My Google Blogger Experience: Wordpress.org vs Blogspot

When I started blogging a few years ago my immediate choices were Wordpress.com (free blogging platform) and Blogspot. Though Wordpress had the most beautiful themes while Blogspot’s were BLAH, yes, that’s the only way I could describe their themes, I was not impressed by the limitations of the WP platform.

After creating a WP blog and a Blogspot blog I decided to see where the most success was. Success, not in terms of money, but rather, internet presence. I knew at the time that building an audience for what I had to say was the key to making a name on the internet.

The difference was almost instantaneous as the WP blog just sat there while my Blogspot blog started getting readers from all over the globe. I closed the WP blog when I decided that it was not worth my time. Of course I have little to no online marketing skills so maybe that was my Wordpress downfall.

“Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.”

— Pat Conroy

My blogging experience equals some success

In 2011 I started two linked based blogs where I posted links from my HP articles on Blogger. Of course at the time we could link our articles directly to our blog and create an immediate backlink. That feature has since been disabled with the infamous Google Panda Update.

One of those blogs was a blog about cooking. With the changes being made where I could no longer post my links directly, and webmasters being penalized for linked based webpages, I was frantic about closing my blog. I kept it and started posting real articles and recipes.

Between midyear 2012 and December 2013 my recipe blog visitors moved from a mere 2000+ to over 160,000. Within a year I collected a number of payments from Google which absolutely told me that I was doing something right. Did I also mention that my blog was also making regular Amazon sales? This with only 11 posts and around 13 static pages!

“Developing your blog is a balancing act between appeasing current readers and reaching out to new ones.”

— Scribendi

Moving to hosting with Wordpress.og

The decision to move to a my own hosted WP website was fast, based on several factors. Google started closing several of its blogs with affiliate links, another blog of mine was a victim. I also read somewhere that having a hosted website was more secure so I took the plunge.

Several months before, I had purchased a domain and pointed it to my blog so I thought that since I was already using my own domain name that I would do well. Not so. I had no inclination what a 301 redirect was and so I lost all my backlinks when I migrated.

The good thing is, I did not, (or rather could not) delete my Blogger blog no matter how hard I tried, so I made it private and unsearchable by search engines, but kept all my pages and posts intact. This while trying to build on the WP site. I did everything for the website including social media marketing and onsite SEO.

Nothing worked. With Blogger all I did was post and "let Google run its course". From January to November 2014 my now hosted WP website saw less than 600 visits with absolutely no Amazon sales. I decided to move back to Blogger after thinking long and hard.

On November 7, 2014 I made the transition, redirected my posts and pages and within 24 hours my visitors moved from an average of 7 visits per day to 51. See table below for ongoing stats report. Please note that the blog is set NOT to track my own views.

Blog stats as of November 7, 2014 - Transition Day

Blogger vs Hosted Wordpress

Wordpress is great, with awesome plugins and even more awesome themes which you can customize to suite your taste. It’s much easier to edit the code in a WP theme than Blogger or add your own CSS. With a Worpdress served by a hosting provider (one click installs) you can do whatever you will with your website. You can place adsense and any affiliate links you like. This WP version is powered by Wordpress.org under the GPL (General Public License).

Blogger offers the same freedom with conditions. You may use any affiliates and ads but, you run the risk of having Google close your blog if they determine your blog to be a spam site. So Blogger is better for niches. But you can post random articles without monetizing and you will be fine. Personally I prefer to use WP.org for my personal website.

The advantage with Blogger is that it is directly connected to the Google network and as soon as you click the publish button your blog becomes visible to other bloggers and it search engines. The traffic filters in faster than with your own website so I am willing to forgo the elegance of a WP theme to the dowdy look of Blogger in order to bring in the bacon.

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That He May Increase….

It seems that Google crawler work faster on their own platform and this is the lure. As far as I can see this is the only advantage it has over anything but if you can work around their plain old templates you can build a beautiful website. The secret is to either modify one of their original themes to make it your own or to use a WP theme that that has been ported to Blogger (my own recommendation).

How to Import and Export your Blog

© 2014 Carolee Samuda

Comments

Guruprasadh on June 03, 2015:

@cardisa: For me domain name is just convenience. How easy someone could remember! So it be blogger or wp. Domain name is important. Few people try to keep some good sub domain names blocked in blogger. So sad!

