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Do Not Use Blogger (Unless you 100% have to)!

by feedtherightwolf
28 replies
I've started my blog 3 years ago. At the time I didn't know if I was going to be serious, and decided not to invest a lot of money. So I chose to take the blogger approach, making sure to get a custom domain name. I figured that it would be enough.

Now 3 years later, I find myself stuck with blogger, and realizing that I will eventually have to switch to wordpress. And it is a major pain in the but, and I will lose a lot of link juice(blogger doesn't allow 301 redirect), but I just can't let the blogger hold me back anymore.

I can write a very long list of things that blogger does to slow me down, but I am not going to venture into it.

What motivated me to write this post, was that I set up a wordpress blog for another site that I've just recently started, and I was able to do that in a very short time. I pretty much accomplished same things that I was able to accomplish with blogger, but it took me 10 times less time, and most of it is automated.

If your reason for using blogger is money, I would recommend you a very cheap webhost - www.nearlyfreespeech.com (not an affiliate link) they charge you by the amount of data that you transfer, and I literally pay them less than $1 per month for more than 10 sites.

That being said they are a bit confusing and I am switching to hostgator since $10 a month is worth to me not having to worry about figuring out things myself, since you get what you pay for and nearlyfreespeech is not exactly user friendly.

But using nearlyfreespeech to set up your first blog is 100 times better that using blogger, because when you are ready to upgrade to a more user friendly provider, transferring your blog will be simple, and you will not lose any of your link juice.

In summary, if you need a simple 3-4 page site, that you do not plan on expanding ever again, or if you are completely new to web marketing, blogger might be OK. But if you plan to do anything serious, I suggest you go straight for the wordpress.
#100% #blogger
  • Profile picture of the author Stefan Vee
    If you've hooked your custom domain to a free Blogger blog, and providing that your posts and pages are indexed under that domain name, then you can easily migrate your Blogger posts and pages to a wordpress platform and keep the link juice at the same time. All you need to do is making sure that you install Wordpress under that domain and that your blog's post- and page urls are exactly the same.
    For the search engines it doesn't make any difference and you don't need to set up permanent 301 redirects.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fenshon
      Originally Posted by Stefan Vee View Post

      If you've hooked your custom domain to a free Blogger blog, and providing that your posts and pages are indexed under that domain name, then you can easily migrate your Blogger posts and pages to a wordpress platform and keep the link juice at the same time. All you need to do is making sure that you install Wordpress under that domain and that your blog's post- and page urls are exactly the same.
      For the search engines it doesn't make any difference and you don't need to set up permanent 301 redirects.
      This is a cool tip. Wow.
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  • Profile picture of the author feedtherightwolf
    Thanks Stefan,

    Its a valid point, but it is also a major pain in the but because I have to go in and make sure that all of the URL's match blogger format. Plus it is only one of the long list of limitations.

    Like I said most of the things can be done with blogger, it is just a lot harder and a lot more work.

    For example, in wordpress it is very easy to have custom meta data for every page, in bloger there is a trick that I learned to display post name as a title of the page, but I was not able to modify the description for every keyword.

    It is very hard to list popular posts automatically, and I had to manually input it.

    It is hard to create a navigation bar, which I also had to manually implement.

    It is hard to make any graphical adjustments to your blog.

    It is hard to find a decent template that does not look cheap.

    It is hard to create a site map

    It is hard ...

    The point is that if I were starting over, I would never bothered with blogger, and do not recommend it to others. Unless they use it for a very specific purpose which it is good for, that is creating very simple site, which will have no need to grow, on to be customized.
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      Originally Posted by feedtherightwolf View Post

      Thanks Stefan,

      Its a valid point, but it is also a major pain in the but because I have to go in and make sure that all of the URL's match blogger format. Plus it is only one of the long list of limitations.

      Like I said most of the things can be done with blogger, it is just a lot harder and a lot more work.

      For example, in wordpress it is very easy to have custom meta data for every page, in bloger there is a trick that I learned to display post name as a title of the page, but I was not able to modify the description for every keyword.

      It is very hard to list popular posts automatically, and I had to manually input it.

      It is hard to create a navigation bar, which I also had to manually implement.

      It is hard to make any graphical adjustments to your blog.

      It is hard to find a decent template that does not look cheap.

      It is hard to create a site map

      It is hard ...

      The point is that if I were starting over, I would never bothered with blogger, and do not recommend it to others. Unless they use it for a very specific purpose which it is good for, that is creating very simple site, which will have no need to grow, on to be customized.
      Yeah it is a major pain in the butt. I did the same thing with 7 of my Blogs 6 months ago when migrating to WP from Blogger. But look at changing the URLs as an investment that needs to be done and that will pay off in the long run.

