Earlier tonight I had the pleasure of sitting in on Emily Grosvenor’s class on Beginning Blogging. Emily is a talented writer who runs a great blog at Desperately Seeking Salem, so I knew she would do a bang up job guiding others into the rewarding and frustrating world of blogging.
A point that often comes up with people just getting into blogging is to start off with a free blog at WordPress.com or Blogger and later moving up to your own self-hosted platform. I think that is great advice, and I have no problem with it whatsoever. But I do express a little concern at what I heard someone else mention at the meeting, and that is to start off with a free blog at Blogger to get your feet wet, and then later move on to hosting your own blog with WordPress.
Let me give you a little background as to why I’m opposed to switching horses in midstream like this. I have been known to migrate blogs from time to time. I’ve moved blogs from one domain to another, and I’ve also moved blogs from one type of blogging platform to another. While this is in no way an impossible task, I seriously recommend starting off with WordPress.com if you plan on self hosting with WordPress at a later date for two reasons.
First, if you learn the ropes of blogging with a free blog on WordPress.com you are going to handle the transition to self-hosted WordPress blogging much, much easier. You will already be familiar with the admin backend, how the posting procedures work, and how to navigate and control the settings of your blog.
If you were to start your blogging adventure with Blogger and then move over to WordPress, you will probably be lost and confused for a time while trying to learn a new blogging platform. It doesn’t make sense to train yourself on one piece of software if you are planning on using a different one later down the road.
Secondly, blog migrations have many crucial aspects that have to be followed carefully in order to be successful. WordPress and Blogger use different permalink structures, and while you can modify the WordPress format to use the permalink style that Blogger does, I think it is easier and safer to stick with the WordPress way.
You could just leave your old blog and start fresh when you decide to self-host, but why leave all your hard work behind? It doesn’t take a whole lot to bring your old content into your new blog and redirect your free blog to your shiny new one. And by migrating your blog and redirecting your old one you will retain the audience that you have built up so far.
My advice to new bloggers? Check out a Blogger or WordPress.com and see which one you like more. And when you do decide to take total control of your blog, stick with the same blogging software you started with.
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That is quite some confusing advice (the attendee’s, not yours). Why in the world would someone want to start on blogger and THEN move to wordpress. I feel like I wasted my time doing blogger and the start-up energy required to learn wordpress was well worth every second. Anyway, great to have you there. Although I did kind of feel I should give those horse’s reins over to you…
My personal preference is for Wordpress, but I don’t hold anything against those who choose Blogger. If I did, then Gino would be hearing it from me all the time!
But seriously, you did do an awesome job tonight. Counseling a group of people who know little about blogging and all the aspects surrounding it really is a monumental task. There are so many topics to cover it can seem overwhelming, but you started off on a good foot and I look forward to hearing more from you.
You were dead on tonight when you said, “Content is King”. A lot of people fail to realize that. You have built up a blog that is popular with a lot of people because of the content you produce.
I think it is a great that you are going to focus on the content side of things for this series, as great content is the overwhelming force in creating a good blog.
Nice article Rob! This is the first time I’ve stopped by and enjoyed your contribution to Emily’s awesome Beginning Blogging class.
I totally agree about NOT changing platforms if you want to self host your blog later on. However for those who don’t even know what a blog is, or don’t care to know html, css or work through a backdoor to blog, they should consider tumblr or weebly. Many people who want to blog don’t have the time or energy to figure out an non WYSIWYG platform and will never self host their blog. Wordpress is amazing but it’s almost like Photoshop. Sure all the bells and whistles are nice if you know how to operate it. But if you don’t know how to use it or don’t have time to study it, spend time with a platform that works for you. No one should have to be a slave to a platform.
You make a very valid point about Wordpress almost being like Photoshop.
Since I have been dealing with Wordpress for quite a while now, it has almost become like a second nature to me. It is very easy for me to start babbling on about something that I consider to be very basic, while others would consider highly technical and confusing.
I have done a little dabbling with both tumblr and weebly, and you are quite right about how easy they are to manage.
And that, Jessica, is why I said I had no idea why anyone would switch platforms… I really didn’t have a clue! Thanks for your insights. I still consider many aspects of Wordpress technical and confusing, but having worked with both, and not being a particularly technical person, I would recommend Blogger for complete newbies and Wordpress for people who want a little more control and a sexier look.