10 Reasons why I like Blogger - Part I

Thinking about switching your blog platform? You'll need to consider many factors such as your blogging goals as well as your technical abilities.

When I first started blogging I wanted to jump in with both feet and not look back. Now I've started to look over my shoulder at the rest of the blogosphere and want to decide if it's time to switch blog platforms. Besides Blogger, I've used Wordpress.com and MSN Spaces (my fun blog). I'm also getting questions from people as to which blogging platform they should use. This is the first in a series in which I will look at:

1. What I like about Blogger
2. What I don't like about Blogger
3. Should I move blog platforms to Wordpress or Typepad

For now, I will look at why I like Blogger:

• It's free - no sign up fees or hosting fees (for now).
  
• It's owned by Google I - This means that Google is indexing your blog and promoting it as it's part of their overall offerings and to their advantage - especially if you use adsense.
• Easy to get up and running - It took me 5 minutes to get my blog up and running.
  
• Great support - there's a whole support group out there to help you out
• It's owned by Google II - This means that you don't need to worry about your blog disappearing as I don't expect Google to go out of business any time soon
• I don't host it - I don't need to worry about a database or bandwith etc... as Blogger hosts it
  
• Good Add-ons - There are actually some good ones like the poll add-on below as well as some Blogger hacks. I use the "XBlog This" feature which helps me create Technorati tags.
  
• Available templates - There are many templates to choose from when you're getting started. I'll leave it at that.
  
• Adsense integration - Blogger makes adding adsense very easy. This doesn't mean you'll make money, it just means it's easy to setup.
• Interesting features - There really isn't anything that other blog platforms don't have but you have the basics and hey, it's free. If you know HTML you can also add new features pretty easily like a blogroll and co-comment. Any features that I missed (probably not)?
  

If you're a small company looking to get a blog up and running quickly or someone who justs wants to record their daily rants about George Bush, Blogger may be right for you. Before you go and choose blogger, stay tuned for my next post in which I will discuss why I don't like Blogger (It should be a long post).

Chad

PS - Let me know if there are any advantages I missed
PS - please fill out my poll below.

Which blog platform are you using?
	Blogger
	Typepad
	Wordpress.com (hosted)
	Wordpress.org
	Movable Type
	Textpattern
	MSN Spaces
	ExpressionEngine
	Other
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Technorati tags: blogger, blogging platforms