Why WordPress Is The Only Blogging Platform I’d Recommend
I’ll freely admit this is an oft discussed topic, but there are valid reasons why many encourage the use of WordPress as the blogging platform that everyone with any ambition, should use. If you aren’t using WordPress, then I really encourage you to read this.
When someone desires to start a blog, the options that usually confront them are;
Wordpress, Blogger, Live Journal, and Typepad.
I’ll confess that I know very little about Live Journal and Typepad; but like Blogger, I am aware of some of their limitations.
The Differences
Primarily, what sets WordPress apart from the others, is the ability to use their software on your own host, as well as a free hosted option. Because of this, it gives the user, much more advanced features and the ability to fully customize your blog.
Because Blogger, Live Journal and Typepad store your blog in their own servers, you have limited access to what you can change, add, and remove. On top of that, the blog is never really yours either!
Why Wordpress?
The main advantage of using WordPress outside of the fact you can fully customize whatever you want, is the free support available. There are literally thousands of themes (although fewer are worthwhile), hundreds of plugins, and almost infinate guides to help you. When all this is considered and put together, within a very short space of time, a newbie can have a pretty blog, fairly well SEO’d, with plenty of visitors.
Lonely Blogging
On top of that, something else I’ve observed, is that Blogger users often find their visitors are unlikely to comment, especially if their visitors are WordPress users. Why? WordPress users are used to the simplicity of filling in a simple form that is below the article on WordPress blogs. In contrast, when they visit a Blogger blog, they have to click through to another ugly page which looks nothing like the original site, and then try to leave a comment, but you’ve forgotten what it was you wanted to address in the article, so have to go back because the article isn’t on the comment page, and…..grrrrr!! I think you get the picture.
I Want To Move My Blog To WordPress, What Do I Do?
For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward. Below are the guides from the WordPress Codex:
Blogger
Users of WordPress 2.2 and above can import from Blogger. Earlier versions cannot import from Blogger because “New Blogger” was released by Google, invalidating all the old importers. Only WordPress 2.2 and later has support for “New Blogger”.
If you haven’t already, you must be using New Blogger and a Google Account on Blogger. If you are still using Old Blogger, the importer will not work.
To start the importer, go to Manage → Import → Blogger and follow the directions.
Live Journal
The script for importing LiveJournal posts into your WordPress blog is located at wp-admin/import-livejournal.php (Manage → Import → LiveJournal). It is available in WordPress 2.1.1 and above.
The LiveJournal importer requires you to export entries from your LiveJournal account in XML format. Instructions for exporting LiveJournal entries can be found at LiveJournal export instructions (http://www.livejournal.com/export.bml). This tools seems to require exporting your journal one month at a time. However. the import tool will happily accept all the entries in a single file, so you may save them all in the same file. You may also have to do a “View Source” on the page that the Livejournal export tool returns, in order to see the XML source. You can then copy and paste this into a file to import.
- http://heinous.org/wiki/LiveJournal_XML_Export_Script has a perl script (ljexport.pl) that can export all LJ entries to one XML file for a range of years, saving the trouble of having to manually pull this for each month.
- LJ Archive (http://fawx.com/ljArchive/) is a Windows-only exporter for LiveJournal.
Typepad
Others
If you’re on any other blogging platform, you should find all you need over at the WordPress Codex.
Final Thoughts
To close this post, I decided to look around and try to find some testimonials from those who have moved to WordPress from another platform. I found the following:
Anita says,
“Blogger is great for a simple blog where you rarely change the template. If all you want to do is set up a blog quickly and post your thoughts now and then to it, Blogger is easy-peesy and I highly recommend it. However, if you plan to keep the site active and vibrant by changing links, swapping out announcements and ads, running polls and surveys, and so on, Blogger blogs are not efficient.” Read the rest…
Shaney says,
“The biggest difference that the users will notice is that we can now have a list of the categories used on the site, and we can also offer lists of posts by author, category, month, and title. I hope that our readers find it easier to look for articles of interest now.” Read the rest…
Lynn says,
“I’m finding that I LOVE WordPress and all that it offers. I like the look and feel better, all of the options that are available - from plugins to themes, and I like the control. You’ve probably noticed I’m blogging more lately. I’m really enjoying it here!” Read the rest…
If you’re serious about your blogging, I cannot stress enough how much you should move to WordPress. I’m not promising that there will be no teething problems, but you’ll eventually realise the benefits of it.
