WordPress vs, Blogger

Since I started blogging, I have used a few different tools for setting up my blogs. The first one I used was WordPress, hosted on their site, not my own. I then tried a company call Squarespace. Finally I moved onto Blogger.com, the tool provided by Google. They each had their good and bad points, and I liked each one for different reasons. WordPress and Blogger are free tools, and anything free is good in my books. Squarespace is an absolutely fantastic tool, and if you need hosting along with it they provide if for a minimal fee (around $8 per month). However, if you want a TLD (top level domain), or in the case of my blog, a subdomain, you have to upgrade to a premium hosting package, which is almost double that price. Ouch!

I am currently using Blogger, which I find to be a useful tool. It's a neat and tidy package, and it allows you to *link* to other blogs, and gives great exposure for no fees. It's also very user friendly and takes little time to set up As far as ease of use and flexibility in design, my favourite is WordPress. The biggest issue I have with WordPress, however, is the fact that you cannot advertise on your blog, which can be a main source of income for most blogs. I'm a Google Adsenser, and I need to have that capability.

After doing some reading (when I finally had a few free minutes), I checked out WordPress.org -- you can install WordPress onto your server, and host it yourself with the software. Very cool! ... This will allow me to continue to advertise with AdSense and others, and get the benefits of WordPress.

My dilemma is the amount of time it will take to switch everything over. Right now, everything is running smoothly on Blogger, and it's free. However, I can host my own blog with my current domain host, which will also be free, and WordPress will allow me to expand the blog to bigger and better things.

To switch or not to switch ... that is the REAL question.