Using Blogger and Wordpress.com as its main website
Using Blogger and Wordpress.com as your primary website
• Although Blogger and Wordpress.com started as just blogging sites, both have since expanded their options for additional fixed pages, menu complexity, and template flexibility to the point where they are reasonable options for building a website. |
Using Blogger and Wordpress.com as your primary website |
• Advantages:
1. It’s free!2. The basic versions are pretty easy to use.
3. You don’t need any special software to maintain it.
4. Blogger, in particular, has enough options for customizing its templates, that you can build a nice site with an individual look. Put that together with getting your own domain name and pointing it to the blogspot site and you can do a nice web presence on a tight budget.
• Disadvantages:
1. It just doesn’t convey a professional approach that suggests a serious, career-focused author. It’s still a Blogger or Wordpress.com site and most people can recognize it as such. (That Blogger favicon is a dead giveaway.)2. No backups. If you mess something up and accidentally delete pages or posts, you’re up to the creek.
3. A limited number of pages available and limited formatting options (though with Wordpress.com, you can pay for additional features.)
4. Your content is at the mercy of Google (owner of Blogger) or Wordpress.com. You need to pay close attention to the terms of service and be very careful of them. If you violate them – or even if you’re ACCUSED of violating them – those sites will suspend or delete your site without notice or appeal. If that happens your odds of getting your site restored are practically zero.
• What you should do if you go this way:
1. Create the standard basic pages that an author site needs like bio, booklist and contact information.2. Customize your template so that it doesn’t look like everyone else’s.
3. Register a domain name and point it to your Blogger or Wordpress.com site. (See notes below.) Note: You don’t have to get that domain through Wordpress.com, whatever they tell you. You can register a domain at another registrar and forward it to the Wordpress.com site.
4. Make sure you keep your own backups of your site content.
