When I started blogging, I also started my blog in free blogger platform. Actually two of my blogs which I started at my initial stage of blogging still exists in free blogspot platform. But as the time passed I have understood that blogger is not the best option for blogging if you want to do it for long term. If you want to earn real money from your blog, switch from Blogger to WordPress. As blogger is a free platform this is really easy to start a blog in blogger. Sign up in blogger, select a name for your blog and start posting. This is that much simple!
What to Tell You a Bit About My Story: (You may find it boring but … No other option for you … ha ha ha ):
When I started blogging in Blogger, I was excited. I still can sense the feelings of those days. I was not aware that one day I will create a blog with more than 1600 posts. I was creating contents and those contents were getting live on the web. I used to share those contents with my friends. At that stage I did not know, I can make money from my blog. One day one of my friend told me I can make money from my blogspot blog through Google Adsense. I did not know what is Google Adsense. So, I searched on the web and found that Google Adsense is ad network from Google. Google will show ads on your blog and you will make money if someone clicks on those ads. But this is not an easy task to get approved by Google Adsense. I had to wait till my post count got 30+. After that I had applied for Google Adsense and I was so lucky that I got Approved for Google Adsense program.
Then I started writing more posts for my blog which was about technology and telecommunication news. I was also sharing some small and easy internet tips for which I was getting a good number of organic traffic. During that days social sharing was not that popular but I still used to share my posts in Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon to get more traffic. I created one Facebook fan page for my blog and within short time the fan page got around 1000 likes.
The Google Adsense income was really low and it was like 0.2-0.7 USD per day. It took me around 5 months to get the first Google Check. But I was really happy cause I got the check from Google (I started believing that people can make money from blogs). What was missing? This was the question that was knocking at my brain.
When I have Found Blogger is Not Suitable for Me Anymore?
The next phase was my learning phase. I started reading more posts than writing. The first thing that was missing in my Blogger blog was a good design and a user friendly layout. I tried to customize the layout thousand times, but somehow I was not getting what I wanted. The reason behind it was the limitation of Blogger templates. 1 Though you can get it for free, you cannot get the best!
I also started learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I was so puzzled with the word SEO that I did not even know what SEO is. 2 While learning about SEO, I have found the blogger blogging templates are not SEO friendly. So, there a good chance to loose organic traffic from your post.
3There are no plugins for Blogger platform. If you want to add any feature to your blog, you will not be able to do that. But for WordPress plugin part, there are 44,561 plugins in total when I am reading this post. If you want to add any feature which is available in other blog, just search a good plugin related to that feature and I am pretty much sure that you will get a free plugin which will solve your problem.
When I started blogging for casual purpose, it was okay. But when I was thinking about earning some money from my blog, Blogger was not the suitable option. The best option left was to switch from Blogger to WordPress.
What Blogging Platform I Choose for Blogging?
When I have found this limitation in my Blogger template, I was searching for the alternative of blogger to switch from blogger. There was another point in back of my head that the paid services are always better than the free services. Then I got to know about WordPress. Then I have learned, if I want to run my blog in WordPress and also want to show Google Adsense, I will have to host my blog with a web hosting company. I took my decision to switch from Blogger to WrodPress. I bought a hosting plan and I bought the HostGator Hatchling Plan to host my WordPress blog. I have installed the Twenty Eleven Theme in HostGator cPanel. HostGator supports one click WordPress installation and this is really an easy task to install WordPress in HostGator cPanel. Below are some interesting facts and statistics about WordPress which made my mind to switch from Blogger to WordPress:
The above statistics shows the popularity of WordPress in the internet.
What Have I Missed When I Switched from Blogger to WordPress?
When I switch from Blogger to WordPress, I choose the default free theme for my WordPress blog. I did not have enough knowledge about the WordPress themes at that time. I had installed the Twenty Eleven Default WordPress theme which is totally free. But later when I read more posts about SEO, I have found the default WordPress themes are not SEO optimized which is not good for search engine. You can make the theme SEO friendly but for that you need advanced level knowledge of SEO and coding. I had to change a lot of things using HTML to make the theme search engine friendly and to customize the design of Twenty Eleven Theme. I manually changed and added some settings to make the theme SEO friendly which took me a lot of time.
Finally I am Using a Premium WordPress Theme
I did a lot of customization in the free Twenty Eleven theme. Still I was not satisfied with the free theme. The default WordPress themes are not SEO optimized. After doing a lot of customization the theme was not loading faster. But the premium WordPress themes are SEO optimized and loads really fast compared to the free WordPress themes. So, if you are starting your blog, this is always better to buy a premium theme which is reasonable in price. MyThemeShop is a great place to check for a premium WordPress theme which suites your business or blog theme. Installing a premium WordPress theme is an easy task.
From the above discussion I believe you understand the importance to switch from Blogger to WordPress. If you still have any question, please contact via comment or email me (email address can be found on about page). If you find the post helpful, please share it with your friends.
very nice post can you tell me how to increase my website traffic I have WordPress website
Hi Ankit, Thanks for your comment. You can read my post http://www.techntechie.com/9-killer-tips-to-get-traffic-for-website.html to drive more traffic to your website.
Quite a convincing article. For my switch, I found and used this plugin: https://profiles.wordpress.org/cms2cms/#content-plugins
I found it simple in use and helpful one. All you need is to indicate your Blogger old blog and WordPress new blog URL.
Thanks for your valuable comment.