Blogger vs. WordPress

It’s been a few months since I switched from Blogger to WordPress, and I thought this might be a good time to take a moment and reflect on the change. Was it a good one? Without a doubt–for many different reasons. First up, it brought my blog and my website under the same domain. It’s all one solid piece of cloth now, and that means that when people come to my blog, they see everything about me at once–my bio, my books, my reviews. The whole shebang. It’s been a wonderful tool for discovery–I’ve been keeping an eye on my statistics, and I’ve been very happy to see people clicking from one post into related posts, then over to info on the books. That’s one of the main reasons I made the change, and to have it actually work . . .

Wunderbar.

Second? WordPress is a breeze to use. I much prefer it to Blogger, really. I can schedule my posts well in advance. The tagging and organization tools are easier to use and keep a handle on, the sharing to social networks is smoother and more seamless . . . The list goes on and on. Plus, it’s wonderful to get out from under the Google dome. Blogger (owned by Google) has a pretty tight handle on things, and I like being on my own.

So would I recommend that everyone make the switch?

Not necessarily.

In my case, it really helped that I paid someone to design the new WordPress site for me. It’s something I might have been able to do on my own, but if I had, it would have taken me way way way waaaaaay too much time to figure it all out. WordPress has a lot of great widgets and doodads to make your site or blog awesome, but that’s both a blessing and a curse. You have to figure out which doodad is the right one for you–and then figure out how best to use it.

It’s a lot of effort.

Still, if you’re serious about having a web presence, it seems like a no brainer. I’m much happier where I am now, and I feel like the money I spent was definitely worth it.

Anyone have any questions for me? I’d be happy to do my best to answer them.