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Blogger is the grand old man of Internet publishing. In fact, they arguably started the whole “everyone should have a voice online” ideal. Evan Williams started the company way back in the 1990s.

After Evan Williams sold Blogger to Google, he went on to found both Twitter and Medium – both pillars of Internet publishing in their own right. Additionally, it was Matt Mullenweg’s dissatisfaction with Blogger that led him to create the first version of WordPress back in the early 2000s.

All that to say – Blogger is an Internet standby. In fact, it’s such a standby that it gets unfairly disregarded for many web projects simply due to its age.

I recently gave Blogger a try for a small project, along with several other website builders. I tried to approach Blogger not as the platform that had my first blog back in 2004, but as a serious platform that might be a good fit for someone’s web project today, post-2017.

Check out Blogger here.

Skip to the Conclusion & Next Steps

But first, a bit of an overview on website builders in general. Whether you go drag and drop builder, an installed Content Management System (CMS), or hand-coded HTML files, there are a lot of considerations that go into building a website and/or blog.

In the end, you really want someone to type in a website address and see your information, presented well with the right functionality in their browser. Whether you are building a simple personal blog or running a business, the way you build your site determines a lot both long-term and short-term.

In the long-term, the tools you use to set up your website affects your versatility, functionality, and, of course, your brand. In the short-term, it can add/take away a lot of headaches. In fact, one of the most common headaches is moving a successful blog off Blogger. That said,  like choosing a physical house or office, there is no such thing as an absolute “best” or “top” choice. There’s only the right choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.

What Is Blogger?

Blogger is Google’s blog-focused platform that focuses on accessibility, ease of use, and free for the price. Blogger made blogging a thing you do on the Internet back in the day, and still appeals to people looking to publish their words on the open Web rather than “closed garden” social media sites.

On the wide spectrum of website building solutions, Blogger lives on the end that is all-inclusive and provides everything you need to get started and grow your website. It’s in contrast to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the “pieces” of your website separately.

It’s like trading off some control for more convenience.

Using Blogger is like leasing and customizing an apartment in a nice development instead of buying and owning your own house. You’re still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there’s usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.

All the functionality and design that are included with Blogger work seamlessly together as a platform. That’s what allows them to have drag and drop design, layout, and content.

One note about Blogger is that it focuses 100% on blogging – ie, reverse-chronological publishing of posts. It has very little in terms of content management (as I’ll mention in the cons section). Google has a product called Google Sites that focuses on static websites.

As far as competition, Blogger competes directly with all-inclusive website builders like Weebly and WordPress.com in addition to pure-play blog/social networks platforms like Medium and Tumblr.

Website builders as a group compete with options like WordPress.org (which provides the free software to build a website that you own & control – see my WordPress setup guide here) all the way to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file. Make sense? Awesome, let’s dive into the Blogger review. [Read more…] about Blogger Review: Pros & Cons of Using Blogger (aka Blogspot)

When it comes to getting a website up, there’s never been an easier time. Weebly is one of the fastest growing and longest standing brands in the website building space. They were mentioned in the first edition of the 4-Hour Workweek. Ever since then, they’ve grown and continued to revise their software. I recently gave Weebly a try for a small project, along with several other website builders. Here’s my overview, pros, cons, and full Weebly review with tour and notes on ecommerce.

Check out Weebly’s Plans & Pricing here.

Skip to the Conclusion & Next Steps

But first, a bit of an overview on website builders in general. Whether you go drag and drop builder; an installed Content Management System (CMS), or hand-coded HTML files, there’s a lot of considerations that go into building a website.

In the end, you really want someone to type in a website address and see your information, presented well with the right functionality in their browser. Whether you are building a simple personal website or running a business, the way you build your site determines a lot both long-term and short-term.

In the long-term, the tools you use to set up your website affects your versatility, functionality, and, of course, your brand. In the short-term, it can certainly add/take away a lot of headaches. That said, just like choosing a physical house or office, there is no such thing as an absolute “best” or “top” choice. There’s only such thing as the right choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.

*Aside – I did try to sort the best choices by typical uses/goals in my best website builder quiz here, though.

What Is Weebly?

On the wide spectrum of website building solutions, Weebly lives on the end that is all-inclusive and provides everything you need to get started and grow your website. It’s in contrast to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the “pieces” of your website separately.

It’s like trading off some control for more convenience.

Using Weebly is sort of like leasing and customizing an apartment in a nice development instead of buying and owning your own house. You’re still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there’s usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control.

All the functionality and design that are included with Weebly work seamlessly together as a platform. That’s what allows them to have drag and drop design, layout, and content.

As far as competition, Weebly competes directly with all-inclusive website builders like Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress.com.

Website builders as a group compete with options like WordPress.org (which provides the free software to build a website that you own & control – see my WordPress setup guide here) all the way to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file. Make sense? Awesome, let’s dive into the Weebly review. [Read more…] about Weebly Review: 6 Pros & 3 Cons of Using Weebly For Your Website