In my last post about Blogging I shared several of the blogging platforms that are available to you. When you decide to start blogging one of the first decisions to make is which blogging platform you are actually going to choose. The two most popular formats to choose from are Blogger and WordPress.  Both are free and both can be formatted to host your blog files on your own hosting account, which if you are running a business is vitally important for professionalism.  Look at these two urls’s – www.widgets.blogspot.com or www.widgets.com/blog obviously the second one has gone to the trouble of setting up their own domain thus portraying a much more professional image than using a free blogging account. So how do you choose between them?
 

Blogger is popular for its easy set up.  You can visit Blogger.com and have your own blog up and running in just a few minutes.  If you want Blogger to host your blog files for you, you simply choose a subdomain name and you get a blog URL that looks like this:
http://whateveryounameit.blogspot.com. (As I mentioned earlier)

Blogger gives you several preset templates to choose from and you do have some ability to customize the look. 
 

If you have an existing website that you would like to add your Blogger blog to, you just create a folder on your hosting account, then provide the FTP info to Blogger and it will publish the files over to your site. 
 

Wordpress offers you a hosted option similar to Blogger at Wordpress.com, however the options for customization on the hosted version are limited.  If you’re going to choose Wordpress, you will be happier with the features and customizing options if you install the blog script on your own hosting account.
 

Installing Wordpress is much easier than you might think.  You simply upload the files and open up the install page, one click later and you’re all set, or if you have CPanel as part of your hosting package it is only a one click install.  Customizing the look is a little more involved but there are good instructions available online, plus hundreds of templates that you can choose from and many are free.
 

Wordpress installed on your own domain shines over Blogger with features like being able to set up categories and publish ‘pages’ in addition to the individual blog posts.  Wordpress also gives you the ability to schedule posts so you can set it and forget it for a period of time. 
 

If you’re blogging for personal reasons, Blogger is a good choice for its simplicity and ease of use.  If you’re using a blog to promote your business, you will enjoy the feature rich options that come with Wordpress.  Pick the right tool for the job and you’ll be enjoying your blog for years to come.

Happy Blogging!