I receive many questions asking me why I use Typepad for my blogs (Don’t Try This at Home, Blogging Basics 101, and Bloggy Giveaways) instead of Blogger. In fact, I receive so many of the same questions regarding this I’ve decided to devote an entire post to it.
1. Are the Typepad templates easy to customize? I am not very computer-savvy so I
was wondering if it is simple to add your own header, sidebar
categories, etc.
If you are on the free trial for the most basic pkg, you won’t be able to customize. Make sure you’re doing a trial for the $8.95 pkg of above and I believe you can customize.
2. When you switched, what happened to your blog traffic? Did people
re-link you with the new address? I just don’t want to lose what I have
going, you know?
I switched to TP not too long after I started getting traffic. I didn’t
have a lot of traffic then, but those that did link to me were fine
with updating their blogroll links and Bloglines. I know several people who are making the switch. I think
you’ll be fine.
3. Is Typepad really worth the money? I know it isn’t that much to spend,
but paying for blogging seems so silly. I am wanting to expand
what I do a little bit and Typepad blogs have a more classic and
professional look. This may make the $$$ worth spending.
I think TP is worth the money. It’s fairly inexpensive, I have control
over my blog, I don’t have to get into the HTML unless I want to, and
it’s just not down as much as Blogger. Also, the TypePad Help files are awesome. I can usually find the answers I’m looking for in the Help files. If I can’t, I open a Help Desk ticket and a real live person answers me and walks me through whatever I need.
4. What about commenting? Blogger commenting stinks and I use Haloscan. How does Typepad compare?
Commenting in TP is ridiculously easy to receive and respond to. You
are sent an e-mail with the comment and you just have to hit reply on
the e-mail to send that person a response if you want.
I use Sitemeter, whose basic version is free, for stats, but actually, with Typepad you don’t really need it. Typepad gives you information on how many visitors your blog gets, when they visited, their IP addresses, etc. Typepad is easy to set up, inexpensive, scalable, good for anything beyond the most basic blogging.
I don’t recommend Blogspot. It has a few disadvantages that more than make up for its being free. The two things that would bother me the most are:
–it is ugly, which sends websurfers who don’t know you personally fleeing elsewhere
–readers have to sign in to comment. Most people won’t.
WordPress is great…I use it myself. BUT! It’s not for those with a fear of HTML. If it’s easy peasy and quick you need, Typepad is the ticket.
I also switched from Blogger to WordPress. WordPress is much more reliable than Blogger and now that I’m used to WordPress I like it so much better.
One thing, however. I had to have help to set up my WordPress blog… with Blogger I did it myself. Once WP is all set up the way you like it (with plug-ins and such) it is great.
I was surprised that you didn’t mention wordpress. I find that they are much easier to use both as a wordpress blog and then as a blogging software downloaded on my own domain name. Both are completely free–although you do have to pay your own hosting if you have your own domain name.
And while I’m at it, Typepad’s word verification sucks worse than Bloggers (It is possible!).
Now I have to do it again 🙁
It really reduces the number of comments I leave on Typepad blogs as it is so often indecipherable.
:cough: WordPress :cough:
Seriously, the better question would be TypePad v WordPress, and with WP being completely free, and decent hosting starting at $6.95 a month why pay for Typepad?
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