Control & Flexibility

• Wordpress is a free blog platform that you can self host on your own domain.
• Wordpress makes for a great CMS (Content Management System). Wordpress is not only a blog platform you can also add static pages that you can edit anytime you want with no knowledge of html. Conceivably you can have your entire website on wordpress if you choose.
• Trackbacks is a feature that allows you to see what other blogs are linking to your blog in your comments section.
• 3 gb image storage compared to the blogger 1 gb.
• Wordpress allows you to monitor your comments. It protects against spam and even allows you to edit your comments.
• You can choose to have a public or private blog. Wordpress allows you to restrict access to up to 35 wordpress users, it’s unlimited with a paid upgrade.
• The support forums are phenomenal. I almost always find an answer to my questions through them. If not then I just post the question myself and some more knowledgeable person comes along to solve it.

Customization

• If you know some html and php or know someone who does the limitations of the appearance of your Wordpress are virtually endless.
• Widgets have been around on Wordpress since the beginning so you can always find a reliable one for any of your needs be they for statistics, integrating twitter or making your wordpress more SEO friendly. Also if there is a demand for a certain kind of widget you can be sure that it will be made if it hasn’t already.

Already an established blogger and want to switch to Wordpress?

Here are some simple steps:

1. Install Wordpress. Most web hosting sites that support it have an easy way to install wordpress on your domain of choice so this step should take less than 5 minutes.
2. Import. Once you have installed and set up your account sign into your dashboard and go to Tools >> Import just pick the blog system that you are currently on and follow the directions from there.
3. Don’t leave you’re followers hanging! Let them know that you are making the switching to wordpress and ask them to update their bookmarks and RSS feeds to your new blog.
4. Coax them. Start leaving excerpts of your new blog posts on your old blog and link them to your new blog where the full post is at.
5. Time to say goodbye. Once you’ve got a good chunk of your followers to start reading and commenting in Wordpress it’s time to say goodbye. Either you cancel your blog all together or you do a redirect. The redirect is a more technically difficult thing to do but it can be done. Here’s a couple websites to help you figure it out:
   • Moving from Blogger-Blogspot to Wordpress the right way: 301 direct
   • Successfully forwarding Blogger to Wordpress

What are some other reasons that Wordpress is so awesome?