Why I Still Use Blogger

Over the past several months, many of my fellow bloggers have been buzzing about switching to WordPress. Many have already transitioned to the other blogging platform. Take, for example, Kristen at Inkthinker, Beth at Shenanigans, and Deb at Freelance Writing Jobs. Michele at Writing the Cyber Highway was also contemplating WordPress a few months back, but right now she's still using good ol' Blogger like I am.

The usual reasons for switching to WordPress are as follows:

1. Hosting your blog on your own domains produces better traffic (and more professional credibility*) than a .blogspot.com or .livejournal.com URL.
2. WordPress is more customizable, so you can add an "about this blog" page, set posts to automatically publish in the future, and add a whole bunch of really cool plug-ins.

Sounds great, right? Call me crazy, but this blog will be staying with Blogger for the foreseeable future. Here's why:

1. Actually, as of a year ago, Blogger does allow you host to your blog on your own domain so the first point is moot.
2. WordPress' endless options for plug-ins, upgrades, and widgets can cause a lot of headaches, too.

Trust me, I use WordPress at work, and I've spent a big chunk of the last three months with the IT department trying to unravel a laundry list of WordPress problems. There's a mysterious afflication we call "Blank Box Syndrome" (or BBS for short) that makes adding links a huge hassle. There's the ginormous amount of memory that WordPress sucks up that makes my computer (new as of April 2007 and with a major memory upgrade since then) function at the speed of my family's first computer (circa 1992). There's also the issue of permalinks, which we improperly configured when we first set up the blogs and still haunt me to this day.

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a technophobe, and I was blissfully unaware of all these potential problems until I started using WordPress. Blogger sets up the permalinks for you using your headline and the publish date (WordPress's default uses numbers, which is not as search engine-friendly). Blogger makes adding links really simple, and, aside from a few schedule Blogger maintenance times, I have no complaints about slow response times in Blogger. It's true that in Blogger you can't post-date and publish in the future, like if you were going on vacation, but the post via email feature offers a bit of a compromise.

Yes, I'm aware of the benefits of hosting your blog on your own domain, and that's something I plan to explore in 2008. (What do you think: should it be an extension of my professional website? Or on its own domain?) In any case, I'm sticking with Blogger.

If you'd like to explore more on the WordPress vs. Blogger debate, then check out these posts from other bloggers:

Best Blog Software for Writers
Making That Switch from Blogger to WordPress
Migrating Your Blog from Blogger to WordPress

*Ironically, that post came from a Blogger user, who writes the opposing viewpoint here.