Blogging was originally people writing their thoughts and experiences and sharing them with the world. This was kind of a personal journal made available for any one to read. It has not been too long since blogging has become an easy and effective way to create a website.

Using the blogging platform has become the choice for many websites today Why? First of all, you do not need to learn HTML. All blogging is done in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) format. This makes it very easy for the newbie to get a website up and running. The second popular reason for the use of the blogging platform is that it is free. You can create a site full of content, links, ads, without hiring a web designer and paying out big bucks.

If using a blogging platform is your decision, you then must decide which one is best for you. The most popular ones are Blogger and WordPress. How to decide?

Both Blogger and WordPress are free to use. Both are self hosted. In other words, your site is hosted by whichever platform you choose. What does that mean? Your URL will be *http://www.yourblogname.blogger.com* or the same with wordpress.com. This is fine if you are really just blogging.

However, if you want your site to appear more professional, you might want to consider hosting your site with a web host. Many are available with different levels of plans. You should be able to find something for about $10 per month.

Only WordPress allows you to host your site somewhere else. Blogger does not have that advantage. For this reason, my preference is WordPress. By hosting with another company, I am given the opportunity to create the site just the way I want. Hosting with Blogger or WordPress has limitations. You can only do what they will allow.

That means you are limited with themes, plugins, and other ways you might want to optimize your site. And on this WordPress platform that you self host, you can create a journal, a sales page, a squeeze page, a thank you page, or just about anything you like. For full control over your site, consider choosing WordPress.