Wordpress vs. Blogger - I Think I’ll Rip My Hair Out Now.
{Posted on February 20, 2008 by calledblessed Edit } Posted on Wordpress blog
Is anyone still with me through all this shuffling of blog location…stuff (oh, look at my restraint)??
As you can see, I’ve switched over to Wordpress. I made the switch because I liked the clean look of the layout. I like a 3 column template, which I couldn’t find for Blogger. I love the option to add pages…great for organizing. BUT (and it’s a painful “but” after working on this for so many hours)…
…But there are some important features (or lack of features) that I didn’t know about when I signed up. I thought I’d share for two reasons: first, if anyone is considering a blog, this info would be helpful, and second, I’m hoping you’ll understand my frustration and therefore not hate my guts if I decide to just go back to good ol’ Blogger.
So here’s what I’ve learned the hard way:
1. Every now and then an ad will spontaneously appear on my blog…Wordpress does this to try and generate some funds for their “free” blog hosting.
2. I can not do my own advertising. For example…maybe I’d like to do some advertising for my photography…or maybe I’d like to add some relevant advertising from Blogher. Can’t do it. They won’t allow it, and they’ll shut down my blog if I try. (everyone knows how I like being told what to do!)
3. Someday they might offer advertising as one of their approved widgets…which would be an upgrade I’d have to pay for.
4. I had to pay for an upgrade to get my domain mapped to this location.
5. I had to pay for an upgrade to be able to post videos.
Well…that’s it for now. Did I mention that my post-partum hormones are causing my hair to fall out. I just can’t afford to lose any more! Therefore…well, I haven’t decided for sure…but I’m pretty sure I’ll be switching back to Blogger.
Still love me??
Stay tuned for the next chapter in this drama…
Hey Daquiri -- Great blog, great photos!
To answer your question, there are some free three-column templates out there, but I didn't like any of them either. They're all prefilled with terrible looking pictures, and I want to do my own thing, you know? If you don't really care about that, you can find those easy-to-download options all over the WWW using a search engine. My three-column template, however, is a modified Blogger template.
When I couldn't find anything I loved and wanted to download, I searched for modification instructions, and there are lots of them out there for nearly all the styles of standard templates on Blogger. (I chose the standard white template.) I'm not extraordinarily computer literate, but the process of rewriting the HTML code to change a 2-column to 3-column is actually very easy to do (just make sure you back up -- save -- your original code before you change anything, or you could lose your WHOLE BLOG).
To do what I did, you can Google "Blogger Three Column" for a variety of modification instructions, but I followed a set like this, though I modified the suggested width a bit further in my main text, sidebars, header and footer. I just brought my header box in about 6pts so it correctly encased the free new header I just installed.
Hope this helps, and good luck working through your blog woes.