How to choose between blog platforms is a common question among bloggers. The funny thing is that no one really wants to say definitively which blog platform is the best. The simplest answer to this question is that it depends on what you want to do with it. Let’s have a look at three of the more popular blog platforms so you can get a clearer idea of what you’re getting.
Blogger
Blogger.com is a perennial favorite among blog writers. It’s easy to use, especially if all you really want to do is write blogs. As of the writing of this entry, Blogger’s Alexa rank was a hefty #5.
This makes it a great blogging platform if you want to link back to your website for SEO purposes. They also have a lot of templates, are easy to customize if you know a little HTML, and their support is awesome. The main area that it falls short compared to WordPress is that there isn’t a downloadable version that you can put on a business website.
WordPress
WordPress is another huge favorite for blogging. Livejournal.com, for instance, was designed using WordPress software. Currently, WordPress has an Alexa rank of 18, which keeps it within reach of competing with Blogger. One particular advantage that WordPress has over Blogger is that your blog isn’t kept on a subdomain, so you have a slight edge in search engine rankings.
The biggest problem most people have with WordPress is that there are a lot of stipulations that you have to abide by to have them host your blog. Also, you have to pay for a lot of the customization options, which you may discover that you don’t actually need until it’s too late. The real value of WordPress over Blogger is that you can download the software and put it up on your own website to give it dynamic content, or you can host it on a site like GoDaddy to get around the many content stipulations that you would have if you hosted it on WordPress.
Tumblr
Tumblr’s Alexa ranking at the time of this writing is #53. Tumblr has a blogging option, but that’s not where the real value of it is at. Most Tumblr users don’t pay much attention to the blogs. It mostly appears to be a venue to find interesting images, retumble them, and move on.
This isn’t incredibly useful to the average user, but it can be a goldmine of traffic and business for a blogger that wants to get as much as they can for minimal effort. Essentially, have the site to where you want to direct traffic in the contact information, submit photos to a “best photos” tumblr, and let it go viral. This has great potential especially if you’re trying to snag traffic from the mobile web.
As mentioned earlier, what you want to do with your blog will determine which platform you will want to use. If you “just” want to blog and maybe back link to a website, Blogger’s perfect for you. If you want to be found more easily, don’t mind content stipulations or want to set up a blog on your own host, WordPress is perfect. If your game is to direct traffic for your business and you don’t actually want to be social about it, Tumblr is the thing for you.
Brandon W is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch
