I'm not sure if I posted this before... or maybe I'm just dreaming I did...

Which *** FREE *** blogging site would you use? WordPress or Blogger?

I am currently using WordPress, but Blogger has some new bells & whistles since they are out of Beta. I like the fact that it is easier to modify the templates on Blogger and you can use HTML & JavaScript. On WordPress you can only use certain HTML tags.

What other pros/cons for both Blogger/WordPress can you think of?

Thank you

Neal

I've got some Javascript on my Wordpress blog.

LOVE my wordpress blog. Just switched from blogger and I simply could not be happier. SO much faster, so much easier. It's hosted now on my own site and my google ratings are climbing like crazy. When I was on blogger if somebody googled metuchen photographer, I was on page 7 or 8, sometimes even further down than that.

After 2 weeks with my blog hosted on my own site, if somebody googles metuchen photographer, I'm on the first page. That's a HUGE difference.

All thanks to Kaitlin of course! (Kaitlin set up my wordpress blog for me, and then taught me how to make template changes myself. She's GREAT!)

Ahhhh.... that may be part of it... I am not hosting WordPress on my own server. Maybe I should.

Yes, wordpress.com, where you don't host on your server, is FAR more limited than the honest-to-goodness Wordpress you install on your own server. You can add all kinds of plugins, modify templates, and use any HTML tags you want. I'm not sure why/what they limit on the hosted version, but I don't think the same limitations exist when you install on your own server.

I'm a huge proponent of Wordpress, if you didn't already know

If you want to play around with your blog software. I use TypePad because I don't have time.

I use blogger and host it on my server as well. I was frustrated for a very long time until yesterday when I FINALLY got my archives to work. Now I am ok with it and have been working on customizing my "templete".

my blog

Just a note....They are not out of Beta. They say they are, but this "final" version has SO many bugs. I would do ANYTHING to go back to the old version.

There are a lot of really dumb small things that really bother me about blogger. I'm looking at switching to be honest....

Ummmm, I see a lot of OSP traffic coming to my Tree Blog today. THAT blog is NOT wordpress. Actually, it's the WORST blog EV-UH so don't judge wordpress by that horrid thing.

My wordpress blog is the PHOTO one, City of Nouns, shown in my signature below.



Kaitlin can help you with that! She ROCKS!!!!

I just switched from blogger to wordpress, and imported all blogger posts into it, so I still have everything!.. However, I've been getting really ill at the templates, etc.. and I've got questions on how to show my lil' avatar/about me section on the right-side panel, plus, the calendar-- what is it for? Is it just for links to posts within that month, so can you actually link it somehow to your availability? Also, I still can't post my showit web slideshows into my blogger... i've used both generated codes, and eith the code itself shows up in my published post, or nothing at all...Just little things like this is a pain for me... I can deal with tweaking a little but not all over... so if you think Kaitlin is an option for me, please let me know. Thanks

wordpress rocks
and there ton's of wordpress theme template around.

<a href="http://www.erwinphotography.com/blog" target="new"></b>myblog</b></a>

Amy - when you put the showit tags into your post, make sure you are in the HTML view, NOT the WYSIWYG (rich text) view.

In Wordpress, there are different ways to get to this based on what version you are running, but this may be your problem. I honestly don't know about blogger at the moment. The rich text version doesn't like HTML. I can look deeper and see if there is another problem if you want.

You can set up a calendar with availability on Wordpress, as well - there are a few different plugins to accomplish this.

As for templates, shoot me a pm - are you trying to work on one in particular, and just modify it/personalize it?

so you can import/transfer your blogger blog to wordpress? hmmmmmmmmm

Yup, the newer versions of Wordpress have a built-in tool to import all of your posts.

Kaitlin imported all my old blogger posts. The great thing about this is that they've been on my site now for around 2 weeks. Google found them and now my site has a million extra keywords built right in.

I did my own Web site in html, learned it all from scratch this past summer. I'm no html expert, but I did learn enough to get by. I used blogger up till now, and found it SO much more difficult than Wordpress. But the biggest thing was the speed. I would sit around waiting for blogger to load, and I'd wait some more, and then some more, and finally I'd get some message saying the servers were down or whatever. Blogger made me go prematurely gray.

As for adding your thumbnail and bio, well, check mine out. It's not exaclty like the one in blogger, but I customized my sidebar with simple html text that included a thumbnail picture and some text. It easily COULD include a link to an actual bio page, but I didn't make one yet.

The REALLY great thing about Wordpress vs. blogger, in my opinion, is that it's much easier for non-blog-familiar people to leave comments. I can't tell you how many people TRIED to leave comments on blogger for me, then I'd get an email from them saying how frustrated they got from trying.

Nobody needs to come to my site and be frustrated by it. That can't be good for business. So far, I have not gotten one complaint from anyone about my new blog and posting comments.

Thank you, Kaitlin.

--Jules

Wordpress blows Blogger out of the water....

Check out the plugins for wordpress....

I find that Wordpress blogs look soooo much better than blogger + all of the benefits that people have said above... I think it's Wordpress hands down.

I always think Blogger blogs look a little "high school"... (too honest?)

i use blogger because i can email in a post or even txt it in from my phone you cant do that with Wordpress...yet

but blogger is slow for me sometimes when im trying to make a post they are both free so you get what you pay for

Actually, there is a way to email posts into Wordpress, too:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Blog_by_Email

Okay I have Big Folio installing WordPress 2.1 for me.

Thank you everyone

Just an FYI you do not host wordpress blogs on your own server, they make it look like you do but you do not.
The sent me this info because I inquired about it:

10 bucks a year still is not bad but I really like that I host my blog..... I am still in debate.

I guess you mean Big Folio wordpress blogs aren't hosted on your own server. Mine is hosted on my own server.

I moved up two more spaces in the google rankings today. I feel so real. (Page 7 to NUMBER 7 in the space of 2 weeks is really quite wonderful.)

That is the *hosted* version of Wordpress.

Wordpress.org is where you get the stuff to put on your own server. Most hosts also have auto-installers for it, so you don't have to do all of the SQL setup and so forth.

Okay, I knew BF was AWESOME! But they just out did themselves! I e-mailed last night at 4:51 PM (EST) asking for WP 2.1 to be installed and it was done today before 12 PM (EST)!

Thank you Erik!