If you have yet to start a blog, and you’re not sure how to set up a WordPress blog on your host, sit tight; I’ll be posting a detailed ‘How to’ shortly.
- If you enjoyed this, you should read:
Comments
27 Responses to “Why WordPress Is The Only Blogging Platform I’d Recommend”
Share your thoughts...
Armen,
Thanks for the comparison. It sounds “easy” to import from Blogger to WordPress. Is that truly the case? Which elements transfer over, and does the formatting stay in tact?
This is a good comparison. However, you didn’t even mention other hosted services such as Movable Type and Drupal, so I feel like it isn’t a completly equal comparison.
I’ve never used Wordpress. I guess you can’t truly call yourself a “blogger” until you’ve tried it right? After looking and looking for a good blog platform/CMS I found the publishing platform ExpressionEngine and never looked back since. I love it. I guess if EE ever goes under I’ll have to take a look at Wordpress, if for no other reason than all the buzz that surrounds it.
Thanks for the thoughts on my post over at DailyBlogTips! (the one about Wordpress a day or so ago…)
Great thoughts here. I love how the general reason for switching to Wordpress from others is…frustration. Ha. Great. And so true.
Neena - You’re right, it does “sound easy”, but I’ll be honest, I have come across a few people that have had issues. Having said that, the latest version of WordPress was to resolve any problems, but you’d be best to quiz those who are more ‘involved’ in WordPress.
If you have images in your posts, and other similar elements, it may cause alignment problems. But then, there could be variables in that, depending on your chosen WordPress theme.
Jake - I was going to include others, but I figured that it would be easy enough to work out from what I have written. Plus, Drupal and MT are probably some of the better alternatives out there, according to some things that I’ve read.
Deron - Well, in many ways it could be referred to as the true ‘bloggers choice’. However, your site is truly impressive; at least, aesthetically, and speed. I was impressed when I visited it the other day, you have talent.
I’d like to try EE myself, but do you have to pay for it?
Ryan - No problem Ryan, I liked what you had to say (bit of advice — you probably should have acknowledged those that took the time to comment, even though it’s not your blog
).
In the near future, I really hope to add some themes that will be truly worthwhile. I’m actually sitting in Adelaide airport replying to these, as I’m on my way over to Tazmania for 10 days. My reading for the flight is a book on HTML and CSS. I know a little, but I thought a book might help speed my learning.
P.S. Due to the fact I will be in Tazmania, I’m not sure of what access I have to the Internet. I hope to post a few articles while I’m away. I’ll reply to comments if, and when I can.
Armen, I don’t doubt that WP is probably a superior option - and indeed, I’ve wondered about switching platforms myself - but you’re short-changing Blogger a little.
Blogger does store your blog on their own servers, if you wish. But that’s not your only option. My 2Dolphins blog is (Classic) Blogger-based and it is hosted on my own space. And I’ve managed to tweak the template pretty significantly to make the Blogger portion of my site blend in fairly seamlessly with the more static content.
I’ll certainly concede that commenting on a WP-based blog is more straight-forward, but that doesn’t stop me from commenting on plenty of Blogger blogs.
Really, the most glaring omissions for me right now is that I have to do manual pings after posting a new entry and that I can’t “future post” entries.
I love Wordpress, although someone at my weekly Edinburgh Coffee Morning mention Drupal is worth checking out. Although I’m happy with WordPress.
Jamie
Well, further in regards to Drupal, I’ve used it before as part of a group blogging project somewhat. It seems to be best for that too, from what I’ve read.