LindaSmith1 from USA on June 03, 2015:

I use 2 platforms, blogger and weebly. It use to not make a difference if I had a paid domain or not. Sites that don't, are getting very little traffic. Those with a paid domain on blogger, the traffic is slowing coming back. When I went with Weebly, a paid domain, I average 200 views a day on those sites. IMO a paid domain is the way to go.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on June 03, 2015:

That's true Wordsofguru, as with any blogging platform, even WP. That's why I purchase my own domain name and point my blog to it.

Guruprasadh on June 03, 2015:

The only problem with blogger is most of the readers assume you are not serious if they look at 'blogspot.com' domain name. But I found serious bloggers who blogged since 2002 in blogger. Opinion differs!

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on May 31, 2015:

Hi Nate, Blogger works better with niche sites. Google bots try to classify content and if you have too many topics on the same blog, they are not able to classify so wont send enough traffic your way. Only a few bloggers have used multiple topics on the same blog and succeed.

Nathan Bernardo from California, United States of America on May 30, 2015:

I've experimented with Blogger, with a little success, and have wondered how well a blog would do on there in the long run. Maybe I'll try putting up a few niche sites and see how it goes. Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on March 19, 2015:

Thank for your comment Butch. While Wordpress my be easier to use when adding static pages and menus, Blogger does bring in more traffic.

Butch Tool from Southern California on March 18, 2015:

Great information. I have also been considering which blog site would be better. This is a great comparison.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on March 16, 2015:

Thanks Vicki, I appreciate you stopping by.

Vicki Green from Wandering the Pacific Northwest USA on March 16, 2015:

Thank you for sharing your experiences - most interesting and helpful.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on February 16, 2015:

You're welcome Ron :)

Ronald E Franklin from Mechanicsburg, PA on February 16, 2015:

Thanks, Cardisa. That info really helps.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on February 16, 2015:

Linda, since he already has a Google account it would be the same across the board for all Google apps, same account. At this point the email address is of little importance. All he needs to do is sign in to his Google account and and create a blogger profile from there.

LindaSmith1 from USA on February 16, 2015:

If you go to Blogger, for Adsense, your email has to be same as your Adsense account. You can have a different email account for your use, but blogger and Adsense have to be under same email account.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on February 16, 2015:

Hi Ron. Your HP email address needn't be the same as your Google email address. There shouldn't be any problem with setting up a new Blogger account unless you have two Adsense accounts which is against the rules. I assure you that something is more likely to go wrong with HP than with Blogger. Google owns Blogger and so long as you stick to their rules about publishing there, you should be fine. I worry more about my HP account than with Blogger because HP is more likely to have hackers than Blogger. The good think with Adsense is you can report views and click which are unusual. This gives you a term of reference to fall back on should you have an issue.

With blogger , you can block traffic from certain URLs which are not healthy. (You would need someone to help you with that)

Ronald E Franklin from Mechanicsburg, PA on February 15, 2015:

Cardisa, I've read this with great interest. Very informative. I have 3 WordPress.com blogs, but I'm thinking of adding another blog for a specific niche I want to address. I'd love to be able to monetize it by using Blogger, but I'm concerned that if I use my HubPages AdSense account, and something were to happen with the blogger account, I might suddenly find myself shut out of AdSense here on HP. Also, my existing Google account is based on a different email address from the one used to set up AdSense here on HP. Will that work? If you have any thoughts about these issues, I'd appreciate hearing them.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on January 28, 2015:

Iskhoso, thanks for stopping by. You are right, blogger blogs are immediately crawled as opposed to WP.

Iftikhar ul Sami from Pakistan on January 27, 2015:

Hi Cardisa,

I am new at HubPages as well as recently started blogging on blogger. Before joining blogger I went through comparisons between WordPress and Blogger, then I decided to go with blogger. In my opinion blogger has an edge of word press as your blog immediately found on search engines.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on December 04, 2014:

It takes a long time for WP or other websites to get traffic whereas Blogger blogs are instantly crawled and appears in their blog list.

peachy from Home Sweet Home on December 04, 2014:

i agree that blogger is better because the share medias are great and the views shows in the account. Every article I get 22 views.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 16, 2014:

Linda I'll email you about the solution to that.

