We regularly get a variation on the question: “Should I use WordPress or can I just use Blogger?” My answer has not changed in the year since I wrote this article.  The answer is almost always “WordPress, with one possible exception”.

The only small advantage that Blogger has over WordPress is a somewhat easier installation and maintenance routine. If you are setting up only a small, personal blog, not using it for any business needs, have no budget at all for a web presence, and want to have no need to even think of anything in technical terms, maybe Blogger will work for you. You will have much less control and customizing ability. You will also not have your own domain name. (i.e. you can not have your Blogger site at yoursitename.com.) But it does work for millions of people that want very little from their website, don’t mind how long it takes to get their site known and well read, and don’t care about search engine rankings or name recognition. Think of it this way… It is easier to ride a bike than to drive a car. But if you want to get from San Francisco to Chicago, or even just 10 miles to work tomorrow morning, it will be more efficient to drive a car rather than walk. Blogger is as simple as it gets but you pay for that simplicity in ways that may not be evident at the outset.

I have set up WordPress installations for many individuals and businesses and have really only come across one very small subset of users that have not been able to use WordPress to its fullest potential. If someone has a very limited ability to understand computers and computer programs or does not have the time to install, configure, and maintain a WordPress site, they can still get what they need by hiring one of us service providers to get it up and running for them. However, if they then don’t take the small amount of time required to maintain the site AND don’t want to pay for a very affordable monthly maintenance contract from one of us service providers, they can become quite frustrated. Their site will still work, but they won’t be getting anywhere near the full potential of what it can offer them or their business.

A WordPress site requires a very small commitment of time or a small budget to get the wide exposure needed to successfully grow your web presence. Decide to make this commitment and you will be very happy.

One of the great things about having your own WordPress site is the huge number of plugins available to you. A WordPress plugin is a small software program written to either change or add to the way WordPress works by integrating or “plugging into” the main WordPress program.  These plugins can do everything from add a small functionality to just one part of your blog to change the overall appearance and function of whole parts of your website.  There really is no limit to what they can do and there are thousands of plugins that have been written for WordPress.  The official WordPress.org repository has over 3,500 and growing and is located at this link.  In addition there are many other plugins that are available outside of the official WordPress site.

Because of the open nature of the WordPress software, people can design WordPress plugins to do almost anything they need.  Many of these plugins were designed by people who just wanted to have some additional feature that was not available with the core WordPress program.   Others have drastically changed the way certain parts of WordPress function.  After designing and implementing the plugin on their own sites, plugin authors often discover that hundreds or even thousands of other WordPress users want the same thing.

How can you navigate the wealth of WordPress plugins to decide which ones you might want to try?  Generally the first plugins on a website are installed as a result of recommendations from other people, or installed as a part the initial WordPress installation by a website services provider like myself.  Not surprisingly I am often asked which plugins I recommend to people.  Of course there are as many answers to that as there are websites, but I do have a few that I recommend everyone at least try and that I include as part of my WordPress installation service.

Stay tuned for future posts where I will cover the plugins I consider essential for any WordPress site.  As always, feel free to comment below or contact me directly if you have any WordPress questions.