Blogger vs. Wordpress

[bookslover]

A fellow blogger was thinking about switching her blog from Blogger to Wordpress. However, she now thinks she won't because she found out she won't be able to take all her old blog posts with her to Wordpress. This is because Blogger is becoming attached to Google, somehow, making such a transfer of old posts impossible.

She was frustrated with transferring from Old Blogger to New Blogger because they required her to get a Google account, yet, with New Blogger, it doesn't seem as though anything is different from Old Blogger.

I also went from the old Blogger to the new Blogger, since it seems that Blogger is more or less pressuring all its bloggers to do so, and it does require getting a Google account - for which, so far, I don't see much point.

Any comments on all this?

 

[fredtgreco]

I don't know how to migrate, but I will say that Wordpress seems far superior in my opinion. It is more functional, and has great add-ons. Since it is Open Source, there are no Google-type worries.

If I recall, Rich migrated a bunch of Blogger blogs to another format (I think Josh Hicks' was one of them).

 

[Semper Fidelis]

You can import Blogger into Wordpress. Wordpress has a tool to do so.

When I help "re-brand" people's blogs I prefer to work with Blogger. Wordpress has more features for sure but you're pretty much stuck with http://blogname.wordpress.com unless you host a Wordpress site.

I typically prefer to steer away from hosting Wordpress blogs because each instance is now a site I would need to administer. The program works by installing a mySQL dB on the hosting account. That means that you have to patch the blog every time there's an update and it also means performance on the host suffers the more blogs you add. The bottom line, for me as a free host, is that I minimize the Wordpress blogs that I host for free. This brings me back to my original point that the person would likely have to go with a http://blogname.wordpress.com blog name.

Blogger, on the other hand, handles all the database backend and security and is relatively stable. It also allows you to re-host the blog onto a hosting account. If you've noticed my sig, I actually "re-brand" blogs so people can have blog names like http://blogname.solideogloria.com or http://blogname.kirkpage.org or http://blogname.soluschristus.com. They are much better. Once I set up the FTP info on the blogger account the user posts as usual and everything is good to go.

Regarding your friend's aversion to getting a Google account, I don't understand the aversion if she already has a Blogger account. Neither require that you enter any verifiable or private information. GMail comes with the account which is basically a very, very nice mailbox with POP access and 2.7GB of storage. I, like many, now use it as my primary e-mail.

 

[LadyFlynt]

Okay, I was thinking of switching my xanga to wordpress (possibly because I'm just a geek). I like the look of my xanga, didn't like the ads, or that someone I used to know started stalking me there. Blogger was horrible, I couldn't get it to do what I wanted and spam was constant. So, Rich, I looked a solideogloria and doesn't that use Blogger? Can you go into further details on the differences, what I can and can't do (I liked on xanga how I could add my own background without playing with html...I'm just not that good of a geek)?

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Okay, I was thinking of switching my xanga to wordpress (possibly because I'm just a geek). I like the look of my xanga, didn't like the ads, or that someone I used to know started stalking me there. Blogger was horrible, I couldn't get it to do what I wanted and spam was constant. So, Rich, I looked a solideogloria and doesn't that use Blogger? Can you go into further details on the differences, what I can and can't do (I liked on xanga how I could add my own background without playing with html...I'm just not that good of a geek)?

Oh well, Solideogloria actually uses Drupal. I should have included THAT as an option. I really wish people would use that even more because I'm kind of lonely over there.

When I rebrand a blogger site, I keep their Blogger in place and they post to their own subdomain http://blogname.solideogloria.com

BUT

A person who has no blog or wants to ditch either could create their own blog entries in Solideogloria.com at http://www.solideogloria.com. Let's say you get an account there with the username LadyFlynt. All your blog entries would then be under http://www.soldeogloria.com/LadyFlynt/

That's different than a subdomain. The reason I created solideogloria.com was to create a place where there could be a combination of articles, quotes, and blog entries. If I get enough users there then I can set up a feature where folks commend blog entries or articles submitted and they get promoted to front page access. Right now I have so few posters that I tend to give each post front page billing.

I actually helped Fred Greco put his Church website on Drupal. He preferred to install Wordpress in addition to running a Drupal site though he could have just blogged from Drupal. I think he liked the blogging features of Wordpress as it specializes as a blog tool. I prefer Drupal for its flexibility for a large community which is what I'm trying to do to complement this site.

I know it doesn't make things much clearer adding another software thing into the mix but if you're interested in blogging from solideogloria.com then you're welcome. I also re-brand Blogger blogs for folks that prefer to work with that in lieu of posting on solideogloria.com but I rarely set up Wordpress blogs for people anymore.

I have to hit the rack. I'm getting up at 0330 to get ready to go to the airport. I'll try and pick up any questions in a couple of days if I remember.