Many bloggers who have decided to take the plunge and write on a regular basis (What? Who said addiction? Wasn’t me.) usually move to Typepad or WordPress.com or WordPress.org because it’s a little more professional (whatever that means–I know a few big bloggers who still use Blogger and don’t use domain names either). In the beginning, Blogger was down a lot, and people moved away from
it. I think they’ve resolved that problem for the most part.
To me, the question you have is really about being able to have total creative control over the look and feel of your blog. Having more creativity also means needing to understand and know more CSS, HTML, code-y stuff. Blogger actually is great because it allows you to change your HTML and CSS as you see fit. You can do it no problem with a few tutorials found online.
If you are looking at moving to TypePad, you should know that you must have at least a Pro level account ($14.95/month) to change your CSS. You can upload a banner and change the colors via the Design page with the Plus level ($8.95/month), but you can’t make significant changes without the Pro account or higher. In addition, you need to understand CSS and be able to make modifications yourself. There’s a learning curve there, but it can be done.
My advice is to look closely at each blog provider and how much you’ll pay for which services. We have an article that links to many of the popular blog hosts. If I were you, I’d see if Blogger already met the expectations I had before switching to a paid service. Also, I have heard only great things about WordPress.
What say you, bloggers? Do you think you really have more freedom with TypePad (or another provider) than with Blogger? Weigh in!
Tomorrow I’ll tell you how to transfer your current blog content to a new provider.
I just moved to WordPress last week after using Blogger for a couple of years. I think the themes/templates at WP have a cleaner, more legible look, and as more or less a Luddite I wanted an easy way to have a custom header. I also like the categories, not available in old Blogger (my template had very odd blockquotes in new Blogger).
I recently transitioned from Blogger to WordPress and I love it!
I’m pretty new to the blogging world, but so far am satisfied with Blogger.
Gotta say, I am loving this site. Thanks!
I LOVE WordPress and would never go back! It is so flexible, you get COMPLETE control or what you blog does, and it only costs hosting. And you can seamlessly transfer from pretty much any blogging platform. It’s just the best – really.
I’ve enjoyed my blogger account. I don’t have to pay for it and I am able to keep it fresh looking.
I’ve heard wonderful things about wordpress, but I am afraid of losing everything if I switch over… (don’t know if this would happen or not, but it’ one of those things that keeps me up at night ;0)
Blessings,
Karla
I’ve used all three (Blogger, WordPress, and Typepad). Typepad is pricey if you want to be able to control the layout much. Blogger can be good if you can get a really good custom layout. But my favorite is WordPress because it has the most options for free, and it’s more uniform – the comments have the same format as the rest of your website. And it looks and feels more updated, and there are quite a few themes to choose from and customize. I would say that WordPress is a step up from Blogger, and a nice paid Typepad package is a step up from WordPress. But if you’re trying to go free, WordPress is the best choice. They also have huge image storage and very reasonably priced CSS upgrades.
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