What are the advantages of Wordpress over blogger?

[Fiachra Kavanagh]

What are the advantages of Wordpress over Blogger?

[Kirk]

Many people really like blogger because of it's simplicity (you don't even have to install it), but there is one major drawback - if your acct accidently gets wiped at blogger.com, there's no way to recover it. Even if you publish to your own site, the database to recreate the pages is gone (it lives on blogger.com servers) - you'll have recreate the content manually - (unless someone knows of a utility to rebuild it).

I'm an active member on the DigitalPoint forums and the deletion of a blogger acct is reported with enough frequency to make me uncomfortable using it. Here's an interesting thread on the topic:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=43052&highlight=blogger

Additionally, Wordpress is highly customizable with numerous add-on modules for a wide variety of features.

Honestly, it comes down to frequency of posts. If you plan to post daily and build up a large amount of content, go with Wordpress - otherwise, stick with blogger and keep it simple.

[theuniek1]

Kirk is spot on -

WordPress offers a lot more flexibility over blogger when it comes to customization and administration.

WordPress supports categories, modification of the core files (open source), and plugins for even more features.

And because WordPress is hosted on your own account, you leverage your expansion and growth over time.

[83camaro]

WordPress! I post via email using WordPress. Takes only a minute and 1 SQL database to setup through Fantastico. Or if you're a reseller you can just put Wordpress into your skeleton.

[Hock Ng]

If you're planning to keep your blog for the long term, WP is a better choice. There are tons of plugins for WP and you can customize the blog pretty much any way you want.

One major advantage of WP is the ability to specify a manual ping list. I haven't looked at Blogger in a while, so maybe they've added some new features.

Sure, Blogger is much simpler to use, but it'll do you good to learn how to use WP to it's full potential.

Hock

[altyfc]

The key advantage for me was the ability to have categories. This allows you to sort your posts in an efficient manner. It won't necessarily be a requirement for all blogs, but it can certainly help with many that are topic-oriented.

Aaron

[shermanhu]

What are the advantages of Wordpress over Blogger?

I've created a video report comparing Wordpress to Blogger, MovableType, Typepad, MSN Spaces etc. View it at:
www.wordpresstutorials.com/battleoftheblogs

Plus I've posted a few pointers on my FAQ blog about:

Why I recommend Wordpress?

and ...

Why I don't suggest using Blogger

Hope this helps

[Lynn Terry]

Having just made the switch from Blogger to WordPress myself, I can say that the NUMBER ONE benefit is the use of trackbacks. It is an incredible tool for social networking, and for gaining exposure and inbound links!

Now that I'm using WP, I wish that everyone was!

[theuniek1]

Now that I'm using WP, I wish that everyone was!

WordPress does tend to have that effect on people huh? LOL

And what about WP's built in pingback feature? That just makes life so sweet, not needing to muddle around with trackback URLs and whatnot . That's the reason I wish everyone were using WordPress.

(Or at least, the other blogging applications should catch up and start supporting pingbacks).

~ Teli

[Lynn Terry]

What a great tutorial, Teli - thanks for sharing the link!

Wouldnt it be nice if forums were in on the pingback/trackback fun, too? I think someone needs to do a 'mod' for phpbb

Speaking of which, I found www.boardtracker.com in my travels this week. Similar to technorati, but for forums...

[theuniek1]

Lynn, that link is awesome. I think I've found a new addiction LOL.

How do you manage to find such cool stuff?

[Lynn Terry]

Lynn, that link is awesome. I think I've found a new addiction LOL.

I know - too cool, isnt it??

How do you manage to find such cool stuff?

Truth? Blog-hopping

I think I found this one on Chris Pirillo's blog earlier this week...

[Cricket]

What are the advantages of Wordpress over Blogger?

WordPress (provided you are hosting it on your own domain) gives you 100% complete control. For me, that's a priority!

[eWESTPost]

Want to know what bloging is ? try blogger.
Want to blog seriously? use Wordpress, your own domain & host.

In addition to what others said...

WP is a complete blogware and it can be used for something more than a blog - a website I mean.

With right use of plug-ins, WP can grow into a perfect CMS.

[affiliates]

I read a post recently (I think it was emilyrobbins.com) about the trials and tribulations of having a hosted blog. This was typepad but I guess it applies to any account.

Free is good (or great in the case of Wordpress) but is a dangerous thing when the provider is also the host (read: controller).

Teli's datafeed import script, themes and site are all great BTW

If blogging is going to be part of your strategy, you have to host it yourself.