      P.S. I totally agree and wish I had just started out with WP from the gitgo. It would have saved some work thats for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author rondo
    That web host is very cheap but it doesn't provide support, which is not so good for newbies.


    Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Originally Posted by feedtherightwolf View Post

    I've started my blog 3 years ago. At the time I didn't know if I was going to be serious, and decided not to invest a lot of money. So I chose to take the blogger approach, making sure to get a custom domain name. I figured that it would be enough.

    Now 3 years later, I find myself stuck with blogger, and realizing that I will eventually have to switch to wordpress. And it is a major pain in the but, and I will lose a lot of link juice(blogger doesn't allow 301 redirect), but I just can't let the blogger hold me back anymore.

    If all of your link juice is through your domain name, as opposed to thru a blogger url, then you don't need blogger to do a 301 redirect to keep your juice.

    You only need to duplicate the url structure within Wordpress on your domain, then copy the content from blogger to your wordpress build.

    The only time you would have to give up your link juice is if the links going to your blog are pointing to the blogger url.
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    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author feedtherightwolf
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      If all of your link juice is through your domain name, as opposed to thru a blogger url, then you don't need blogger to do a 301 redirect to keep your juice.

      You only need to duplicate the url structure within Wordpress on your domain, then copy the content from blogger to your wordpress build.

      The only time you would have to give up your link juice is if the links going to your blog are pointing to the blogger url.
      Yea, I was wrong about that point, thanks for pointing it out.
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      I am not a guru, nor do I pretend to be one. I am here to learn and to share my experience. Everything that I say, I say from my heart.
      Porn Addiction Stop Porn with Candeo ; Overcoming Pornography Addiction. Sex Addiction Rehabs Porn Addicted Husband

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  • Profile picture of the author Abledragon
    Moving your blog from Blogger to WordPress, including migrating your subscribers and retaining your rankings, really is no big deal.

    This article describes the process of moving your content:

    Blogger to WordPress: How to Migrate Your Blog | Create an Awesome Home Business

    And this one describes how to move your links and subscribers:

    Re-Direct Links and RSS Readers from Blogger to WordPress | Create an Awesome Home Business

    Cheers,

    Martin.
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    WealthyDragon - Earning My Living Online
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  • Profile picture of the author fdamours
    Great tread, was informative. My knowledge of blogger is really poor.
    I always worked with wordpress since the first releases, it really is the good way to go.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author pradiprg
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author feedtherightwolf
      Originally Posted by pradiprg View Post

      Thanks for sharing your valuable views. But i would like to know how much pages website we can make with www.nearlyfreespeech.com. How much user friendly it. Can it work best for newbie, who has no technical knowledge of html, php or anything for that matter.
      I need simple, easy to upload pages, multiple pages, with no.of folders and subtopics etc. to put on the web. If you know any, kindly pm me. Thanks again.
      Probably not good for the newbie. It is OK for people with basic technical skills though.

      I can't recommend anything for you, but may be some other warriors can?
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      I am not a guru, nor do I pretend to be one. I am here to learn and to share my experience. Everything that I say, I say from my heart.
      Porn Addiction Stop Porn with Candeo ; Overcoming Pornography Addiction. Sex Addiction Rehabs Porn Addicted Husband

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  • Profile picture of the author snapcontent
    Blogger at one time looked unstoppable. Now though, Wordpress are the only real solution for serious bloggers. The themes, the ease of installation, the plugins, it's all stuff blogger can only dream about. Also, blogger tend to can your account if you don't respond smartly to their validation contacts. They can and do this at even a hint of autoblogging (eg posting via email) and you will end up with nothing.

    It's best therefore to host your own wordpress blog. There's no excuse, hosting starts form a couple bucks per month nowadays.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    I think if you're even halfway serious about IM, it'd be best to have self-hosted Wordpress from the get-go (this is for anyone who is on the fence about this issue). It's really not that hard to justify that cost of $10 per month, especially when you are building a long-term business and not treating it as just a hobby. Just eliminate eating outside once or twice a month, and you'd have already paid for your hosting. If you want to earn back your hosting fees, then all you really need is around 3-4 referrals (to a hosting company) and your commissions will have paid your hosting for over one year!
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    • Profile picture of the author snapcontent
      Originally Posted by paulie888 View Post

      ...$10 per month... Just eliminate eating outside once or twice a month, and you'd have already paid for your hosting.
      where are you eating at $5 a pop? Burger King? You take your own drink in? :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author WebPen
    I think you have to be careful with Blogger. A lot of guys spend all this time building up their Blogger blog... then it gets deleted for no reason because Google/Blogger can do whatever they want.