LindaSmith1 from USA on November 15, 2014:

Yes I have adsense with HP. My blogs are under a different email address for the Adsense account that Adsense shut down. They let me open another one, under another email address which is what I use here at HP. I don't want to push my luck by trying to add the old email address that was used for the account they closed. I get traffic between blogs, HP and Weebly so I can still create new blogs under the new adsense account email address, and get traffic from HP and the other blogs.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 15, 2014:

Linda, don't you have Adsense for the HP account? I think you can use that.

As for me, I am going with blogger for my niche sites. What I have been doing is downloading my blog every few days in case of emergency and I have to move back to WP.

LindaSmith1 from USA on November 15, 2014:

My hubs for the most part can be split in a couple of niches. The blogs I have now lost the adsense account, so I will have to find another one. But, when I start another blog, it will go under the new adsense account email. I might keep the few weebly sites I have since I have paid for one, and the other 2 have been there for over a year but no sales, nothing from those 2. However, I can link them to my blogs or hubs that are in their niche.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 15, 2014:

Linda I have to agree. My recipe blog is doing better than HP in contrast to only 15 posts and 14 pages with 170+ hubs here. I have decided to create different niches with my articles. I am not closing my HP account only organizing it into specific content.

I had one article on Squidoo (which I forgot about), it was transported here and another account created so I'll keep that account and move some of my articles there as well.

LindaSmith1 from USA on November 15, 2014:

I just checked my blogs. Traffic is up on both. One, with nothing on it in comparison to amount of hubs, has passed HP in views. Even my weebly sits are picking up while HP is essentially stagnating.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 15, 2014:

Hi Teaches. I have used both versions of Wordpress and I love their themes, but when it comes to traffic, I have to give Blogger the edge.

Dianna Mendez on November 15, 2014:

I have heard Blogger is a good sight with improved service. I use WordPress for my personal blog but I will look into Blogger if I decide to go further. Thank you for posting your experience and the results. It helps!

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 12, 2014:

Hello MasterDripper, I have had huge success with Amazon sales on my food blog. I think the secret is sticking to one topic on your blog. Google prefers niches sites over content farms and they closed a blog of mine that I posted random articles and Amazon affiliate links on.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 12, 2014:

Prairieprincess, alomost every article I have read about WP and Blogger says that the hosted WP is better, but I could not agree less. I found success with Blogger and like a prodigal child I returned.

MasterDripper on November 12, 2014:

thank you for sharing your experiences with these sites...I have a blog for a couple of years but as you point out the use of backlinks has been eliminated...I would be interested in the details on having amazon on the blog...thanks

Sharilee Swaity from Canada on November 11, 2014:

Cardisa, how refreshing to read something positive about Blogspot! I have been on Blogspot for about 5 years, but had felt recently that perhaps I should switch because blogger groups I belonged to, were almost exclusively on self-hosted sites. Reading your hub, though, shows me that maybe there is hope for my Blogspot blog, after all.

Thanks for sharing your journey!

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Thanks!

LindaSmith1 from USA on November 11, 2014:

Cardisa: Your caroleesamuda give a 500 error.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Thanks Ruby. I appreciate the support.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Hi James. My blog Carolee's Voice (http://caroleesamuda.com) is a hosted WP site. There are two ways to pay for a WP site, one is where you upgrade from the free version at Wordpress.com and the other is to find a hosting provider and do your own thing. Getting your own domain at a hosting provider is better, so I hope you aren't planning on upgrading on the free WP.

When you decide to go hosted, I'd be happy to help you with the designing.

Thanks for reading and supporting.

Ruby Jean Richert from Southern Illinois on November 11, 2014:

I'm afraid I am not into either, but i enjoy your articles here on HP. Here's wishing you much success...

James W. Nelson from eastern North Dakota on November 11, 2014:

Love the cartoon, and great job on your Blogger blog "Ravaging Beauty." I wish I had even half your online skills, Carolee. I now am building a site at the free WordPress. Also reading a book "Build Your Author Platform" by Carole Jelen and Michael McCalister. (After I've read most of the book I'll make the transition to the paid WP.) In the book they lean heavily toward Wordpress, so that's when I left Weebly.

Consequently, while learning and building I've been way too busy.

Thanks for a great hub, my friend!

James W. Nelson

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Thanks :)

LindaSmith1 from USA on November 11, 2014:

Done. What you have done with Blogger is amazing.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Linda, check your email. and send me the link to the other blog.

