5 Reasons Not to Use Blogger
Posted by Mike | Filed under BloggingThis post was guest posted by Zac Davis from NightHacker.net.
Introduction
Blogger. It is probably the most popular blogging service, and definitely the most popular free blogging service. In an earlier post by Juggler, he explained the benefits of using Blogger. Now, I will explain to you the disadvantages of using it.
5 Reasons Not to Use Blogger
1. The pros don’t use it. Think, when was the last time you came across a professional blog hosted at a blogspot domain? For me, it is never.
2. Limited customizability. There are very few themes available for Blogger, whereas for WordPress.com, there are 63 themes available. Also, I have not been able to add too many widgets to Blogger blogs, but WordPress.com supplies many, which are easily dragged and dropped right into the sidebar.
3. You aren’t promoting your blog, you’re promoting Blogger. Think about it, every backlink you get goes to the blogspot domain, thus promoting Blogger. Also, with the navigation bar at the top of everyone’s Blogger blog, your blog would never be mistaken for anything other than that.
4. Your blog has no monetary value. You can’t sell you blog after all your hard work. You can’t even sell a domain, since a Blogger blog uses a subdomain.
5. Blogger is the official home of the splog. Yep, most spam blogs you see come straight from Blogger. Therefore, iwhen(not if, when) someone sees that you are using Blogger, they will automatically think, “Hey, this is probably another splog, or trashy blog with misinformation, I wouldn’t trust this with my life.” What would that do to your readership?
Conclusion
Those are my five reasons for not using Blogger, and five reasons that you shouldn’t as well. Some people will naturally disagree with me, but I would like to know why. And I don’t want “cuz itz eezy”. First off, if you’re typing like that, you shouldn’t be blogging. Second off, how is it easier than using WordPress.com? Finally, I would also like to know other people’s reasons for not using Blogger.
I agree, partially. I started with Blogger and I think it provides a good launch pad/learning ground for beginning Bloggers. I’ve since moved to a hosted domain using Wordpress, but I have friends that are thinking about blogging and I recommended that they set up a Blogger account and a Wordpress.com account, just to get their feet wet. This will let them make an informed decision about next steps. For some, Blogger.com or Wordpress.com might be just right for them.
It is also incredibly hard to find advertisers. I always deny someone when they say “$5 and I will review you on *.blogspot.com”
Blogger is one of the best free blogging services that I have ever seen. It’s not good as a self hosted wordpress but it’s far better than any other free online blog hosting services.
Limited customizability?? Blogger might not provide lots of themes themselves but there are sites which provide themes for blogger. The top navigation of blogger can be removed if you use such themes made by others except blogger.
We can also host our blogger in our own domain name and webspace and by doing this we are promoting our domain name.
Everyone, thanks for your comments.
@Gamer, well removing the Blogger Navigation Bar is against the Terms of Service. So when someone reports you, Google is likely to shut down your blog. Also, I have seen those free theme sites for blogger, and not one has installed working perfectly on the first try, and you almost always have to manually edit the code one way or another. That is why I recommend WordPress.com.
Another reason not to use Blogger, in my opinion, is that you have a distinct lack of control over your content. What if one day you come to find your blog deleted? Personally, if someone were to ask my opinion on where they should head if they wanted to ‘try out’ blogging is somewhere like Vox (disclaimer: I haven’t used Vox in over a year)–a place with community in place that will provide a sort of training wheels for a budding blogger.
Great post Zac!
Dustin: “What if one day you come to find your blog deleted?”
Yeah, but hopefully, that won’t happen. And if it will, Google should at least notify the blog owners…
While I partially agree with the points you’ve made, I think the whole “stay away from blogger!” hype is just that: hype.
I have been using Blogger for five months now, and I have yet to be disappointed. I get free hosting for my blog, they let you completely customize your layout (with the exception of removing the Blogger bar), and it’s extremely easy to use.
Though I wouldn’t recommend it for a professional blogger, I would strongly recommend it for a professional who wants to blog about their profession.
Still, you bring up some very valid and impossible-to-argue-with points Zac.
Thanks Juggler, and Tanner.
@Tanner, VERY TRUE about the fact that it isn’t really for pros.