    I haven't had much luck with Wordpress, either. Maybe my blogs were too affiliate markety? (if thats a word)

    I have been experimenting with Blogger for landing pages lately, though. Seems like a good free LP because most people know and trust Blogger
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by AYoungMillionaire View Post

      I think you have to be careful with Blogger. A lot of guys spend all this time building up their Blogger blog... then it gets deleted for no reason because Google/Blogger can do whatever they want.

      I haven't had much luck with Wordpress, either. Maybe my blogs were too affiliate markety? (if thats a word)

      I have been experimenting with Blogger for landing pages lately, though. Seems like a good free LP because most people know and trust Blogger

      Google targeted my blogs for deletion earlier this year. They wanted to verify me human, which I did five times, and the sixth effort in 3 months, I let them go.
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      Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
      Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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      • Profile picture of the author snapcontent
        Originally Posted by tpw View Post

        Google targeted my blogs for deletion earlier this year. They wanted to verify me human, which I did five times, and the sixth effort in 3 months, I let them go.
        So we have to go with Google on this - it turns out you aren't human after all. Busted!
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        • Profile picture of the author tpw
          Originally Posted by snapcontent View Post

          So we have to go with Google on this - it turns out you aren't human after all. Busted!
          My wife is typically the only one who ever makes that complaint... Now Google is doing it too...
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          Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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          • Profile picture of the author Fred_Acker
            feedtherightwolf, This may be a silly question but why not simply start your new blog(s) at HG and point your blogger blogs to the new ones and visa-versa?

            All you're really doing is linking between the sites just as you would to someone elses site. But the bonus is that you can keep people going back and fourth between your own sites.

            It's 4 am so if that makes no sense just ignore it

            Fred
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  • Profile picture of the author entrepreneurjay
    Blogger has its uses. If your gonna build some 1 page mini sites in some low competition niches, then they are perfect for that. If it is your money site that you are spending large amounts of your precious time on your crazy to build a money site on Blogger. Like you said you get stuck, and they essentially own your blog.

    They can delete all your hard work if they feel you are violating there terms of service in any way, shape, or form. Which is not hard to do trust me! I had a blog deleted through Blogger about 6 months ago but it was a blessing in disguise for me.

    I actually transferred over to a self hosted Wordpress blog from Blogger 1 day before they deleted my whole blog. Lol talk about good timing! But you learn from your mistakes and fortunately it worked out for me.

    Don't build a castle on quicksand. Control your blog, your money, and your future. Do not be cheap! This is a business if your a Blogger, Affiliate marketer Etc... Treat it as such. Build your business on a self hosted Wordpress blog. Never use free blogging platforms for your money sites.

    I hope every new blogger reads this and listens!
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  • Profile picture of the author shania david
    Wordpress is good to go with......Blogger don't seem to be much useful anymore.....Wordpress is a well developed platform to work with.
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    • Profile picture of the author snapcontent
      Originally Posted by shania david View Post

      Wordpress is good to go with......Blogger don't seem to be much useful anymore.....Wordpress is a well developed platform to work with.
      Got to agree with Shania.

      You need to go into this with the expectation of success, in which case you do NOT want your blog in the hands of some nameless bunch who might close it for **** and giggles or imagined 'infractions'.
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      • Profile picture of the author Fun to Write
        I don't agree with the OP statement about not using Blogger. Maybe this platform isn't working for the OP, but blogger can be useful for those who don't have a lot of money to get started in online marketing.

        It can be used to test out a niche, and you can even get sales from a blogger blog. I have. I use it when I don't want to build a site for something.

        It's all in the kind of information you choose to put on your blogger blog.

        Just like with any other blog platform, it's the quality of the information you provide that causes people to read and respond. The platform is secondary.

        There is a how to make money blogger blog that has top position in google for top keywords. I assume this person is doing well with this blog because of the amount of good information on there for newbies. They're not trying to mislead anyone or give skimpy advice.

        So, I say, using blogger for marketing is fine. Use it wisely. There are no absolutes in online marketing. What works for some, doesn't work for others.

        Of course, having your own site and domain name is always better.
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  • Profile picture of the author alphateam
    It's basically "owning" vs. "renting". I'd put my eggs in the "owning" basket any day. I use blogger for juice to my wp sites. They're great for that and for building small niche sites that won't break you if Google decides to change the rules.
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