How to Create a Yes/No Optin for Your WordPress Site

Recently, one of our readers asked us how they could create a popup with Yes/No buttons?

Perhaps you’ve seen these used in an email list optin, or another special offer on a big website. These multi-step Yes / No campaigns can be very effective in improving your conversion rate.

In this article, we will show you how to create a Yes/No optin for your WordPress site.

What Is a Yes/No Optin and Why Use One?

A Yes/No optin is a popup form that has 2 options, either buttons or links. You can click the ‘Yes’ to opt-in, or click ‘No’ to refuse the offer.

Sometimes these are called 2-step optins or multi-step optins, as they involve the user taking 2 steps instead of 1.

Here’s an example of a Yes/No optin from Advanced Coupons:

Note: The options don’t necessarily need to have ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ labels.

It might seem strange to get users to go through an extra step before they can join your email newsletter or take some other action.

However, Yes/No popups can be highly effective. This is because they use a special psychological tactic called the Zeigarnik Effect.

The Zeigarnik Effect is the principle that when someone starts a process, they’re likely to finish it. In this case, that means that someone who clicks Yes is likely to go ahead and put in their email address.

Plus, a Yes/No optin gives your visitors a choice. That feeling of freedom is powerful. It makes it more likely that your visitors will make the positive choice to opt-in to your list.

Even better, you can use the ‘No’ option effectively, too. For instance, you could create an optin like this one from WP Mail SMTP. It appears if a user looks like they’re about to leave the WP Mail SMTP site’s pricing page:

If the user clicks the ‘Get WP Mail SMTP Now’, then they stay on the pricing page. If they click ‘I have a few questions first’, then they’re directed to the Contact page. Here, they can easily contact your sales or support team, which may ultimately lead to successful conversion.

Creating a Yes/No Popup for Your Website

We’ll be using OptinMonster to create a Yes/No optin popup.

OptinMonster is the best lead generation software that helps you convert website visitors into customers and subscribers. It allows you to create beautiful popups, countdown timers, slide-in forms, and more to nudge users in the right direction”

Setting Up OptinMonster and Creating a New Campaign

First, sign up on the OptinMonster website. You will need the Pro plan or higher in order to create Yes/No optins.

Then, you need to install and activate the OptinMonster WordPress plugin. This lets you connect your WordPress site with your OptinMonster account.

Upon activation, you will see the OptinMonster welcome screen. You need to click the ‘Connect Your Account’ button and follow the onscreen prompts. Then, your WordPress site will be connected to your OptinMonster account.

Now, go to the OptinMonster » Campaigns page in your WordPress admin. Simply click the ‘Create New Campaign’ button at the top to make a new campaign.

You will be taken straight into the OptinMonster app. We’re going to use a Popup for our optin. You can pick a different Campaign Type if you want.

Next, select the template you want to use for your campaign. We’re going to use the Split template:

You’ll be asked to give your campaign a name and choose which site you want to show it on.

Once you are ready, go ahead and click on the ‘Start Building’ button.

Your chosen template will now open up in the OptinMonster campaign editor.

Editing Your Yes/No Optin in OptinMonster

First, you need to create a Yes/No campaign. Simply click on the Yes/No tab near the top of your screen then click the ‘Enable Yes/No for This Campaign’ button:

This is a new part of your campaign. It will have a main button with a ‘No Thanks’ option below it:

Note: Some templates will not have a built-in Yes/No view. With these, you will instead get a blank canvas to create your Yes/No view.

Go ahead and edit the Yes/No view as much as you want. Simply click on the part of the template you want to change. We are going to edit the header text:

It’s easy to edit the image. Just click on it and then upload the image you want to use:

You may also want to change the Yes and No buttons. Simply click on them to edit the buttons. It’s easy to change their text, color, and more.

Just make your changes in the left-hand pane and the preview of your optin will automatically update.

By default, clicking the ‘Yes’ button will take the user to the optin view of the campaign. Clicking the ‘No’ button will simply close the campaign.

You can change these actions if you want by selecting the button then clicking the ‘Button Click Action’ dropdown. We’re going to set our ‘No’ button to redirect to a URL:

You now need to edit the optin view of your campaign. This is the view that your users will see upon clicking on the ‘Yes’ button.

Simply click on the Optin tab at the top of the screen to edit the optin view:

Then, edit the text, image, and anything else you want to change as before.

Finally, you need to change the ‘Success’ view of the campaign. This is the screen users will see after entering their email address.

First, click the Success tab at the top of the screen. Then, go ahead and click on the things you want to edit.

