Every time I recommend a friend of mine to blog, one of the usual queries (if not the first) is how do I blog? True, every other social network is offering you a blog these days. You also got Blogger, WordPress, Live Journal, etc. But the most common answer to this question is ‘WordPress’. I will explain my reasons – why.
Why use
WordPress?
Blogging is about expressing your views and opinions about a topic/theme as effectively as possible. The blogging system you use, thus, should be as less-intrusive in the process of blogging as possible. Once you install WordPress, WordPress will take care of everything else and let you focus on writing blogs. there is no other blogging tool with the ease of writing posts with WordPress or one that has a media library as powerful and as simplistic as WordPress.
However, no matter how simple the tool can be – there is always some learning curve. The good thing about WordPress is that this learning curve is almost non-existent. I have been now blogging on WordPress for over 2 years (I started in June 07) and I never faced a hindrance where I would have to look for another solution.
WordPress also has its set of richly developed plug-ins, most of them contributed by an extremely active community. To add to that, WordPress is very easy to code and design. In fact, of all the CMSs out there, there is hardly a CMS as easy as WordPress.
If you are new to blogging and looking out to learn stuff from references, do check these people out. I learned loads from them:
- Darren Rowse (ProBlogger)
- Lorelle VanFossen
- Cats Who Code.com
- and check out all the good things on wordpress.org
All good things said and done, one of the real good reasons for using WordPress is its theming support. Yes, almost every CMS has a theming engine – true! But WordPress is both simple and powerful at the same time. To add to that, there are numbers of awesome WordPress themes available for you to use (like I do), or if you want you can design your own theme (like the one here on Digimantra) – it’s very easy.
WordPress 2.8.3 has just been released, head over to wordpress.org to try it out now or if you already blog with WordPress, upgrade today.
Also watch out for WordPress 2.9 coming soon
Have fun
Kinshuk
I think the reasons u give for wordpress being better are incorrect. The learning curve is steep to put it mildly! Just the fact that you have to install the CMS onto a server can be overwhelming for a newbie.
The ‘wonderful plugins’ you talk of.. They all require installation and at times theme modification. Would u ever allow a newbie to access the install directory of ur site? Newbies don’t bother about making their blog seo friendly or installing the retweet button, they just want to blog and for that, blogger just works!
Blogger allows for that u mention above, without the headache of installation and making sure everything is working fine. It works out of the box.
Did u say themes? Do me a favor, google for ‘blogger themes’ please?
- Asfaq
Asfaq, we all are entitled to our subjective opinions
True, that Blogger takes care of all installation and stuff and ‘works out of the box’ so does your wordpress.com account.
But to a blogger (which, a dedicated newbie will grow into in a couple of months) the complete control of the finer nuances is important – nothing beats wordpress in its simplicity and finesse here.
It is grossly unfair to say that wordpress has a steep learning curve. and since we are talking of subjective opinions, despite blogging for 2 years, I still fumble around in Blogger, while so do a lot of people I know. At the end of the day, your choice of tool becomes a factor of your comfort using it.
Nothing stated above is untrue about wordpress
Subjective opinions, I agree! I fumble around with blogger to this day too, but nothing beat the joy of writing posts straight off the block in the haydays!
I just re-read my comment above and I seem to have come off a little stiff. I promise to not comment at 6am anymore!
Apart from custom post URLs, show me one thing you cant do with Blogger.
well, the post was never about how wordpress is better than other tools, the post was all about how wordpress lets you blog while taking care of everything else.
as you do agree with me, one thing blogger cant do is stop its user fumbling around
And, i dont think in todays feature-crazy world, blogger would be lacking any feature (wordpress’s media management is better though).
for me one of the most important reasons is that with wordpress, you decide what you want to do with your blog. With blogger, choices are given to you, but the strategic decisions are made by google. google decides what can be, and what cant.
Huh? Was the post abt “how wordpress lets you blog while taking care of everything else”? Wow.. I have lost the cluetrain then.
Sorry for being a troll. Have a nice day!