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Falling for WordPress Blogs

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September 25, 2012

Blogging is an ideal way to share your knowledge, musings, life events, and business ventures with the world. For those who are blogging in hopes that others will read, comment, share, or perhaps make a purchase in response to your posts, you may have wondered which blogging platform is the best.

Types of Blogs

While there are many to choose from, the three main players in the blogosphere are WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr. The choice is a matter of personal preference, but there are advantages and disadvantages in selecting one over another. After evaluating the pros and the cons of each, you just might fall for a WordPress blog.

WordPress is blogging software that’s free to use.  There are two types: WordPress.com, which is a platform that is hosted and maintained for you, and there is WordPress.org which is an open-source, self-hosted platform.

WordPress.com blogs are easy to set up, require no technical maintenance (this is handled for you), and are automatically backed up on their servers. However, you are limited in your ability to customize your blog.  WordPress.org gives you more control and flexibility by allowing more customization.

Blogger, which is owned by Google, is a platform that’s easy to use and is ideal for beginners. You aren’t required to know anything about coding or other technical programming to blog on Blogger, which makes it appealing. However, there are some downsides. With Blogger, Google technically owns your blog. And though it’s not a frequent occurrence, Google can take down your blog if it doesn’t like your content.

Tumblr is a hosted, microblogging platform which allows users to post content, photos, and other media to a short-form blog called a “tumblelog”. This form a blogging is a great option for those who don’t want to post long blogs, but want to share photos, videos, music or small bits of content. It’s also a social networking site, allowing you to connect with other Tumblrs.

The downside of Tumblr is that you are at the mercy of Tumblr. If they experience downtime, which has happened too often for many users, then your site does too. Also, they control your content. If their policies change and your content suddenly violates those policies, your blog can be shut down.

Benefits of WordPress blogs

Each of the three platforms offers its own advantages, but for those wanting more flexibility and control, a WordPress, self-hosted blog (WordPress.org) may be the answer. WordPress offers more themes than the other platforms, giving you more opportunities to find the perfect design.  In addition, WordPress blogs give you complete control over your blog’s content and design, the ability to install your own plugins to enhance your site, and the freedom to run advertisements on your site. Content on WordPress is very well-received by search engines and can be easily optimized by adding various plug-ins.

While a WordPress blog does requires you take on more of the technical responsibility (setup, backing up your content, and stopping spam), you gain the flexibility, control, and ability to fully customize your site.

Bottom Line: Making the choice of which platform to use depends on your goals and preferences. Each platform is great in its own right, but after weighing the evidence, you might consider falling for a WordPress blog.

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