Blogging Platform Review: Blogger

The first blogging platform that I will review is the platform that I use, Blogger. Blogger has been around since 1999 and has gone through MANY changes since the beginning. Once upon a time, you had to pay to receive the ability to do certain things with Blogger. In 2003, Google bought out Blogger and made those services available for free. Read below for my no-frills review of Blogger. I highlight the important features FOR YOU.



The one thing that REALLY differentiates Blogger from its biggest (free) competitor, Wordpress, is the ability to freely edit your own templates. [For a fee, you can gain the ability to freely edit Wordpress templates hosted at Wordpress.com] You can create your own template, use templates created by others, or use pre-designed templates. Minimal skills in HTML are necessary for the most novice of computer users. However, to truly edit a template, knowledge of CSS is needed. Arranging the components of your blog is also very easy to do. You can just slide components wherever you like.
Design Tools: B+

You don’t need a read me for Blogger. You can start a blog, and start writing right away without needing to go through the ‘Help’ website. Everything is clear cut so that novice and experience computer users can use it without any problems.
East of Use: A

Because Blogger is owned by Google, you would think that there would be easy access to Google’s vast amount of tools for webmasters. But there isn’t. You need to go to separate Google web pages to submit your blog to its indexing service, sign up and get the code for its Google Analytics software, and yet again, you need to sign up on a separate website for Adsense / Adwords.
Tools: B-

The biggest advantage to using Blogger is that it is owned by Google. This makes it easy for you to register and install Adsense in your blog, as well as get indexed and appear in Google search results.
X-Factor: A-


Come back on Monday for my review of Wordpress. And don't forget to sign up for email updates from FeedBlitz (on the left)!

New Series: Choosing a Blogging Platform

Looking back, I’ve covered a multitude of topics. From tips on making money, getting traffic, inspiration, SEO, to writing your blog posts. There have been basic topics to advanced topics. However, there is one basic topic which I have neglected to write on. That one topic is one of the most basic aspects of blogging. One that users contend with EVERYDAY that they blog. Only one thing could be so universal: Blogging Platforms.

What you blog on is more important then you think. Each platform has its own plusses and minuses. It is your job, the blogger, to determine which platform is best for what you want to do and what you want to write about. There is also the issue of users. Which platform is best for user interaction? Which is the most aesthetically pleasing for your readers to read your work on? Is the platform Digg, Reddit, or SEO friendly/ready?

There are also other issues to think about:

How easy is it to switch platforms? >> Most of the time, it is very hard to switch platforms. If you are using a free service, such as Wordpress.Com, Blogspot.com, etc. a move between platforms will force you to change URLs and lose all of your hard earned backlinks and comments. This can be avoided by owning a Domain, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

How technologically capable are you? >> Some platforms are more technical, meaning they require a high level of knowledge to set up and maintain.

Tomorrow, I will address the issue of Hosted vs. Stand Alone Platforms.

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Why Should You Keep On Blogging?

If you are frustrated by a lack of comments, a lack of people clicking on ads, or by a lack of plain old traffic, why should you keep blogging?

Well, for one thing, building traffic takes time. You have to post on different blogs, websites, forums, etc. to get your blog out there. No matter what type of blog you have or the subject of your blog, there are always going to be places where you can find a good amount of traffic.

If you like and have a genuine interest in what you are writing about, why care if someone reads it or not? You are putting it out there for the whole world to view, and if they view it or not, thats their business. As long as you enjoy doing it, you shouldn't stop.

Good luck blogging!