Where Will You Blog?
There are quite a number of options available to people who would like to have a blog. I’m not going to run through all of them as it can get rather overwhelming. For the purpose of this series I’m going to focus on what seems to be the most common 2. Blogger and Wordpress.
If you delve deeply enough, you’ll find a very WIDE range of opinions on which is better. I’m not going to go into what I think is better but try and give you some of the benefits and limitations of each one.
Blogger has lost favour amongst some of the more prominent bloggers around the internet. In my mind it still has a lot to offer a beginner blogger. Mainly because it is very easy to use. If your biggest fear about starting a blog is a lack of knowledge on all things technical and internet, blogger is possibly your answer.
Having said that, it does have it’s limitations. The biggest one being the issue with comments. If you’re really keen on getting lots of comments on your blog, I would think carefully before starting up an account with blogger. I find blogger comments very slow to load and I cannot subscribe to comments unless I use by blogger account to leave the comment with (which means anyone clicking my comment will eventually find my old blog instead of my current one).
Many blogger users also use the word verification process which is slow and frustrating. If you DO choose to use blogger it is ESSENTIAL that you allow anonymous comments (otherwise you automatically disallow anyone without a blogger account from even leaving a comment) and it is wise NOT to use word verification. Unless of course, you’re not too concerned about whether people leave comments.
WORDPRESS (free)
I found wordpress a lot harder to use, particularly at first. I’m not sure if this is in part due to my being used to blogger and then trying wordpress.
Wordpress (free) won’t allow you to have any paid advertising on your blog.
The biggest advantage to starting off with a free wordpress blog is that if you choose to switch to a paid option later, you already know your way around wordpress a little.
WORDPRESS (self hosted)
If you want to have your own domain and/or a wordpress blog that does allow advertising (as well as lots of other features not available on a free wordpress blog), I would recommend you look into Snoskred’s Blog Hosting. This is a fabulous offer that enables bloggers who are not technically savvy enough to set up their own webpage (like me for instance) to have their own domain and all the advantages that go with it.
If you’re serious about blogging, I would encourage you to give it some serious thought. You should be able to get a domain name for around $20 a year and blog hosting with Snoskred is currently $5 per month.
Why pay for something when you can get it for free? You get a wider choice of blog templates going this way as well as HEAPS of great features. Plus it’s yours!!! In my mind it makes for a very cheap hobby and if you’re particularly concerned about the costs - it is possible to recoup them via advertising (assuming you wish to build your blog readership to a reasonable level).
It is always an option to switch to a self-hosted blog down the track a little. The decision is entirely up to you. For those particularly keen on blogging, it’s a good idea to do this sooner rather than later. I will go into that in more detail in a later post.
WAIT
Before you get all excited and start setting up your blog, you need to think about your blog title. My first blog title? “Lightening’s Thoughts, Musings and Happenings”. NOT a good blog title. It’s just too long and cumbersome. It doesn’t fit well into a blogroll!!! I felt bad for the lovely people who linked to me in their blogroll seeing how long my blog title was.
Think of something short and snappy if you can. You want to decide this BEFORE you get your blog all set up. A blogger address is going to be http://yourchosenbit.blogspot.com and a wordpress one will be http://yourchosenbit.wordpress.com so you can see that a long title is going to make your URL long and hard to remember.
Choosing something original is a great idea too. I use an old nickname and it has now become kind of my “online persona”. I know others have used a translation of a name or word in another language.
TEMPLATES
Both blogger and wordpress give you a choice of templates within their program. I know with blogger you can get hold of other templates on offer around the internet. I have no idea if this is possible with a wordpress.com (which is the free one) account. Most templates can be changed and tweaked as you go along so don’t stress TOO much about getting this perfect. Having a good template and a nice looking blog IS important but given it is something you CAN change, you might find it easier to just get started and think about changing or tweaking your template down the track a little.
P.S. When you’re choosing a template, consider the fact that MOST people don’t like a dark background with light coloured writing. Many of them are hard on the eyes. It’s your blog so you can have it black with fluorescent type if you WANT to. BUT, if people reading and commenting on your blog is important to you, it’s something to just be aware of.
I think that’s enough information to get you started. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to ask. I don’t know anywhere close to all the answers but I will try to help if I can.
From here on in I am planning on posting to this series each Monday. That way you’ll have a week in between before I start on the next thing.
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Comments
As far as I know if you want to use other themes than the standard options on Wordpress.com then it is an extra that you need to pay for.
Also just so you know I came here via lightening online’s blogroll and it still links to your Lightening’s Blogworld on blogger. I thought you might like to update your links 
Thanks for your input Lin. Wordpress self hosted certainly is great - especially via Snoskred’s hosting option. It has made it available to many who would not have been able to make the move otherwise (eg. me ).
Gemisht - yes, that is my understanding as well. Some of the wordpress themes will allow you to customise the header but much more than that would take more know-how than I currently have. Thanks for the heads up on my blogroll. Completely forgot about that. Bit of a worry when even my own blogrolls don’t get my blog addys correct!!!!
blogger is great for beginners i think however if blogging is a serious hobby or profit you sooner or later have to have your own domain.
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You’ve provided some great tips here Lightening. Having been on Blogger myself previously, I would recommend to anyone serious about blogging to talk to Snoskred about setting up a Wordpress blog. You simply cannot beat the price, and Wordpress blogs provide so many options that make blogging better than using any other host. I wish I had known about Wordpress when I started blogging, I would never use Blogger again.