It happens with some relationships. Sometimes the needs of one are no longer met by the other. Perhaps something new catches the eye of the bored. Sometimes deciding to drop ol’ faithful and go with what’s popular is the reason.
Though there are some great things about Blogger, the “cons” lists, in my eyes, are not worth the “pros”.
The issues may not be as obvious until you begin to realize that after you have invested time, after some link building and have built a readership, that you are now married to Blogger.
Blogger does what’s needed and satisfies the citizen journalist, journal keeper or family poster, but if you are trying to make money or grow your blog – you must use a professional product.
Make the choice at the beginning, even if for one simple reason that becomes monumental later if your ambitions grow.
YOU WANT CONTROL OF THE DOMAIN. YourBlog.blogspot.com DOES NOT give you the control you need. After the building process, you may wish to move your blog to another server under a domain of your choice. Read this twice – you will lose your rank in the search engines and need to start over.
I know you didn’t read it twice, here it is again. – You will lose your rank in the search engines and need to start over.
You CANNOT simply redirect the blog to a new domain. You CAN use a meta-refresh, set it to 0 and HOPE it does the job. But, any true seo will cringe at this and wish a 301 possibility were there – it isn’t. Google owns your blog, the links to your blog are to google.
Don’t get married too early – your relationship is an investment. Think it through.
Amen!
dammit…i got married too early. why didn’t you tell me this during my engagement???
So… I did it. I married Blogger. So far, the marriage is working pretty well. MileHighBuzz.com is doing well even though I didn’t know any better than to do a simple redirect to denvercoffee.blogspot.com…
I just got married again… blogger polygamy? by starting MileHighParents.com – Again, using blogger, but this time using my own domain (not a redirect), which is an option blogger offers now.
Given the fact they offer the ability to now have your own domain, does this mitigate the cons of this marriage?
Thoughts?
I was so turned off of Blogger some time ago, used a meta-refresh (luckily with success) for some clients to get them on their own domain and swore against it for a long time.
Yes, it NOW allows dedicated domains but honestly I haven’t turned back – I’m kind of a WordPress tweaker now.
I heard Google Guy, Matt Cutts, speak at Pubcon in Vegas during December 2007. He specifically said Word Press is the most “search engine friendly” platform for bloggers.
Larry, I changed your NAME to YOUR NAME (spammer) and removed your link drop. Larry, you are right about wordpress for an out-of-the-box solution but there are some better custom blogging systems. Now go away.