LindaSmith1 from USA on November 11, 2014:

I want to change both of mine, but have no idea as to how to do it.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Susan, great decision. I regret moving away in the first place. My traffic would have tripled by now and I'd be making lots of money from Adsense and Amazon.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Linda, yes it has fooled many people...lol. Some people actually thought it was a regular real website! Last night I changed the recipe template so now it looks different. Blogger can look like a real website you just have to teak it a bit.

Susan Zutautas from Ontario, Canada on November 11, 2014:

I'm with blogger and after reading your hub I think I'll stay put :) Thanks!

LindaSmith1 from USA on November 11, 2014:

The url you gave is to a blogger blog???OMG!!

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Hi Keesha, you can start a blog on Blogger and see what happens before you make your decision. I have had such success with Blogger that I am thinking of putting all my online stuff there. I have a very new blog, only three days old and it already has 74 views. For a new blog that's a lot given that it has no following. I wish you every success.

Keesha Metcalfe from The Beautiful Caribbean island of Jamaica on November 11, 2014:

Hey Cardisa great article! Thanks for sharing your experience. I have 3 blogs on WP and I get very little organic traffic. I never ever thought of using Blogger but now that you've mentioned the benefits I am definitely going to check it out for myself.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 10, 2014:

Ms Lizzy, it's a pity that your blogs are just sitting there not adding pennies to your account. You have five blogs, that's a lot, but with a little effort you could organize your content into niches/categories for each blog and monetize. You might be surprised how much money you can actually make.

Liz Elias from Oakley, CA on November 10, 2014:

I've had my blogs for varying amounts of time; the oldest being over 3 years old; the newest less than a year.

I've never tried to make money from them; they are more for just random posting, and I first started before I discovered HP.

I looked at WP, and frankly, your statement of "easier to deal with code" .. is what steered me to Blogger. I saw the WP blog as being more suitable for those more technically-able and inclined, which I am not.

Blogger is easy.

Having said all that; my newest post on any of them is months old. They are all 5 of them sadly neglected. I do more here, on FB and now also on Bubblews than on my blogs.

Voted up, Interesting and useful.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 10, 2014:

I'd be happy to be of help Don. I think it's a good idea to keep your personal blog on Wordpress, it's more suited for that. Blogger has become more of the commercial, money making blogging platform so it's a great idea to monetize. Might as well make money from it.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 10, 2014:

Hi Linda, to make Blogger look like a website (www.healthsmart4u.com), you have to learn some html in order to tweak the menu.

For the classic Blogger themes you would need to find a code which you can either add directly to the template or to a widget. There are lots of dropown menu generators out there, but it takes time to find the right one to match your blog.

Alternatively, you could find a template with a dropdown menu and follow the instructions how to add your child items.

Also another alternative would be to ask someone, like me, to do it for you for free! Take a look at the blog I posted above and see for yourself.

don bobbitt on November 10, 2014:

Cardisa- Thanks for the offer. As you probably know, I have several Blogger Blogs and a couple of Wordpress ones.

One of the WP sites is my personal site and I am using it to put just about anything that comes to mind and I don't have to worry about its length or content as I do with HP and other sites.

The other though is essentially a driver for links to my HP articles, and I want to turn it or its clone to a more commercial site.

So, I will probably take the plunge soon. And I have your number. LOL!

DON

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 10, 2014:

Hello Drpennypincher, I now wosh I'd stayed in the first place. My blog is getting back its old following and I just added another blog. Thanks for stopping by.

Carolee Samuda (author) from Jamaica on November 10, 2014:

Hi Don, I hope you figure it out soon. If you need help please don't be afraid to ask.

LindaSmith1 from USA on November 10, 2014:

I liked Word Press but found it difficult especially when it came to plug-ins.

I wish Blogger had better templates. I don't like blogger for when you make more than one post and can't make it look like different pages on one page, but reverting back to the classic blogger solved that problem.

Dr Penny Pincher from Iowa, USA on November 10, 2014:

Cardisa, I'm glad to hear Blogger is the better choice since that is what I picked without trying Wordpress. I agree that Blogger takes some work to make it look very good, but it is free and once you have your layout set up, it is very easy to add posts.

Don Bobbitt from Ruskin Florida on November 10, 2014:

Great article Cardissa! I have been struggling with the same problems. Good tips that I will be looking into shortly.

Thanks,

DON