Blogging

When you first begin thinking about starting a blog, it’s important to consider the different blogging platforms that are available to you. There are many, but the two most popular are definitely Blogger and WordPress.

Which one is right for you?

I recommend putting some serious thought into this ahead of time because it could end up costing you money in the long run.  How so?  Well, many people start their blogs with Blogger and then after time decide they’d like to move to WordPress because of all the benefits that WordPress has to offer, but they don’t know how.  That’s where the money comes in.  If you are not sure of how to move your content (posts/comments/feed) from Blogger to WordPress without mishap then you will need to find someone who can. Most often it’s a web/blog designer who can get the job done for you, but that could cost you up to $150.00.  Just to move your “stuff,” and that doesn’t include any design work either.

So it’s important to consider why you are blogging, and what you’d like your blog to become in the long run.  Are you simply starting a blog to be able to share with family, friends, and the world what is going  on in your family?  Then you are probably not thinking about making a ton of money off of your blog, and so Blogger would be a nice choice of a blogging platform.  It’s very easy to use, and if you are ever thinking of getting a custom design, you will pay a lot less if you have a Blogger blog. I actively used Blogger for my first blog for over a year with relative ease.  There were funky things it would do with the spacing on my posts at times that were very annoying, but other than that, it was very easy to use.

On the other hand, if you are thinking about monetizing your blog, or if you simply want access to some wonderful features that could enhance your blog and make it more user friendly, then I’d go with WordPress. But wait, do you choose a WordPress.com blog? Or a self-hosted blog using WordPress.org?

If you simply want access to a bunch of features that could enhance your blog, and make things easier and more interesting for you, but you aren’t thinking about monetizing your blog, then I’d go with a WordPress.com blog.  It’s just like a Blogger blog in that it’s totally free.  You just sign up with your information, and are given a blog with a domain name that ends with wordpress.com. For example, my domain would be www.thesensiblemom.wordpress.com.  You could still use your own domain with a blog hosted on WordPress.com but for a small fee. There are actually many additional benefits that WordPress.com offers for a fee, and there are many cool features that you get for free, too. I’m pretty impressed, actually, with all the great features that WordPress.com blogs get at no cost. The major downside, though, if you want to monetize your blog in any way, ads are not allowed on free WordPress.com blogs.

In the case that you want to monetize your blog, or if you simply want more control over your blog and the design of it (design options are definitely more limited with WordPress.com blogs), then I’d go with a self-hosted WordPress.org install. You get to control your blog.  You get to control all the content and whether or not you want ads on your blog and which ones. You have much more freedom when it comes to the design of your blog.  You can get a completely custom design made for you by a blog designer if you want to. This is what I have chosen to use for The Sensible Mom, and many, many bloggers end up switching to a self-hosted blog after they’ve been blogging for sometime.

So that’s it guys.  Those are the main differences in the two most popular blogging platforms out there, Blogger and WordPress. Next week, I’ll talk a bit about domain names and how to get your own as well as hosting (which you need for a self-hosted WordPress blog).

At the beginning of the month, I was planning on offering a web design tip or tutorial every Tuesday.  I hadn’t started yet because I wasn’t quite sure where I should start, but after thinking it over, I’m simply going to start with a series on blogging in general.  Where to start?  What’s the difference between Blogger and WordPress? Do I need a domain? How do I buy a domain? And answering other similar questions like these.

This week I’m going to answer the question “Where do I start?”

How do you start a blog?  Well, first off, you need an idea or a main topic that you’ll be blogging about. In order to narrow this down some questions you might ask yourself would be:

What would I like to blog about? (For example, family and parenting, homemaking, frugal living, or scrapbooking.)

What are my passions and interests?

Do I have a hobby that I could share with the world?

Is there a gap in some area that I could fill in with my knowledge and expertise?

What would my niche be?

Once you know what you want to blog about you’ll need to ask yourself a few more very important questions:

Have I researched this area well?

What is my motivation for blogging?

Do I have time for a blog, and how will I fit posting into my daily life?

Have I discussed this idea with others for their input, and what do they think?

After you’ve researched your idea and you know what you want to blog about, it’s time to decide on a name for your blog. This can be tough because there are so many blogs already out there that there’s a good chance someone else has already thought of the name you’d like for your blog. I ran into this problem back when I started blogging two years ago. I was starting a frugal blog on coupons, deals, and saving money, and well….let’s just say there’s no lack of these types of fabulous blogs out there.  Finding a great name that someone else hadn’t already chosen was a bit challenging, but I finally came up with “A Lot of Savings” and stuck with it.

I started my first blog on Blogger, so, before I had purchased my own domain (we’ll discuss how to do this in the coming weeks), I used blogger’s free domain of www.alotofsavings.blogspot.com. Please notice that my domain name (www.alotofsavings.blogspot.com) was the same as the title of my blog, A Lot of Savings.

May I please suggest that you always try to keep the title of your blog the same as the domain name of your blog? For example, don’t title your blog “Happy Mom” and have your domain name be www.threekidsandme.com. Sure you could do this, but why? It makes it harder for readers to remember your domain name if you do?  If your blog is titled “Happy Mom,” then make your domain name, www.happymom.com or if you haven’t yet purchase your own domain, www.happymom.blogspot.com or www.happymom.wordpress.com. Having the title of your blog and your domain name the same from the beginning makes a lot of sense and helps readers to find your blog and refer it to others easily. And that’s what we want, right? 🙂

Next week, I’ll discuss the differences between blogger, wordpress.com, and wordpress.org, to help you decide which platform is the best fit for you.