Loading ...
Blogger vs. WordPress – Round 2
By Jason Brubaker on February 4th, 2010Posted In: Making Graphic Novels
In the advertising world there is a simple theory that if you’re given lots of options, it’s hard to make up your mind and you’ll never buy anything. But if greeted with one or two options, it’s easy to decide and you spend lots of cash. Well, that’s what some people think anyway. Just look at Apple products. They only have one option when buying a phone. The iPhone. They only have a few options for laptops and computers….and…the iPad?
I am this way when trying to decide where to post my blog, comic or artwork online. I’ve studied all kinds of options. I tried multiple services for years with my portfolio. I learned Flash and built animated menus. I tried free portfolios. Even MySpace for some dumb reason. I’ve used many hosting sites some of which really sucked and some were okay but overwhelming when trying to settle on a hosting package. I mean, what’s SSH, SSL, CGI, Ruby, RoR, Perl, PHP, and MySQL? Please don’t answer that. I really don’t want to know.
So to make this simple, I’m not going to go into all the options, hosts, sites and portals that you can use. Instead I will focus on the two best ways for artists to start a blog or comic online. I might talk about BAD options later, but not now.
The two best options are Google’s Blogger or Wordpress.org. Both are great and could be your Internet home depending on what you want out of it. Before you decide, here are pros and cons of each that are important to me as an artist.
Google’s Blogger (Blogspot domains)
Blogger – Pros
- Blogger is super easy
- Blogger has free hosting of your blog and files.
- Blogger is easy to access from any online computer.
- Blogger does not spam your site with unwanted ads.
- Blogger has a big artist community.
- You don’t need to know any programming at all. Period.
Blogger – Cons
-
Blogger has to have (.blogspot) within you domain name. Unless you forward one to it but that costs money.
- Blogger has limited templates to choose from.
- Blogger does not have a menu bar.
- If you want to move to another host later then all your permalinks are permafried.
______________________________________________________________
WordPress.org with ComicPress template
Wordpress – Pros
- ComicPress.
- Wordpress has thousands of free plug-ins and widgets.
- which means Wordpress is easy to customize to do ANYTHING you want.
- Wordpress has the ComicPress template to help showcase your comics in addition to your blog.
- All your permalinks are registered to your domain name so they can be moved to a different host without changing your links.
- Wordpress has page options and so it could pass as a website or portfolio as well as a blog.
- Comicpress allows you to click through your comic pages easily as well as many other features.
Wordpress – Cons
- Wordpress takes a bit more time to set up.
- ComicPress takes some knowledge of CSS to customize.
- Wordpress needs a webhost to store your files.
- You need to buy a domain name and web hosting service.
- I recently noticed lots of spam comments. But this can be controlled. It’s still a little hassle.
So there you have it. If you want things as simple as possible then use Blogger but don’t expect it to be unique. If you want more info on the two then do the google search: Blogger vs. WordPress. You might want to get comfortable. It’s an endless search. But that just proves they are the two best choices.
I switched to WordPress because I wanted to start having a professional presence on the web. I wanted my site/blog to have a unique feel as well as other pages with links and information aside from my blog. I liked the idea of controlling my permalinks and content too. Here’s what reMINDblog looked like on Blogger. It’s still active but I rarely update it. But if you decide to set up a WordPress blog then I strongly recommend one host.
Bluehost.com
I’ve used many hosts before and the only one I will recommend is Bluehost. In fact Bluehost will give you a free Domain name for life if you use them as your host. It’s $6.95 a month for everything. Wordpress recommends Bluehost above all the other hosts and Bluehost is the only one to offer a Wordpress auto install. I used it and it set up everything in a minute and logged me onto my new Wordpress site. Bluehost also includes everything you need for Wordpress and Comicpress to function. Bluehost has unlimited bandwidth. This is important if your art or comic gets popular. You don’t want your site getting shut down when tons of people start flocking to it or be forced to pay more money for more bandwidth.
You will need to buy a domain name too.
Usually about $10 a year. Use Bluehost.com not Godaddy.com. I have many domain names I’ve bought over the years through Godaddy and I hate logging in because it’s a maze of confusion and unnecessary complications. And Godaddy’s customer service is like talking to death. Bluehost is very simple without all kinds of stupid add-on options slapping you in the face trying to force more money out of you like Godaddy. I’m slowly moving all my domains to Bluehost now.
