WordPress vs. Blogger

If you’re visiting my blog outside of your reader or email today, you’ve probably already noticed something new. If not, click on over and see it for yourself. I’ve found a new home at www.ChristiFultz.com {update your bookmarks} and I’ve also moved from Blogspot to WordPress. For now, I’m keeping the same design theme so my new blog has the same feel as my old one.

I’ve opted to go for a solid white background on my new blog and also moved to a landing page, which means you’ll have to click “blog” to see my feed. It’s just a little bit of a cleaner look that’s popular in education blogs right now. I do love color though, so we’ll see if this lasts. =)

As a blog designer, I often get asked about the difference between WordPress and Blogspot or if there’s any clear reason to pick one over the other. Here’s what I’ve learned from making the switch.

Blogspot:

• Free
• Easier to set up for beginners. If you can email, you can blog on Blogspot
• Variety of templates that are pretty straightforward to customize
• Easy drag/drop widgets for your sidebar
• Comfort level, many teacher-bloggers are using this platform
• Fewer options to truly customize your blog and widgets
• May have reduced SEO

WordPress:

• Endless options for customizing your layout
• You can have a custom “website” look instead of just a traditional “blog” look
• Lots of options for SEO
• Numerous free plug-ins (widgets) that improve both design and performance
• More difficult to learn. It isn’t nearly as “plug and play” as Blogspot. I’m pretty techy and still had to look up tutorials to find my way around initially. Fortunately, there are many out there!
• Need to host your own blog/domain for complete theme customization
• Not as many free templates and custom designs are often more expensive

Final suggestion? If you want a “journal look” with posts and don’t plan to get too involved with your design or branding, stick with Blogspot. If you want a “website look” and want to blog professionally, jump on the WordPress wagon. My plan is to eventually get Design by Christi and Completely Christi over here under ChristiFultz.com so I have ONE website to house all of my projects.

If you need help setting up or customizing your Blogger or WordPress site, I have many options available at Design by Christi. I’ll also be sharing more Tech Tips for both platforms soon. =)