Do you use Blogspot or Word Press to promote your zine?

[Sally]

Hi there,

Which do you use: Blogspot or Word Press to promote your zine (the ones w/ illustrations, some text)? Which has the advantage, easier & why?

~Thanks"

 

[Dan C]

Blogspot is easier to set up! WordPress has more options (including you fully hosting it on your own site)!

I run this site on WordPress - ConciselyMagazine.com - even though it doesn't actually look much like a blog.

[Catherine Elms]

I like using Wordpress, but the only problem with Wordpress is that they don't allow their users to sell things directly from their blogs, so you can't put a Paypal button on your blog. So although it's nice to promote your zine, you can't sell your zine on Wordpress, unless you link to an external store, such as Etsy. I'm not sure if it's the same with Blogspot, but I know that LiveJournal does let you sell things.

Wordpress gives you the option of adding pages to your blog, so you could have a "catalog" page of zines if you wanted to (that's something I've done). I don't think Blogspot has that feature, but I'm not sure.

Here's what my Wordpress blog looks like: http://blatantblithe.wordpress.com

(sorry, I hope I'm explaining myself well here - I've not been awake for very long, heh)

[Ro- The Apocalypse Girl]

I used to use Wordpress for my zines (I still have them up there), but I got annoyed that I had to pay to be able to customize the layout the way I wanted and other minor, but naggy things. In the end I moved to Weebly.com which is hosting a couple of my sites now. For a free account, I can customize the themes the way I want and when I'm ready to sell zines (mine are currently free), I can do it without too much hassle.

Wordpress has some great features- I'll probably convert my Wordpress page into something else, but in the end it wasn't the best match for me.

I've never tried Blogspot though, so I'll probably check that out too.

[Brittney]

You can in fact sell things on your blog with wordpress. All you have to do is get the plugin!

Catherine Elms said:

I like using Wordpress, but the only problem with Wordpress is that they don't allow their users to sell things directly from their blogs, so you can't put a Paypal button on your blog. So although it's nice to promote your zine, you can't sell your zine on Wordpress, unless you link to an external store, such as Etsy. I'm not sure if it's the same with Blogspot, but I know that LiveJournal does let you sell things.

Wordpress gives you the option of adding pages to your blog, so you could have a "catalog" page of zines if you wanted to (that's something I've done). I don't think Blogspot has that feature, but I'm not sure.

Here's what my Wordpress blog looks like: http://blatantblithe.wordpress.com

(sorry, I hope I'm explaining myself well here - I've not been awake for very long, heh)

I think wordpress is better, it's easier to customize and its easier to theme, and wordpress automatically optimizes your site/blog for search engines, blogspot does not.

[Catherine Elms]

Really? Thanks, I'll look into it!

Brittney said:

You can in fact sell things on your blog with wordpress. All you have to do is get the plugin!

[Persephone Pomegranate]

I'm a wordpress developer so obviously I'm going to throw my vote in there. Wordpress.com is okay but lacks a lot of control. However, if you self host wordpress (wordpress.org) the sky's the limit.

[tukru perkele]

i used to self host my blog with wordpress but i swapped to a normal blogspot cos i kept having virus problems on my domain, apparently it wasn't very secure :( haven't had any problems since i got rid of the wordpress thing. it was otherwise really good though.

[Dan 10things]

The one big advantage to Blogspot is it's owned by Google, if you update your blog frequently, you'll very rate high in Google searches. It will drive a lot of new people to your blog.

[Erin H]

I use WordPress. I like the layout and word processor built into the site.
http://bicoastalgimps.wordpress.com/
http://shesabibliophile.wordpress.com/

[sandy]

Blogspot for me via my personal blog - http://okaysandy.blogspot.com

But I use wordpress for my portfolio - http://sandylovesyou.com

I'm a bit of a cms junkie - like to try out different systems. They're all easy enough, just depends on what you want to use it for and what you're happy to put up with. :)

[Jenna Appleseed]

if I've got it the right way round, you can sell things on the org version wordpress (that you have to install to your own site) but not on the .com version (that they host for you).

Catherine Elms said:

Really? Thanks, I'll look into it!

Brittney said:

You can in fact sell things on your blog with wordpress. All you have to do is get the plugin!

[Brittney]

You can sell things on either.

Jenna Appleseed said:

if I've got it the right way round, you can sell things on the org version wordpress (that you have to install to your own site) but not on the .com version (that they host for you).

Catherine Elms said:

Really? Thanks, I'll look into it!

Brittney said:

You can in fact sell things on your blog with wordpress. All you have to do is get the plugin!