My Blog Has Moved

Well folks, I've finally done it. I've switched to WordPress and my blog is now on my own domain. So say good-bye to Blogger and good-bye to the bling. But don't be sad. Life is full of change. Change is a good thing. It keeps us on our toes. It challanges us and makes us stronger. And as your next President... oops, I got a little speechy there, didn't I?

Anyway, check me out at:

http://www.meandtheblueskies.com/

I'll look for you there.


Saturday, April 18, 2009

Blogspot or WordPress: What's Your Opinion?

I am seriously considering switching my blog from Blogspot to WordPress. Now the reason I originally used blogger was because it is easy to use and has tons of templates that are very easily modified. WordPress requires knowledge of CSS code to modify their templates.  Since I am not a code expert, I choose Blogspot for my blog.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily unhappy with Blogspot. And I do love the blingy look of my blog and my Me and the Blue Skies header. I ADORE my header. But I hate that I blogger does not have a read more post feature where you show only a little bit of the post and thenclick the read more button if you want to read more and leave a comment. I think this makes blogs look much cleaner and certainly easier to navigate. So I exported my blog to WordPress and came up with a cool template that I really like.

Unfortunately, the template I finally decided to use does not have a custom header feature so I lose my Blue Skies header. Of course, if I want to customize my CSS code and add a header, I need to pay WordPress $15/year. Not really a bad price to pay. And WordPress does have some templates with customizable headers but I just love the clean, three column look of this template.

Anyway, the whole point of this is to get YOUR opinon. That's right! I want to know what you, the Me and the Blue Skies reader, thinks about both blogs. Tell me which one you like better. (My "About" page is a mess right now. I'll fix it up later.) Tell me why you use Blogger or WordPress. I wanna know. To go to my blog in WordPress, just click here. You can leave a comment there or come back here and leave your comment. I'll be checking both blogs. And thanks, in advance, for your advice and opinions.

27 comments:

Pam said...

To be honest, I like blogger better. I don't really like it when you have to click "read more" to read more. My inclination is to read the next post and not finish that one either. But, that's just me.

Erin said...

BLOGGER!

Auntie E said...

I like the looks of blogger better. I do think there is a way you can do the "read more" in blogger. mostly because their blog social site has it. You colorful lay out is nice on blogger. Wordpress basic does nothing for the site page.

Linh said...

I have both. On wordpress as you say you cannot use css, but I was able to upload my own header graphic to use. If you are ever thinking of doing any kind of paid ads, stay with blogger because you can't have paid ads. Also, wordpress limits use of javascript which may or may not be a problem. I don't think you can use entrecard with wordpress, and you are not able to post embedded video. I do like wordpress but if I had to do it again I think I would have moved it to blogger...

My 2 cents. ;)

Alex the Girl said...

I think it depends on what you want out of you readers. Your Blogger blog shows more of your personality, while the wordpress is a more sterile enviorment. And for someone who has a secret crush on the free credit report dot come guy, sterile enviorments doesn't seem like the right way to categorize you.

Blogspot: curl up with a cup of coffee and read your posts

Wordpress: Place the coffee next to the computer while you lean forward drinking while scanning posts

I'm a curl up kinda person.

Alex the Girl said...

subject verb agreement error! replace doesn't with don't, I think, God, I hate English

Mystery Man said...

I have both. well, my wordpress blog is wordpress.com, not org, so it's free.

to be honest with you, it's a matter of trying them both out and seeing which works better for you.

for my purposes, blogger works for my personal blogging, but my movie blog works better on wordpress, though i may move it to blogger so i can get more traffic...lol

hope that helps

Dave said...

I started off with Blogger in 2004 but didn't like quite a few things with it, like the user interface. In 2007 I chose to export everything to WP and haven't looked back. I love it and if I wanted to get serious (read: make money) blogging, then I'd spend the money and go for the CSS option. I also like that they give you stats for everything: Google search terms people used to find you, traffic trends, incoming links, etc.--for free.

BTW, Preston, you should also spend a few extra bucks and buy a domain so as not to lose your readers during this little transition of sorts. GoDaddy has them for $7.95 a year and you can redirect it anywhere you wish should you decide to take up residence at WP for good. You also need to pay WP $10/year to route your new URL to them.

Gretchen said...

