Pros:
- Can email articles and photographs in from my Google G1 mobile phone.
- Don't need to maintain any scripts on my hosting account as it uploads via FTP.
- Some evidence that Google indexes Blogger pages more quickly because Google own Blogger.
- Its published under my own domain name.
- By hosting the pages outside the Blogger/Google network I have some protection from pages being taken down for legal reasons. Anyone complaining would have to contact my ISP, and because they are in Ireland it makes any threat of legal action slightly more difficult.
- No ads.
Cons:
- Publishing via FTP from Blogger.com is getting slower and slower because it insists on uploading all the pages in the blog rather than just the ones that have changed.
- Not hosting it on Blogger's own servers means I can't use some of the new Blogger features like "followers".
- Means maintaining a web hosting account for it with sufficient resources and enough reliability (my hosting is actually very reliable, but Blogger hosted blogs have greater redundancy).
- Some difficulty maintaining my custom Blog template when Blogger make changes.
- People leaving comments have to have a Blogger account or I have to leave it entirely open (which is undesirable).
Because of these issues I am considering moving to either a Blogger hosted blog or a Wordpress blog.
This is how I have compared the different options.
Blogger hosted blog:
Pros:
- Reliable.
- All Blogger functions will work.
- Publishing should be faster.
- Templates should be easier to update.
- Will still be able to post via email.
Cons:
- Ads may appear on my blog.
- Less security against malicious takedowns and legal threats.
- Possible to have it under a new domain - for a fee.
Wordpress hosted blog:
Pros:
- Reliable.
- Better templating than Blogger.
Cons:
- Ads - but only shown to people who have not logged in as Wordpress users.
- Less functions/gadgets than a Blogger hosted blog.
- Possible to have it under a new domain - for a fee.
Wordpress blog hosted on my own hosting account:
Pros:
- More control over malicious takedowns and legal threats than a Wordpress hosted blog.
Cons:
- Will have to maintain and update my own copy of the Wordpress scripts.
- Server load issues of running the scripts might cause problems for my web host or increase my hosting costs.
In addition to this I need to decide what to do with my existing blog. I might just let it continue to run, but add new posts to the new blog. The new blog will (of course) have a zero page rank initially. Either way I know that the current system I am using is starting to creak heavily and I need to make a decision. Any suggestions or advice gratefully received.
