First of all, this post is not about wordpress.org but wordpress.com. Well, if you are someone who is still unclear about the org and com ambiguity, better visit this link and sort out everything ( http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/ ).
V/S
This post is for all those who are new to the blog-o-sphere and are finding it difficult to choose between hosting sites like blogger, WordPress and other similar sites. Since my first hand experience is limited to WordPress and blogger, I would be comparing only these blog hosting sites here. The points mentioned are from my personal experience so some of them may seem lame or even wrong to all the techies around. So please do correct me if you find such errors.
It's almost two years since I have been using blogger for this blog of mine. Two long years, I believed Blogger to be the best and WordPress to be mere substitute. But this week finally the truth dawned on me. WordPress is far ahead of blogger in many aspects of blogging. Most of the techies are of the opinion that Blogger is best for beginners. But I believe the flexibility and tools that WordPress has to offer is far more superior to blogger.
So I have listed some features of WordPress that were different from blogger. Please feel free to add on to the list.
1. The all in all dashboard:
The dashboard of WordPress is much superior in comparison to blogger. The quick press option, the visitor stats, user comments, post management all at one place. To add on, it is completely flexible with a neat interface. What else can a common blogger like me ask for?
2. Webmaster Tools Verification:
Entering the meta key "content" value to verify blogs with Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer, and Bing Webmaster Center is made very easy by the webmaster tools verification. For blogger you need to edit the template for adding these Meta tags. So search engines can reach you faster by the webmaster tools.
3. The media gallery:
The place where you can find all the images and videos, you have uploaded . Here you can edit, name or give description to your media hence helping in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and also in giving a direct web link to you images, files and video. Remember that it allows varied file types like pdf, doc, ppt, odt, pptx, docx.
4. Slideshows and Gallery:
Slide show and gallery are two useful tools you can find on WordPress. The give your posts that dynamic feel and lets you manage more media in an orderly manner. As a matter of fact this is one of the feature I seriously miss here in blogger.
5. Editing url option:
Well this helps in two ways. If you are someone allergic to long urls you can make it short and sweet using this option. The other benefit is for SEO. You can use precise keywords as the url extension.
6. Adding Pages:
Blogger lets you add only an about me page to your blog. WordPress on the other hand has options to add as many pages as you want. Very useful for those who actually need them.
7. The proof reading:
The enable proof reading option which lets you follow grammar and style rules when writing posts and pages is one very useful tool for people like me who make a lot of typos and other errors. ,, , , , , , , and are checked using the proof reading feature. Well, some of them may be of little use but this seriously helps in rectifying the lame errors and typos that we make.
Well, this post was initially intended to be an all praise post for WordPress, but while I was researching on this topic I found out that blogger's got benefits too. Well this realization occurred as i pondered deep into the WordPress interface. So let me conclude by pointing out some of the benefits of using blogger. After all its blogger who managed my blog for two long years..
Benefits of Blogger::
1. The edit template option :
The most important benefit of Blogger. This feature can do wonders for all SEO buffs. Editing Meta tags at will, adding and editing code, all made possible through this very option. WordPress is seriously missing this option. Well this is the only option I think WordPress is missing.
2. Google analytic enhancement:
Well, this is in fact an indirect result of the edit template option were you can add the code for the use of Google analytic. Google analytic give a great deal of information about the traffic and visits of your site , clearly indicating what your readers like and what are the main referral sites to your blog. Although WordPress has a decent stats options its no as deep as the Google analytic.
3. A Google product:
Well Google is considered by many as the God of the 21st century. The one who has the answer to all their queries even the most obscure one. So anything from Google is like a god sent gift to Homo sapiens (For the time being forget about Orkut). Blogger as all are aware of is a Google product. So no wonder it's so famous. More over Google features like friend connect come in handy for those who wish to popularize their blog.
