows? Anyway, if you want a decent audience, that fact alone will cut back your chances considerably. Oh, and did you know you can’t really change the appearance much other than their small collection of templates? I know a format that will make your appearance choices virtually unlimited. Oh, one more thing, you should know that your Blogger account has the most obtrusive and difficult to fill out comment forms for your readers. You will have a lot of people turn away because it’s so complicated. The one I know of has a simple box at the bottom of each post. Oh last but not least, did you know your blog platform is not as SEO friendly as mine? This means the search engines will place you lower than Wordpress blog with the same topic. Ready to try something different? Ok then! Cool. What’s that? You say you can’t afford to pay? Hmmm. You can’t afford $8.95 a month? What if you made $100 a month on your blog? Something to think about.
If you are interested in making the jump to a self-hosted Wordpress blog, I’d be glad to help. Drop me a line.
12 Comments
Hey Damien,
I agree that a self-hosted WordPress blog does wonders over the free Blogger or WordPress.com accounts, but Blogger and WordPress both serve as gateways into blogging.
You can always start at Blogger and then export your blog over when you get frustrated with the limitations of the free blog accounts. Although Blogger is frustrating, it also allows you to use adsense where as the free WordPress.com account doesn’t.
Found you through BC. Best of luck helping people to convert to Wordpress.org!
@Social Monkeys: I like the gateway idea. It bugs me though when people start asking on BC about how to make money on Blogger etc. That, to me, just isn’t blogging professionally. Anyway, I enjoy helping people see the whole new world of Wordpress. Thank you for commenting.
Thanks for the article, one of my goals for 2009 is to move to another blogging site and leave Blogger. It was good as a start but now I find it too limiting. Wordpress is one I was favoring so it’s great to have your perspective.
@M.A. Cumba: When you get around to trying Wordpress drop me a line I’d be happy to help. Many have helped me and continue to :) It’s a lot of fun.
Thanks, I will keep that in mind.
I like Blogger because it’s very easy to use and as far as being limited goes, it does everything I need done. Free is best to me!
@Karen, author of “My Funny Dad, Harry”: I wrote this post a long time ago and have since come aroud to see the benefits of one of these blogs. However, for me, I would never use one as my primary blog.
My self hosted wordpress blog is very slow. I have windows shared hosting. Please tell me how to speed up my blog.
@swamy: If this isn’t spam … I tried going to your blog and it wouldn’t even load.
You may have plugins installed incorrectly. Try disabling all and see what happens. There could also be problems with your theme (template).
You actually might be better off with a free provider. They take care of the sundries. Having a self-hosted blog requires extra patience, skill, and the willingness to learn. In the end though I still feel it is a far superior experience than the free hosting providers. NOTE: I wrote this post Dec 22nd 2008, and since then I see value in free blogs for people who don’t know much about coding etc.
I’m available to help but unfortunately not for free- too much going on right now. Best of luck with your blog.
Absolutely agree. I mean, if you want to blog then you should really start the way you mean to go on and install wordpress. Even if you begrudge paying at the outset, use Wordpress.com and and get a YOURNAME.WORDPRESS.COM first and then export later. At least you’ll be able to get the hang of the wordpress platform, which is the best WYZYWYG for blogging (what you see is what you get)
@Enertia: Thanks for that agreement. I must add that since I wrote this post I have changed my view just a bit. Just like it takes a child a few weeks to learn to tie their shoes, some people really will get frustrated with a self-hosted platform. If you have a good coach or you are a self-starter though, Wordpress Self-hosted is THE best WYSIWYG or otherwise.
True. Just pick a platform that works for you. Tip: Blogger allows you to export straight to WordPress so that’s one benefit.
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