Setting up a Blog? Part 2: WordPress Blogs

In part one of this series I focused on setting up a blog using the free Blogger system from Google.

This article is all about WordPress, the Pros and Cons and explanations. I think you need to know what each has to offer so you can make your choice that way instead of every friend you know telling you that you HAVE to use Blogger or you HAVE to use WordPress. You decide what you want and need in a blogging platform by making an educated choice based on the facts.

Before I get into the Pros and Cons list of WordPress I have to explain how WordPress operates because it is slightly different than Blogger.

A blog on Blogger.com  is completely free. A blog on WordPress.com is completely free but they also have a free download to install WordPress on your own hosting account. Blogger does not have the alternative download and installation available. Because of the differences I am going to have multiple WordPress Pros and Cons lists.

WordPress.com Pros:

• Free hosting
• Free Professional templates available
• Can drag widgets up or down the Widgets list to rearrange them
• Can upload photos, videos, polls easily and WordPress.com will host them (limited space available)
• Keeps a backup of your blog for you
• Can upload a custom header image
• Can create static pages like on a website
• Limited ability to modify the CSS styles
• Free statistical data through your Dashboard
• Can use a custom domain if you pay $10 for the upgrade (custom domain requires tweaking of the DNS at your domain registrar)
• Upgrade of the system are done automatically

WordPress.com Cons:

• Cannot install WordPress plug-ins
• Cannot upload templates
• Cannot tweak the HTML
• Cannot monetize your blog in anyway (including adding Google ads)
• Learning curve for someone switch from Blogger
• Cannot drag widgets from one sidebar to another or under or above the post widget, only up and down
• Can use a custom domain if you pay $10 for the upgrade (custom domain requires tweaking of the DNS at your domain registrar)
• Cannot add Javascript
• Ads on WordPress.com are sometimes shown to help them “pay their bills” (costs $30 to remove this)

WordPress.org Pros:

• Allows you to host WordPress on your own domain
• Free WordPress platform software
• Can create static pages like on a website
• Free Professional templates available all over the Internet to download and upload through your Dashboard
• Thousands of free plug-ins available
• Can tweak HTML and CSS

WordPress.org Cons:

• You must pay for hosting
• You must find a plug-in to install for statistical data
• You must keep your own backup (a plug-in is available)
• You must figure out how to install the software on your host (there is help available but not suggested for a newbie)
• You must manually download and install all upgrades

Now that I gave you this list let me explain a bit more.

Pros:

WordPress.com gives you a free blog and a wordpress.com domain address and also hosts your blog for free. It does provide some good quality templates and the ability to add widgets like link lists, HTML code, etc. There is a lot of help available on their website and WordPress has more of a professional templates than Blogger. The new version is much easier to use that just several months ago. Upgrades are automatically installed for you and they backup your site and give you statistics for free. You get a certain amount of storage so you can upload pictures and videos for free until you reach that limit.

Cons:

You are limited to the templates available in the gallery if you are using the free WordPress.com blog. Although there are many professional WordPress templates available on the web you cannot use them unless you use the WordPress.org site and download the software on your own hosting account (that you pay for) and install it. Unless your host provides help this can be extremely difficult. You also have to manually install all of the upgrades that WordPress comes out with. You cannot use the free plug-ins on the free WordPress.com site and you cannot add javascript or monetize your free blog. If you cannot add javascript then some things like adding a Twitter widget or photo gallery will also not work. You cannot tweak the HTML code on the free site but you can if you pay for hosting and download the software.

Setting up a custom domain on the free WordPress.com site can be seen as a Pro or a Con depending on how comfortable you are with changing the DNS settings and if you don’t mind paying $10 for the upgrade.

You can also purchase other upgrades like more storage space and the ability to tweak all of the CSS. Again, could be a pro or con depending on how you look at it.

Wendy is an all around geek who lives in New England, is married, has 3 grown boys, is a grandma, and has 5 cats. You will usually find her tweaking something in HTML, entering and winning online sweepstakes, or working on one of her other blogs (Business Blogging Guide, Shopping Gems, Twitter Tweet Win). Wendy invites you to follow her on Twitter!