The only thing that takes time to get set up is ComicPress.org. Like I said before, it takes some CSS knowledge (which I have none) if you want to change it up much. Luckily I have a good friend who knows how to do that sort of thing. The CSS thing is the biggest drawback, in my opinion. But after the initial setup, it’s been a breeze ever since. I love it! I love Bluehost. I love Wordpres.
If you decide to use Bluehost then do me a huge favor. Click through from these page links. I will get some cold hard cash for sending people there who sign up. It’s the best and only host I’ll recommend and it’s perfect for Wordpress.org.
You make me want to rethink my process! I registered my domain through a separate provider, and then hosted through Laughing Squid. The service on both ends has been low-impact (which I value above all else – nothing I hate more than buying something from someone who keeps selling to you forever!) but it does cost me a few dollars more than bluehost per month. Maybe I’ll give it a look.
And let me also recommend WordPress and ComicPress – both are exceptionally resilient, and I’ve been able to do by tinkering just about everything I’ve wanted to do so far. I know people who use Blogger, but personally, I can’t stand it. Just the very fact that leaving a message for someone requires you to engage set of menus and crosslinks and logins is annoying enough to turn me way, WAY off of it.
–M
Thanks for the thumbs up! After writing this I kept feeling like I was trying to sell something. I mean it would be great to get a commission from sending people to Bluehost but that was hardly my motive. I’ve used some awful hosts in the past so I’ve been hesitant to suggest any before.
I’ve never used Laughing Squid before so I’m not sure how to compare it. But if it’s anything like Godaddy then…well, I’m sorry. A friend of mine pretty much gave up trying to have a website because of Godaddy drama.
Anyway, all your sites look great by the way. It’s a real testament to the power of Wordpress and Comicpress. Some of my favorite bloggers use blogger so there is still as soft spot in my heart for it. But I just can’t stand using it anymore after taping into Wordpress. Thanks again for the comments!
Thanks for all the information.
I’m slowly stepping into the “creating a comic and blogging about it” water as well. The information on this site is invaluable.
…and the art’s great too.
sam
Thanks Sam. I checked out your blog just now and really enjoyed your unique storytelling and well as you comic viewing system. Keep up the great work. I look forward to seeing more of your posts.
Really great info again, Jason. My writer friend and I were having this discussion over email, so this is a really timely post for us. Lazy might still win out, but you never know…
Kelly, Glad I could help somewhat. There is just too much information out there and to many options to not talk about it a bit. I just hate wasting time and money trying to figure out the best approach to something like this. And I know there plenty people out there just now trying to figure out which way to go for a web-comic or online graphic novel. There are tons of web comic publishing websites too but they all expect you to use their servers and have their name within your web address. I was going to list a bunch I’ve come across but my answer to everything I’ve seen besides Wordpress or Blogger is the same. Don’t do it.
Blogger is good because sometimes the only reason people don’t post stuff is because it’s to complicated to do quickly and easily. If your afraid you will be to lazy then totally use blogger so it doesn’t cripple you when you run into a snag. Thanks for the comment!
What Kelly’s not mentioning is that both he and I work for [insert monolithic software giant here], so we’re not entirely newbies when it comes to that long list of alphabet soup you mention in your post. Still, even for the “annointed” this is great info — I love messing about with website design sometimes, and I can, but that drains away another hour or three of the limited time I’m willing to spend doing my creative or hobby stuff. So less value for the reader.
Also, I totally agree that finding a low-hassle domain or hosting provider is well worth an extra dollar or two; consider the extra money spent on anti-spam and anti-hassle measures. Don’t fear that you’re pimping a solution — I for one appreciate a good lead.
I am in the same boat (talking about limited free time projects). I jump around doing various things that I feel need to be done before I can continue being creative on my projects. This website was definitely one of them consuming about 2 weeks before I was satisfied and could move on.
I’m glad the info was handy though. Bluehost was introduced to my by a friend who has many websites that are pretty sophisticated so I trusted him to take the plunge.
Until recently I avoided normal web hosts because of bad experiences with them and have been using iweb with Mac. Mainly because it was so simple to use. I still use it for my main site but my only problem with it is only being able to access my website through the computer that .me is attached to. It was also impossible for me to edit templates or set up a good portfolio like I wanted. Now that I think of it there are quite a few things that I don’t like about it. ha. Talk about going off subject. Anyway, I appreciate you and Kelly’s comments!