Blog Platform Review: Wordpress

Blogger is one of the oldest blog platforms around, whereas Wordpress is among the newer ones. Nevertheless, Wordpress has been gaining users and popularity; part of it may be due to the free / open source nature of the offering, but the range of features coupled with the ease of use is probably a key driver.
This review is based on testing the free hosted service at Wordpress.com, not the software download at Wordpress.org that’s used for self-hosted sites. Technically, there are differences; Wordpress.com runs the multi-user version (Wordpress MU) and not the standard version. From a user standpoint, the two are very similar; we’ll cover the differences in a subsequent review of self hosted platform offerings.

Starting off

Signing up for a Wordpress.com blog is simple – enter your username and email address to sign up. You get an email that asks you to activate your blog; once activated, another email gives you the signup password. While it doesn’t have the instant start that Blogger does, the responses are fairly fast; both emails completed within 10 minutes. The subsequent test post / test blog was completed within 5 minutes.

Customizing your blog

Once you login, the startup screen shows news from Wordpress.com and featured blogs; the menu bar on top lets you access your blog. The first screen highlights the most commonly used options – changing your profile and account details, going to the dashboard, or writing a new post.

The dashboard here provides more options than the Blogger dashboard - the number of menu items is reflective of the additional capabilities that Wordpress provides; you can select themes, manage your posts and comments, create categories and links (blogroll), add users, and more.

Out of the box, Wordpress.com provides over 50 themes for you to choose; plus, options to add sidebar “widgets” that add more features / capabilities including featuring top posts, recent posts, categories, archives, Flickr photos and more. You also can edit most themes to select colors or change part of the look through customized CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Posting and Editing

By default, Wordpress.com activates the text based editor, which also allows you to add HTML code; the visual rich editor has to be activated by user choice, but lets you get away with not bothering with HTML. You have options to upload photos, specify categories, place trackbacks, choose whether to allow comments and pings, and whether you want to password protect particular posts.

The plethora of options doesn’t mean that it’s unfriendly, or difficult to use. By default, most of these are set to what you’d normally use; changing these are through point-and-click as required. A novice can choose to ignore all these choices without getting into trouble, or choosing to experiment without disastrous consequences.

Other features

Wordpress.com also supports multi-user blogs.  Four levels of users are allowed - Contributors, Authors, Editors and Administrators. Contributors and Authors have lower levels of access – they can provide comments and content, but not publish these. Editors approve other users’ content, as well as publish their own. Administrators have the power to change the status of any user.

Wordpress.com allows unlimited posts and comments; photos and other file uploads are restricted to 50 MB for the free version. Paid options are also available, providing greater space as well as ability to customize themes and upload your own.

Spam control is another good feature; Wordpress.com supports the Akismet plug-in, as well as blacklists by spam words and open proxies.

Wordpress.com also provides capability to import from Blogger or Typepad, or export your blog to xml format for upload on a self hosted blog. You can also point your domain or subdomain to Wordpress; useful for people who want their own domain without the trouble of learning to operate a hosting account.

Restrictions

With all the extra functionality that Wordpress.com provides, there still are some restrictions in place as compared to Blogger.  Adsense or other advertising are not permitted; nor can you use Payperpost or other affiliate links.

Clicktrackers and any promotion of the “I made a million on the internet and so can you” type of advertising are expressly forbidden.

We have a very low tolerance for blogs created purely for search engine optimization or commercial purposes, machine-generated blogs, and will continue to nuke them, so if that’s what you’re interested in WordPress.com is not for you.

Conclusion

Wordpress.com is a good choice for any blogger seeking a hosted solution; for novices, it’s easy to use, similar to Blogger; for advanced users, the range of choices and additional functionality vis a vis Blogger makes it a better choice. At the same time, the ease of  migrating to a self hosted site makes it flexible; you aren’t locked in by the limitations of the hosted solution. And because it’s free, it doesn’t pinch your pocket either.

On the other hand, if you don’t mind the costs involved, but do want to monetize your blog, Wordpress.com isn’t the right place for you.