Well, truly I don't know a lot about either platform, but I considered getting away from Blogger simply so that I could avoid the whole "No-reply" commenters. But, after talking to a few friends, I've found out that if a person does not want to be identified on a comment, all they have to do is enter a bogus email address in the email field. So, switching platforms would not solve that problem for me anyway. I also notice you have feedburner, so you'd have to switch over that stuff which isn't a big deal if you understand all that - which I don't. If I had to make a stereotype, which is bad - I know - but this would be mine: Blogger is the place where people tell jokes and laugh. Wordpress is the place where people snicker at people who tell jokes and snidely point out how not funny those Blogger people are. And maybe the jokes AREN'T funny, but they still make some people laugh.

Just my opinion.

Tiger said...

It is really up to you :)
I like Blogger better :)
I have been on both and for my needs I love blogger. So my vote is for BLOGGER :) :) :)

mub said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mub said...

It's possible to do that on blogger, there's a tutorial here: http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/02/how-to-create-post-summaries-in-blogger.html

(I deleted my other comment since it was the wrong link!)

Elaine at Lipstickdaily said...

I've only ever been with wordpress and I love it. It has far more flexibility when you do it self-hosted, which is not that hard to do. It has tons of templates, widgets and plug-ins that make it easy to customize. You do NOT need to know code to make changes. I actually like the look of your blogger one better, but you could easily customize the wordpress one to be similar.

Michele Mallory-Davidson said...

I am new to the blogging thing, but looking at both of your blogs, I get a much better idea of you before I even read any thing, and the environment in Blogger just adds to the posts. My vote - Blogger.

Jessica Gottlieb said...

Try self hosted wordpress, it's like big kid version of blogging.

You will own your own stats and you can do whatever you want, from a chick who never met a rule she didn't want to break... that means EVERYTHING.

Try it, you'll like it.

Robin said...

First off....let me say, I have not been blogging long and still finding my way around.
Given that, I would say that the clean open look of the wordpress blog appeals to me. And, after seeing it, I now think I may want to switch or at least clean up my typepad blog.
But after all is said and done....couldn't you simply add your "read more post feature" with a little well placed code obtained by a second source?
Typepad too requires knowledge of css to make changes but that didn't hold me back.
I know diddly about css but I have managed to get what I need from outside sources to make changes and put my own mark on my typepad blog.
And yet again....I do like that lovely clean easy to read, easy to navigate look of the wordpress.

Hope your weekend is beautiful.

Debie Napoleon said...

I am a blogger gal. I like the cozines of it, my posts are not so long that I need to summarize and as someone else stated - I usually only read the summaries and then move down to the next one.

Plus I love the easiness of adding and changing things in blogger. I don't have to work so hard here.

So I vote for Blogger.

Linhjavascript:void(0) said...

PS You may have already figured this out but my comments on wordpress were for the FREE hosted version of wordpress. If you host your own then those limitations don't apply...

Mindful Molly said...

I have had several different blog platforms, and to be honest wordpress is the best. But, if you are going to do wordpress...do self hosted, then you own your content (yeah, I can hear others comments about still owning it) you can do anything you want, and if you make sure that you have Cpanel you will totally love watching your stats! Self-hosted wordpress is (in my opinion) the ONLY way to go!

Kimberly @ kimberussell.com said...

I had a blogger blog for years until I grew tired of the outages and errors I'd get. Since I was already paying for hosting, I just jumped in and installed WordPress on my server.

I love its functionality and the hundreds of widgets and thousands of themes available. I also think the theme edit function makes it easier to learn how stylesheets work.

Shawn said...

I like the look of Blogger better....but then you don't have much on your Wordpress site---is that by choice?

Funny in My Mind said...

I like Blogger but that is a personal preference because it is easy and I am lazy and computer- stupid.
Good luck though.

People in the Sun said...

I thought about Wordpress last year when Blogger was acting weird, but quickly moved back. Here's a nice Blogger template that comes with "Read More." I'm still not sure if it's a good thing, but at least you have the choice if you want to do that.

Anonymous said...

I can't give you a thoughtful answer cause I've never had a word press account before.

I think I like commenting on blogger better though.

I'd take your advice from people who have done both. You know, the ones that go both ways. They have the most hands on info.

Jaina said...

Wait, are you sure you can't do that in Blogger? I swear I've seen that option before. (I'll go look again and let you know if I find it)

Carma Sez said...

I'm one of those rare few who have switched from wordpress to Blogger! I enjoy the ease of Blogger and the Blogger community makes it easy for others to comment on my blog, find my blog, etc.

Manda said...

neer heard of wordpress til i just read your blog. I say stay with Blogger! K!!!!

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