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Today, I am going to be writing a blog post all about my switch from Blogger to WordPress. I started blogging as a hobby back in 2013. At the time, I didn’t know much about the online space, and I wasn’t sure what to use. I went with Blogger at the time just because it looked so easy to use. If my mind serves me right, I Googled which to use and people said that for hobbyists, it was best to go with Blogger. For many years, my blogger account served me well. I had no intention on switching and going with another platform. However, one day I had a mental blip and deleted my blog all together. When I was ready to start back up, I knew that my blog was still a hobby but migrating into a source of income.
How was Blogger.
As I mentioned above, I used Blogger for many years. I loved the interface and I thought that it was nice and simple. On that platform I did pretty much everything that I could have to optimise and personalise the space. There was nothing that I struggled with and I managed to do it all on my own without external help. Honestly, I reckon that young children could operate and run a blog through Blogger without any issues. Plus, the benefit of Blogger is that it is completely free to run. You don’t have to pay for any hosting, etc.
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Why I made the switch.
The thing that made me switch was been presented with a new opportunity to start blogging again. Before setting up my new blog, I did lots of research. On my old blog which I foolishly deleted, I was just starting to earn good money and everything that I was reading online was saying that to make big bucks, you need WordPress. It is the more professional platform out of the two. That was the only reason why I wanted to switch because it has more plug ins which help and allow you to work up the search rankings.
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How I made the switch.
I wish that in this part of the post I could say that I was super tech savvy. However, I paid somebody to set me up a WordPress site. I purchased a theme through Pipdig and I paid an additional fee on top for them to create and set up the site and get it in working order. Even though I work in marketing and have built new websites from scratch, this just seemed like the easiest thing to do. They experts in the field and do it all day long. I valued my own time too high to try and spend the best part of a week trying to get things going, when I could just pay them £120 to do it all for me!
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What I have seen since making the switch.
The big difference with WordPress and Blogger that I have seen since making the switch is the plugins which I now use. For every blog post that I write, I have a plug in that checks the post for readability and SEO. Even though I work in marketing and write content all day long, this pointed out some things that I needed to change in my writing style. It teaches you how to write content that is easily written for people to understand. But it also tells you all about what the search engines want to see and how they read and scan your posts. Doing this honestly made my rankings sky rocket!
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How I am finding WordPress.
I am not going to lie; I do find WordPress much more difficult to use. From the backend of the site, I feel like there is much more that I can mess up. The posts are straightforward enough, but it is everything else that comes with it. Sites seem much harder to personalise and alter anything. However, with that being said, I love it because it has helped improve my blog and gain more traffic. It is swings and roundabouts. I do wish that Blogger had more plug ins for SEO and readability and then I would have stuck with that, but WordPress is not overly difficult to use!
I hope that you guys liked this blog post. It is a very personal thing what platform you wish to work on. Honestly, if I had never started money with my blog, I would have stuck with Blogger. Granted, the themes that are available on WordPress are more impressive. However, I find that posts are much more labour intensive to put together. If I had to give my recommendation, for anybody starting out I would say begin things with Blogger. It is easy to use, can get your site visible and it won’t scare you off. If you do want to climb the rankings, monitor SEO and earn money, go with WordPress. I would love to hear from you guys. Personally, this has been an amazing change that I made to my site. I encourage all to switch from Blogger to WordPress.