Armen,
EE has three different license options. They do have a free version, better known as the “core” version which has limited features (my blog uses the core version) and then they have a personal license and commercial license, both of which have the same features, it’s just a matter of if your site is for personal or commercial use. Personal license is $99 and commercial is $249. If you try it and need help, drop me a line.
Thanks for the comments on my site! Now I just need to make time to add more content, lol.
[…] from iFFECT.NET posted a message about making the switch from Blogger to WordPress. I moved TsukuBlog from Blogger to WordPress in February 2007, and I am very pleased with the […]
I have to agree. I have used several blog platforms and found wordpress the best
Thanks as usual Armen for an informative piece. I want to send a link to it over to a discussion I was part of on Pearls blog http://fresh-perspectives.blogspot.com….is there a technically better way to do that than just copy and paste, as I did here?
[…] to Paul B, Tara, Steve, Vivien, Ariane, Aaron, Tess, David Airey, Vivienne Quek, Romeo, Crowley, Armen, Zep, Dirk, Sally Li, David George, Lisa, Lauren Marie, Justin Kistner, Charity and Randa Clay for […]
Rob - You may be right, I might be a little harsh. But I used Blogger to start with and it put me off blogging. It was a nasty experience, and trying to make you site search engine friendly is a lot more difficult too.
If one is starting out, definately begin with WordPress; it makes life so much easier.
Deron - If I have another project, I might give EE a look, just to say I’ve tried it.
Tom - That link is broken my friend.
I am convinced.. Tom from http://netbusinessjournal.com sent me over to you to just so I can read this last convincing post on why it’ll be better to move..:) I just got a new domain this wkend and will be needing all the instructions to make the move.. haven’t chosen a host yet though!
Pearl - That’s good to hear, and if that is the case, then my most recent article on setting up a WordPress blog should be helpful to you. If you need any help, just let me know.
I think in the context of the options that you mention, yes Wordpress is the best option, but I’d like to through another contender into the ring, and that’s Joomla. While it may not have started out as a blogging platform, it certainly has all of the Wordpress features and then some. And pretty soon the 1.5 version is going to be released and this will skyrocket its popularity. If you like Wordpress, have a look at Joomla and see what it has to offer.
Frank - Yeah, I’ve used Joomla, and there is no doubt that it’s very powerful. Having said that, it definately isn’t as simple as WordPress to get up and running; but yeah, it is a good option.
Great advice and I agree. I started on the free wordpress.com, the free hosted option. I would like to move it to a self hosted blog for more flexability and monetization. Any advice to do this easily? Or do I have to start over?
Thanks.
I can confirm that the importing process really is easy. Astonishingly easy. And there is a plugin that will import from New Blogger to the previous versions of Wordpress. I have successfully used that as well.
Allen - You should have an export feature in your wordpress.com admin panel. Then when you set up your self hosted WordPress blog, it has the import feature. All your posts and comments will be transferred
Rebecca - I’m glad someone else is able to testify of its simplicity. Nice blog too.
Sorry about the broken link to Pearls site, that’s one reason I asked if there’s a correct way to include a link in a comment..but I think I just copied it wrong here. Here’s another try http://fresh-perspectives.blogspot.com/
Does wordpress use Ajax for submitting comments (just asking the submit comment button)?
Tom - You can do it that way, or you can use the href tag, which is preferable.
Bobby - Not on a normal set up, but I have Ajax to edit comments.
[…] Why WordPress Is The Only Blogging Platform I’d Recommend - Straipsnyje autorius WordPress sistemÄ… lygina su kitomis tinklaraÅ¡Äių sistemomis, argumentuoja, kodÄ—l reikia pereiti į WordPress ir trumpai apraÅ¡o straipsnių perkÄ—limo procesus. […]
Thank you for this very unique guide. Yes, people keep bragging about their blog hosted by those blogger.com, typepad.com and bla bla but in fact forget the biggest advantage of WordPress is self hosted.
You have a very good opinions.
You are aware that you seem to have a path issue making the site very difficult to read.