Wordpress
seems to be the platform to rave about. It’s the essential website design tool
if you have a business, you are a celebrity or a media guru. But for those who
simply want to share ideas and articles, I have found Blogger is much better.
Here’s why.
Most
of the features on Wordpress require you to sign up for a plan. Even the
smallest thing such as the use of a font on your webpage. The message comes up: ‘purchase to use Typekit
fonts on your site’. In other words, you have to sign up for Wordpress’s
premium plan which requires a yearly fee. I don’t want to pay to use a font
when I have already paid to use Word.
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| Which is Better Wordpress or Blogger? |
On
Blogger, you can use any font you want for free.
On
Wordpress, you can’t custom the background colors of your site for free. You
have to sign up for a premium plan to do so. I didn’t know colors had to be
purchased. Are they copyrighted?
On
blogger, you can use any background color you like. You can even upload your
own image if you want.
Website Themes on Wordpress
There
are a limited number of themes you can use for free on Wordpress. Many of them
cost £50 up to £300 or more. The choice is endless on Blogger. You can use any
theme you want on Blogger for free. And many look better than those on
Wordpress that require a fee.
It
is also possible to design your own website for free by using HTML and uploading
it onto Blogger’s Google Drive, the first 15GB of which are fee. In fact, for
every Gmail account you create, you get another free 15GB free webspace on
Google Drive. The average small to medium sized website does not need to
purchase a lot of storage space from a webhosting service to create a fantastic
website, as suggested by Wordpress advocates.
Furthermore,
you cannot adjust the widths of the Wordpress site (well, I haven’t figured out
how yet) so if you want to fit a plugin, widget, or feature, on your Wordpress
webpage, it may not fit on your page because you cannot adjust the widths. Is
this also a feature that requires a premium plan sign up?
Does
Wordpress Allow Adsense Codes?
My
biggest issue with Wordpress is that you cannot input Adsense easily. With
blogger, the webmaster merely has to create original content and don’t abuse
the system. After a few months, Adsense will approve you. Once approved by
Adsense, you can easily place Adsense ads on Blogger.
In
my quest to find how to insert Adsense codes into Wordpress, I surfed Youtube
and tutorials. All have failed to prove that Adsense can easily be implemented on
Wordpress. Some of the tricks worked, others didn’t. I am not even certain that
Wordpress allows Adsense.
But,
it is possible to put Adsense into
Wordpress pages because some webmasters have managed to do so. Some people use
the ‘widget’ feature in Wordpress to paste the HTML code from Adsense. Other
people go to ‘plugins’ to do it (a little reminder here that you can’t have the
plugin feature unless you have signed up for a Wordpress plan). In other words,
you cannot use the plugin feature to insert Adsense to make a few pennies,
unless you pay for the feature. The exercise defeats the object.
In fact, there are a lot of features on
Wordpress that are not free and, in my view, are not worth paying for.
Those
who entitle YouTube clips and articles ‘How to Create a Website for Free with
Wordpress’ often uses features on Wordpress that is not available on a free
plan. So really, you cannot create a website that you really want for free on
Wordpress.
Is
Wordpress Free?
Wordpress
is free, yes, so long as you don’t mind your site looking basic. Otherwise, you
have to pay for features that are free on Blogger. Wordpress is mostly a locked
door unless you sign up for a plan.
What
I Think of Wordpress
For
the business person, Wordpress might work out cheaper than using other
platforms and paying for a website designer.
But
for those who simply want to share articles, information, videos and images, many
of the features on Wordpress demand a sign up for a plan to use basic features.
These features are simply not worth paying for. And to make matters worse,
Wordpress do not make it easy to garner a penny or two from Adsense.
Why
Wordpress is Overrated
I
have created a Wordpress website. At the moment it has few pages, and I am
unlikely to add many more. But the experience of creating a Wordpress website
has enabled me to make a comparison between Blogger and Wordpress.
Myths
of Great Website Design
Finally,
having a slick, professional looking website that compares to Apple or the
Daily Mail is possible by using Wordpress. But a great looking website does not
guarantee lots of traffic or subscribers. That comes down to interesting,
original content, good use of SEO and marketing. So in fact, a
fantastic-looking website created by using a WordPress theme might still have
the sound of windrushes blowing through it.