WordPress vs Blogspot for Book Blog | Finding Best Platform?
So you are thinking of starting a book blog. Welcome to the community, my fellow readers.
There are many platforms to start a book blog:
- Wix
- Tumblr
- Joomla
- Ghost
But Blogspot and WordPress are the best among all. I would like you to start the book blogging on the right foot and not make the same mistake I did.
In this post – we will compare Blogspot and WordPress for book blogging. Let’s see which one to go with when it comes to Blogspot vs WordPress for book blog.
What are WordPress and Blogspot?
They are a blogging platform. Or we also call them CMS – Content Management System because they manage the content for you.
- Instagram is a photo blogging platform.
- Twitter is a micro-blogging platform.
- YouTube is a video-blogging platform.
WordPress has a 60.8% market share in the CMS market. It is a significant number. On the other hand is Blogspot, a service of Google.
WordPress and Blogspot are popular among book bloggers because they are free and easy to use. The best part is they are watermark free and let you switch to other platforms easily.
Blog ownership on Blogspot?
Google owns Blogspot. But it is a good service.
If you make a blog on Blogspot, then Google owns your site. I don’t mean your content, but the website. They give you free hosting and a free subdomain. It is like having a book on your kindle. It’s there, but Amazon holds power there.
What if Google shut down Blogspot?
There are rare chances that Google will shut down Blogspot. Rare chances, but it is their service, and we do not know the future. I mean, look at the Google cemetery.
What if Google does not like your content?
You have to accept Google policies and write content under Google policies. However, there is no chance a book blogger can go against Google. Those policies are basically for Porno or modded software websites.
But they are still running their blog, and Google doesn’t do anything. So on both fronts, you are safe.
Blog ownership on WordPress?
There are two WordPress. WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
On WordPress.org, everything is yours. EVERYTHING. Though you have to manage hosting and domain names yourself. With it comes more functions and flexibility.
WordPress.org is open source. No one owns it. So on your book blog, you have absolute rights. WordPress.com is owned by Automattic, and business model is similar to Google-Blogspot.
On this basis, I suggest WordPress.org choose your platform to start book blogging. But if you cannot afford WordPres.org for now, you can go with WordPress.com.
Due to the URL structure, it is easier to migrate to a self-hosted site from WordPress.com than Blogspot.
Pricing of Blogspot and WordPress
Blogspot is free unless you want to buy a domain name.
You start your book blog with a domain name like xyz.blogspot.com. But you do not want .blogspot.com. Domain names are not expensive and cost you around $9 a year.
Select a book blog name, buy a domain and your book blog will be xyz.com.
WordPress.com is also free. It also will give you a subdomain. Your blog would be xyz.wordpress.com.
And no. If you want a primary domain name, you have to buy it from WordPress.com.
On WordPress.org, you must buy both a Hosting and a domain name. But it is not that tough.
Here, I suggest that Blogspot is the best to start your book blog.
Security of Blogspot and WordPress
With Blogspot, you get Google security. You are tension free unless you share your password with someone else.
The same is with WordPress.com.
At WordPress.org, well, you own everything here. So you own the security responsibilities too. But there are many WordPress plugins to help you.
Blogspot wins this round.
Control in Blogspot and WordPress
Blogspot is easy to use. Easy to create a blog and work on it. It might look a bit difficult to start, but so is WordPress.com. But once you get comfortable with Blogspot, you can do a lot of things that you will not be able to do on wordpress.com free blog.
WordPress.org is a different story. He gives you so much control that it is overwhelming for beginners.
There are some features that Google does not allow on Blogspot; you must learn coding to do them. But on WordPress, plugins do everything.
WordPress.org gives more control to your book blog. But between WordPress.com and Blogspot, Blogspot is more flexible.
Blog Appearance in Blogspot and WordPress
WordPress.com does provide some basic templates. You must buy a premium membership for more themes or upload your theme.
WordPress has more themes in the market than Blogspot.
Blogspot also gives you some basic templates and lets you tweak them. There are also lots of third-party Blogspot templates that you can install on Blogspot.
The good thing is Blogspot does not demand any extra fee for installing external themes. So Blogspot is good here.
SEO Perspective
SEO – Search Engine Optimization – means optimizing the blog in a way that the review and book blog posts shows up on Google search.
You can only do on-page SEO on WordPress.com and Blogspot. The WordPress.com does not let you edit the code, so you cannot do much. The Blogspot enables you to tweak the code, but there is limitation to what you can do.
Still, Blogspot is better because it integrated with Google ecosystem.
Final Judgment
You are a new blogger. Go with Blogspot. I don’t think that Google will ever stop the Blogger service. If they do, you can always transfer your blog to WordPress.
Bloggers give you a lot without asking anything in return. (Except maybe some data to show you some ads). Start your book blogging with Blogspot and jump to WordPress when you think you are doing well.
But I recommend using the primary domain name on Blogspot. It is only 10$.
