Blogger vs Wordpress - The Search for the Best Blogging Platform - Part 4 - What makes Blogger Great (Continued)

We discussed the advantages of Blogger which happen to be shared by other hosted platforms in the previous post. In this installment, we go a little bit deeper and explore the benefits unique to Blogger.

Good AdSense and Feedburner Integration

Is it even a wonder why? Of course, Blogger, AdSense, and Feedburner are all owned by Google. We're not yet even mentioning Picasa where you flaunt your online album and where you can upload photos for your blog. This upload, by the way, could be done within Blogger and works so seamlessly. Then there's Google Analytics to talk about; then the Keyword Tool; and then the Webmaster Tools…

But among all the very useful tools and services from the same company who also owns Blogger, two deserve special mention—AdSense and Feedburner. AdSense integration, along with the rest of Blogger's benefits in this post, is what separates Blogger from the rest of the hosted platform crowd—which is why, as I've said in my previous post, it is unfair to put Blogger under the same category as the rest of them.

Other hosted platforms such as Wordpress.com and LiveJournal does not allow monetization—AdSense or otherwise—in their free service (Wordpress.com) or in any way (LiveJournal). Good for you if you are not thinking of monetizing your blog or if you even consider it as a taboo subject; but for the rest who think that a little ad won’t hurt, Blogger is the way to go. While ads can be added in Wordpress.org (no pun intended), it's so much simpler in Blogger that you need not bother with the other (yeah, yeah. I just can't help it.). You can even create your AdSense account from within Blogger! How cool is that?

You have a blog. And you are wise enough to host it with Blogger. Now, you want to offer RSS feeds for your readers so you sign up with Feedburner. Instead of using the Feedburner address or URL, you use your own and simply redirect it to Feedburner from within Blogger. This article from Feedburner support explains why you would want to redirect your feed instead of just using your Feedburner URL. It explains, in part:

Once you redirect 100% of your feed traffic to your FeedBurner feed, you get a very complete picture of your feed-consuming audience, including where it's coming from and what content it's finding most popular in your feed. That's great. But if this audience is almost entirely subscribing to feeds.feedburner.com/myexcellentcontent, they will be stranded if, for some reason, you should choose to leave FeedBurner and revert back to your original feed address or some other service.

No problems, you are using Blogger. Had you been using a different host, say self–installed Wordpress or some hosted platform, you wouldn't have been able to do the redirection (actually, it's possible with Wordpress but you have to tinker with what they call the CNAME variable in your domain registrar's interface and do the redirect from there or perhaps with an additional complexity of a plug–in; but, you get the idea). Therefore, you have to use the Feedburner URL.

There are two problems with that though:

1. www.mydomain.com/feeds looks much more professional than www.feedburner.com/yourdomain;
2. if you decide to transfer from Feedburner in the future, your RSS URL would change from www.feedburner.com/yourdomain to www.anotherrss.com/yourdomain—loosing readers along the way who have already subscribed to your feed using the previous URL.

If you use your own feed URL, it will stay the same even if you change RSS providers as this is your own URL. You'll simply have to redirect it again to the new provider's URL. However, you still get the benefit of Feedburner since your own feed URL is redirected to theirs. To sum this up, Blogger + Feedburner = Perfect Combination.

Configurable

This, along with the immediately preceding and all succeeding points are not what you would normally ascribe to hosted platforms like Blogger. But then again, Blogger is not your average hosted platform. It would bench–press your car and run a couple of laps just for its warm–up.

No other hosted platform could even approach the configuration potential of Blogger (I would have used "configurability" had it been a word). There are a lot of Gadgets you can add to your blog to increase its functionality and coolness factor from within Blogger. And in case you need something it does not provide, there is a catch–all Gadget called HTML/JavaScript which would enable you to add third–party functionality or other code to your blog. If this wasn't enough, you are allowed to roll up your sleeves and tweak the template code directly, if you don't mind a little grease. If you know (X)HTML/CSS, this ability to tweak the code directly would give you a degree of control which is limited only by your skill and imagination.

Other hosted platforms would not allow you the same liberties. Some, for a fee, would allow you to do a fraction of what Blogger allows for free.

As to this point, Wordpress still reigns supreme—no pretensions. There are still things you can do in Wordpress that you cannot do in Blogger. But practically speaking, these things are few and far between. Sometimes, for most bloggers, the additional flexibility is not worth the hassle of using Wordpress and making it work; and Blogger's advantages more than make up for Wordpress' seeming advantage in this area.

Flexible Design

Blogger has been criticized for not having design flexibility. This is probably because of the perceived flexibility other platforms have due to the number of templates available such as in the case of Wordpress.com. But that is not flexibility. In Wordpress.com, while there are more templates, you are still limited to them. Even though Blogger has fewer templates, your flexibility is, in fact, limited only by your own skills and imagination as said earlier because you are allowed to modify the template code itself. This cannot be said of Wordpress.com where you cannot touch the HTML and CSS code unless you pay for a premium price.

Additionally, you can use the Page Elements view of Layouts to drag and drop design elements in an almost WYSIWYG fashion. In this department, Wordpress does not really have an upper hand unlike in the previous point because, with skill, you can also craft your blog in whatever way that suits you. If you want, it is possible to download other Blogger templates from sites other than Blogger.com. You can even hire a professional designer to do the job if you are somewhat artistically challenged.

Control of my URL

Another of those so–called disadvantages of hosted platform that plainly does not apply to Blogger is the lack of control of your URL. It goes something like this: Wordpress is more professional because you have your own URL like www.name.com. In hosted platforms, according to them, you get name.blogspot.com or name.wordpress.com. Well guess what? You don't have to settle for blogspot.com if you don't want to. You can use your own URL—for free! The most important thing here is that you have an option. If you want your own URL, you can buy one and use it in Blogger. If you don't want to be bothered with it, fine. In the case of Wordpress, you just have to hit the road and shop for a URL. No URL, no dice.

Easy Transfer to a Different Host

While it is true that it's difficult to move to a different host if you are on a hosted platform, this does not apply to Blogger. Blogger has defined methods of backing up your whole blog or, in the alternative, exporting it so that you can transfer it later to a different host. No headaches here so keep that Advil stored.

Retain Traffic

Since I could use my own URL, I need not loose my traffic if I would decide to move in the future. Regardless of my host, my URL remains the same. So, all bookmarks and links will still work and regulars could still reach me if they type in my URL in the address bar.

To end this list, it should be noted that Blogger can be used by beginners but is not limited to them. There is a lot of room for advanced bloggers to play. The nice thing is that these advanced features are hidden under the hood so as not to intimidate beginners or those who don't want to get down and dirty. The design caters to both beginners and advanced. This is in stark contrast to other platforms which are either difficult for advanced users to tweak (most hosted platforms like Wordpress.com) or for beginners to use (most self–installed platforms like Wordpress.org). But since these advanced features are hidden, a lot of folks mistakenly think that they aren't there.

Wow, with benefits exemplified in the previous post and myths de–myth–ified in this current post, we are now ready to end this series. But not quite yet. In the final installment, we will answer if Blogger, being the greatest of them all, is the best answer to every platform question. Let us also take the chance to explore the other types of users and the possible platform for them.