I guess I could have titled this 5 reasons why I use Wordpress, but I’m just trying to convert people, and they don’t even have an affiliate program ;-).

  1. Individuality of presentation. Yes, I know Wordpress is still template driven, but there are so many out there, and they are so easy to personalise. that I have yet to see another blog using my template (Although I’m sure they exist). Blog-Op is a standard template, and I didn’t change the colour because I happen to like it, so there may be other blogs that look the same. But check out my Thermal blog, versus it’s original template. I know very little about messing about in code, but these colour changes took a few seconds. Contrast that to Blogger, where every 3rd blog is using the same template…Death to ‘Minima‘!
  2. Spam control. You won’t see any of those hideous word verification ‘captcha’ things on here, and you don’t see any spam either. Sure, I have to deal with it behind the scenes, but my readers don’t have to be inconvenienced by the means of stopping it.
  3. Backups. If you’re on Blogger, you can’t - although you can save the contents with Google Reader. With Wordpress, everything gets backed up every day, and restoration takes minutes-no cut & paste required.
  4. Your own domain - Yes, you have to buy it, but I’ll come on to cash at the end. But it’s the best investment you’ll ever make, because you can switch hosts pretty much daily if you want, and take your Page Rank and links with you.
  5. Plugins. Totally customise and enhance your blog beyond all recognition, by simple uploads and one click activation. Add reader interaction tools, backups, anti-spam protection, ping notifier services, graphics, widgets and tools with ease.

Ok, that’s my first 5, I could probably carry on for another 20 or so.

Now, I’m talking about the self-hosted Wordpress.org, NOT the Blogger-like Wordpress.com version which is from the same people, but not half as good. The main stumbling block people say to be me is about cost, and how they can’t afford it: Well, neither could I, so here’s what I did:

  1. Bought Blog-Op.com for $20 for two years.
  2. Bought a years worth of hosting for $6.95 a month, but found a voucher on Google, which made it $60 for the year. I currently host 3 blogs on this hosting package, and could add dozens more, all for that same cost.
  3. Outlay: About $100 as I bought 2 other domain names for the other blogs.
  4. Income from paid posting and other means since January: $1000+

I think those sums will add up? Even if you hate paid posting, just 1-2 posts a month will pay for your hosting and domain fees, and of course there are other ways to monetize your blog. I’ve done more paid posts, for the simple reason it’s taking my family on holiday this year.

Enough to convert you if you don’t yet use Wordpress?

If you do, have you got different reasons for using it?

Still not convinced? Write me 5 reasons why Blogger, Typepad etc is better, and I’ll post them up.