There are many types of blog platforms on the net, but when most people talk about blogging, they only think of the three biggest and most popular platforms:

      - Blogger

      - Wordpress.com

      - & Wordpress.org

The first two are both free accounts that are hosted on a free hosting service.  While the third is free blog software that requires you two pay for your own hosting account and domain name.

If you’re not interested in shelling out any cash in order to blog, or if you’re not interested in having your own unique domain name, then by all means, use one of the first two.  If the thought of paying a small fee to have your own domain doesn’t bother you, then I strongly recommend the third choice.

Note that Wordpress.com doesn’t allow you to post ads on your blog, so you can’t make money going that route.

But enough of my opinions on the subject, let’s get to the facts about the pros and cons of each of these three platforms.

Blogger

     Pros:

          1. Easy to use interface

          2. Easy to configure layout arrangement (drag and drop all elements)

          3. Optional use of your own domain name or the free one offered

          4. Google indexes it very fast because it’s owned by them

     Cons:

          1. Can’t create pages (instead you have to use labels - which are still a part of your blog posts

          2. Limited number of add-on features that can be used as well as a limited number of themes

Wordpress.com

     Pros:

          1. Easy to use interface, though not as easy as blogger

          2. Offers widgets to help you easily customize your sidebar elements

          3. You can get extra traffic from blogs of the day and tags

          4. You can easily find blogs in the same niche as yours with tags and friend surfer

     Cons:

          1. Limited customization of themes

          2. Can’t hack the code used for blog layout and design

Wordpress.org

     Pros:

          1. Ability to upload a multitude of different themes (there are literally hundreds available)

          2. There are also hundreds of plugins available to make your blog more feature rich

          3. If you have technical skills, you have full control over changing code

     Cons:

          1. You have to pay for your own domain name and hosting account (some may not see this as a con)

          2. Requires more technical knowledge to set up and run

          3. Your responsible for stopping spam, but it does come with a spam blocker plugin

          4. You have to backup your own post database

          5. You have to upgrade to newer versions manually and the upgrade may not be compatible with your theme

There are alot of pros and cons for each of these platforms, which is why so many people have so many problems choosing the best one for their needs.  These are only short lists of the pros and cons for each, everyone has their own, and you really just need to experience them all in order to judge for yourself.

Before I started researching into the facts for this post, I would have told you that you should now ask yourself some questions, look at the pros and cons of each platform, then decide which one you should use.  But now, at the conclusion of this post, I think you should try them all.

It’s not a joke!

Set up a free blogger and wordpress.com account and play with the various features of each.  Wordpress.org is a little harder to do because it would require you to pay for a domain name and hosting account.  But play with the first two, and decide what you do and don’t like about them.  Decide if the options you’re provided are suitable enough for what you need.  Then make your decision about which to use.

If you missed my latest post, click here to learn how I make $40-$50 per month with my SMS Blog Feed and only 3 subscribers.