Blogging Tips #3: Wordpress, Blogspot/Blogger, and Tumblr

By Michael H. on March 2, 2012

photo from flickr.com, uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/6812988187/

(This is part of a mini-series on blogging. The previous two posts can be found HERE and HERE.)

Though there are multiple ways to blog, there are three major platforms that word process for you so that you don’t need to edit the HTML coding. I’m sure that there are even more platforms that I don’t know about. The three that I’m going to write about (WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr) are the typical beginner platforms. The reason behind using a word processing platform is that you don’t need to pay for the domain space. All three of the platforms will host your blog for you. Each site will feature popular blogs that use their platform, albeit using different methods.

WordPress

WordPress has its own benefits as a platform. It works very well for a large number of users. If you have multiple contributors to the same blog (like blog.uloop.com, for example) then WordPress will allow one person to set up an administrative account while the other accounts can contribute, but with limited administrative ability. As far as I am aware, Blogger and Tumblr do not have this option. (Tumblr allows you to post submissions by other users to your blog, but those people still have to have their own separate account.) This makes WordPress and excellent choice if you already have an established audience and simply wish to employ multiple writers. I found WordPress to have the most options in regards to customizing your posts, but this makes it slightly less user-friendly than Blogger or Tumblr. However, there are videos on YouTube that can help a new user figure out the interface.

Blogger

Blogger is probably best choice for an individual blogger. Blogger is supported by Google, which allows you to apply their AdSense ads to your blog. This supplies an easy way to make a blog profitable if you get enough traffic. They also allow you to pay for a higher positioning in relevant Google searches. This can bring you a larger audience, but it does cost money that you may or may not be able to make back on the blog alone. Again, that all depends on how popular your blog becomes. The platform is incredibly simplistic, which is actually why I chose to use it for my year-long blogging venture.

Tumblr

Tumblr is just as user-friendly as Blogger. The difference is that Tumblr focuses on “micro-blogging.” Essentially, the best blogs have an incredibly narrow niche. You follow users who post content to their blogs that is relevant to your interests, and “reblog” posts with content that matches the content on your blog. I’m not entirely aware of the end goal with Tumblr, but as far as I know it is mostly used as a form of social networking. Some creative users (clothing designers, button/letter designers, etc.) like to put their products online using Tumblr and benefit from the reblogging process.

As you can see, there are several major differences between the platforms. Choose whichever platform you think is best for reaching the goals that you have in mind for yourself. Keep in mind what has been mentioned in previous blogs about how to treat your audience and the kind of content that will draw people to your blog.

Hope you enjoyed this addition to the series. Thanks for reading!

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