So if you’ve decided that it’s time to get a blog, the first question is how you should start it. The two biggest blogging platforms on the internet, and in my mind the two best (by far) are WordPress and Blogger. I’ll highlight the differences between the two:

Blogger

Blogger.com is now a site owned by Google, which means it ranks well in search engines and is updated frequently. It’s quick, easy, and free.

Blogger is where I actually started Premiership Talk. If you’re a novice, which almost all beginners are, then Blogger is definitely the place to start. From the time you land on the Blogger homepage, you can have a blog up and running in about five minutes. Registration is quick and simple, and the short wizard takes you through the start-up process.

Templates are available, and can be implemented with just one click. As you learn more about blogging, there are a ton of templates available to download for Blogger (I recommend eblogtemplates.com).

The ease of use of Blogger can largely be attributed to the widgets that the site uses. You can add features to your site simply by clicking a few buttons, and Google makes it easy to do so as there is well over a thousand widgets you can use. Want to display local weather? No problem. Latest sports scores? At your service. Everything in Blogger is only a few clicks away.

So, when Premiership Talk was on Blogger it allowed me to grow the site faster than I might have with WordPress. Instead of having to learn about CSS and XHTML, Blogger handled all the technicalities for me and allowed me to publish high quality content. At the beginning of your blog’s life it’s important to just write, write, and write, and Blogger lets you do just that.

For me personally, it got to a point where Blogger was so easy that it left me needing and wanting more. Prem Talk sort of out-grew Blogger, as I needed to add more features, display my own ads, and set up multiple user accounts for other writers.

All in all, for someone starting a blog, Blogger is definitely the way to go. It’s quick, free, and easy.

WordPress

To avoid confusion, there are two versions of WordPress: there’s WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is basically like Blogger; it’s set up to be a free service, which means you lose some of the customization that you get with a more advanced system. In this I will review WordPress.org, which is the service that I use, and is the much better version of WordPress.

WordPress is, for me, the best blogging platform out there. Before I go further, I will say that WordPress isn’t entirely free. It’s free to use the software, but unlike Blogger you need to find your own host. There are plenty hosts out there, but I recommend Bluehost, which offers Free Domain With $6.95 Hosting Package
. Hosts typically run anywhere from $3 a month to $9 a month. You upload the WordPress software to your host and install it from there.

Like Blogger, WordPress comes with a few default templates, although it pales in comparison to Blogger. WordPress typically comes with just two templates to choose from, and to get anything more than that you’d have to find your own, download it, and upload it to your server. If you aren’t familiar with FTP file transfers then this could be a little complicated, but most people familiar with IT would have no problems with it.

Once your design is set up, you’ll probably need to alter it to suit your needs. This will most certainly mean you’ll have to play around with CSS sheets, and you’ll be working extensively with HTML. Once that is finalized, WordPress has a ton of options to customize. This is what separates WordPress from Blogger, and the extra customization makes the site that much better.

The main reason I switched to WordPress in the first place was because of the extra user roles you can create. Premiership Talk is a multi-writer site, so I needed a way for all writers to login and write their articles. WordPress lets you do just that, and each user can have his/her own login name and password.

The user roles are well set up, as well. There are a plethora of different roles, but the main ones that I use are contributors, authors, editors, and administrators. Without getting into too much detail, here are the general capabilities of each user:

• Contributors can write articles, but when finished they can only “submit for review” as opposed to publish the article. What this means is that the finished article goes into a queue that must be reviewed by an editor or administrator before it gets published.
• Authors, like contributors, can login to the system and write articles. Unlike contributors, though, when authors complete their article they can publish it right away. Authors’ articles don’t need to go through the review process, so this user role is usually for technically astute writers.
• Editors can go into the system and edit all of the articles that are in the pending bin. They can fix these articles, add images, and then publish the article to the site.
• Administrators have full control over everything on the site. Generally this role is assigned for the site owner, and I use this role to write articles, edit articles, and edit the site details and settings.

The last huge feature that separates WordPress from Blogger is that you can create static pages. On Blogger if you want to have an “About” page, you need to actually publish a post and link to it. On WordPress, you can create “pages” (not “posts”) that will sit atop the site on the navigation bar. On this site, you can see I have a link to my “About” page. On Premiership Talk, I use these pages for a lot of different things, especially for things such as a list of my Partner pages.

As you can see, I’m definitely a huge fan of WordPress. Anytime I want to do something, WordPress allows me to do it. Since the entire coding of the site is visible and under my control, I can manipulate the system to do anything. If I don’t know how to program it, WordPress’s community of programmers have a plugin for it (plugins are just added to your server and will do anything you ask them to).

WordPress vs. Blogger: The Winner

To conclude, it really depends on what you plan on doing with your blog. For my purposes, I had to go with WordPress to grow my site and really monetize it. It’s possible to monetize with Blogger, and a lot of successful bloggers do just that, but WordPress gives you that extra dimension of customization. If you are looking for a blog that you can write on just for fun, then Blogger is definitely for you. It’s free, easy, and quick. If you’re looking to turn your blog into something bigger, then WordPress is probably your answer. It can be customized in any way, and you can have more people help you along the way.

Whatever platform you choose to go with, you’ll find yourself immersed in the blogosphere. Before long you’ll get to know other bloggers within your niche (believe me, it’ll happen, even if you don’t think it will) and you’ll start to have a whole new network of contacts. If you don’t have a blog yet, get one today!

If you have any questions, or have opinions on these platforms or others, feel free to email me or comment below.