This week is all about the different blog platforms. We are going to talk about the 2 most popular platforms, WordPress (self-hosted), & Blogger. Each of these platforms have their pros and cons and we will take a look at them.

WordPress (self-hosted)
WordPress is an open source blogging platform. What you can do with WordPress is endless, if you have the right skills (or budget).

Pros
*highly customizable
*can be used as CMS
*excellent support (can find a lot at WordPress.org or just simply Google it)
*plugins- plugins are a great way to customize and optimize your blog
*can be downloaded and tested on a local server
*an abundance of premium and free themes to dress up your blog

Cons
*you have to pay for domain/hosting
*can be difficult to customize for beginner users (unless you hire a designer/coder)

Blogger
Blogger is owned by Google and is the platform most beginner bloggers use.

Pros
*Blogger is a free blogging platform
*Domain mapping- you can purchase a domain and have it pointed to your Blogger blog so you have myblog.com instead of myblog.blogspot.com
* Easy to use
*Google Ad Sense- you can make money with your Blogger blog by taking part of Google’s Ad Sense

Cons
*Blogger’s navigation bar- why it is a small price to pay for using their free blog service, it may not look the best.

To decide which platform would be best for you depends on what you would like to do with your blog and what you would like to get out of blogging. Just take the time to check out both platforms, do some research, and ask questions.

Happy Blogging!