Many of you have asked why I decided to switch from Blogger to WordPress. And seeing as how my brain is in a creative prison as of late, this type of post comes easy. This was somewhat of a hot topic at the conference this weekend as well so I wanted to share some of the reasons why I switched.
Address
When I first started a blog, I never considered the importance of having a URL that was easy to remember. Thus, emmafree.blogspot became my permanent address. Which would have been fine, except for the fact that Emma Free is not my name. Strike one. At BlissDom both in October and this past weekend, the panelists emphasized the importance of streamlining your bloggy identity. Ooops. Strike Two. Now, I know it is possible to have your own domain name on Blogger (like ChattingAtTheSky.com), as many of you do. But before I made that switch, there were a couple of other issues I was concerned about.
Multiple Pages
Blogger does not have a multiple page option and this is one of the main reasons I decided to switch platforms. Basically, I wanted to avoid the sidebar. Sidebars in general don’t bother me, but showcasing the words and the photos are my top priority. However, a sidebar serves a purpose so I needed a place to put sidebar things like archives, about me, and links. Though I have seen lots of Blogger blogs fake the multiple page option beautifully, Kate suggested if I ever wanted to expand the blog in the future (adding a page for photography, perhaps?) that WordPress would be the best option. I took her word for it.
Space
When uploading my photos to Blogger, I noticed my allotted space percentage was climbing. When I got to 46%, I began to wonder what would happen when I got to 100%? I didn’t want to stick around to find out. As far as I know, Blogger doesn’t currently have an upgrade option for bloggers to purchase more space. Though I’ve never heard of anyone being kicked off Blogger because they used too much space, I also couldn’t find anyone to assure me it wasn’t possible. I thought perhaps it was time to pay a little bit a year for more space and move to a platform where I could self-host.
If you want to know how much of your allotted space you are using, you can find it when you upload your photos to Blogger as seen in the screen shot above next to the orange Upload Image button in small print.
Edited to add: You CAN purchase more storage space from Google. And hosting photos through an external provider like Flickr or SmugMug is a good way to conserve space. Okay. Carry on.
design and function
This is another area where I followed Kate’s advice. Basically, WordPress has the ability to be fancy, more so than Blogger. And, it has more umph when it comes to PlugIns. Or so I’m told. Techy people seem to think that is important.
If you don’t know much about code and you don’t have a Kate, I would stick with Blogger. There are a variety of templates to choose from that can be applied in minutes without much work. It is not so simple in WordPress. You don’t have to be concerned with computery things as much on Blogger. Posting and uploading photos are equally simple, though WordPress has a cool media library that stores your uploaded photos whereas Blogger simply stores the photos within each post.
so far so good
I really like WordPress so far. It feels clean and simple. I don’t think Blogger is bad. I liked Blogger, honestly. It was easy. But the timing of this mades sense for me and I was ready to try it out. If I begin to regret my decision, I’ll let you know. This is not an exhaustive Blogger vs. WordPress post by any means. I don’t know enough lingo for that. Feel free to add your reasons for switching or staying put in the comments section.
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