Here’s the finished success view for our optin:

Once you’ve finished creating your optin, make sure you click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen.

Connecting Your Optin to Your Email List

If you’re using your optin to gather email addresses, you need to connect it with your email marketing service.

To do this, click on the Integrations tab then click the ‘Add New Integration’ button:

Next, select your email provider from the dropdown list. OptinMonster will then give you instructions for connecting your account to that email provider.

Once you’ve connected your account, go ahead and click the Display Rules tab for your campaign.

Setting the Display Rules for Your Yes/No Campaign

By default, your optin will appear after the user has been on any page for 5 seconds. For our optin, we’re going to give them a little longer to check out our site and products first.

To change the display rule, simply click the ‘Edit’ button on the right:

Now, go ahead and change the rule. We’re going to set the time on page to at least 15 seconds:

On this page, you can also select from lots of different rules. For instance, you might want to only display your Yes/No optin on a specific page, such as your pricing page.

Make sure you leave the ‘Then…’ option to ‘show the campaign view: Yes/No’ for your optin.

When you have set your display rules, click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen.

Putting Your Yes/No Optin Live on Your Site

Now, it’s time to make your optin live on your site.

First, you need to click the Publish tab at the top of the screen. Then, set the Status slide to the ‘Live’ instead of the ‘Paused’ setting:

Your Yes/No optin will not be live on your site straight away. You need to put it live in WordPress too.

In your WordPress admin, go to OptinMonster » Campaigns then click the ‘Refresh Campaigns’ button:

Now, you should see your campaign listed here. Go ahead and click the ‘Edit Output Settings’ link:

Here, you need to make sure the ‘Enable campaign on site?’ box is checked, then click the ‘Save Settings’ button:

Your campaign will now be live on your website. Here is how ours looks on our demo site:

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a Yes/No optin for your WordPress site. You might also like our article on the best WordPress survey plugins to boost your user engagement, and best WordPress page builder plugins to create custom landing pages.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Yes/No Optin for Your WordPress Site appeared first on WPBeginner.

August 20, 2020 at 06:36PM

What is WordPress? A Beginner’s Guide (FAQs + Pros and Cons)

WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder. It allows you to easily create websites, blogs, eCommerce stores and more.

If you have been wondering what is WordPress, how does it work, and what you can use it for, then you are in the right place.

In this beginner’s guide, we will explain what is WordPress, how you can use it, and answer some of the most frequently asked questions about WordPress.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a website builder and content management system. It is an open source software that anyone can use to make any kind of website imaginable.

It started out as a blogging platform in 2003 but soon transformed into a CMS and later a full-fledged website building platform. Today it powers more than 38% of all websites on the internet.

To learn more about its evolution, see our complete guide on the history of WordPress and how it changed over time.

To summarize, WordPress is a software that you can use to build blogs, websites, and stores to sell products online.

How is it Different from WordPress.com?

In this article, when we say WordPress we are talking about WordPress.org.

WordPress.com is a separate website that offers website and blog hosting service. It was launched by the WordPress co-founder, Matt Mullenweg.

Most beginners often confuse the two due to their similar names.

WordPress.org is the open-source software used by millions of websites (including WPBeginner). On the other hand, WordPress.com is a website and blog hosting platform.

For more details, see our guide on the difference between WordPress.org vs WordPress.com.

What do You Need to Use WordPress?

You need a web hosting account and a domain name to start using WordPress.

All websites need web hosting. It is the place where all your website files are stored, so that others on the internet can access your website.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet (example, wpbeginner.com).

If your website was a house then web hosting will be the building you live in and domain name would be your street address. For more on this topic, see our beginner’s guide on the difference between web hosting and domain name.

To get a web hosting account, you’ll need to sign up with a WordPress hosting provider. These are third-party companies that sell hosting solutions.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

Normally, a domain name costs $14.99 per year and web hosting starts from $7.99 per month.

Bluehost is offering WPBeginner users a discount on hosting with a free domain name. Basically, you can get started for just $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

For step by step instruction, see our complete guide on how to make a website it will walk you through complete WordPress set up.

What Kind of Websites You Can Make Using WordPress?

You can make any kind of website imaginable using WordPress.

Users from all over the world use WordPress to make money online. It is flexible enough to run eCommerce operations and simple enough to quickly make small websites.

The following are just some types of websites you can make using WordPress.

• Start a blog
• Make a small business website
• Create an online store
• Build a membership community
• Sell online courses
• and many more

How WordPress Works?

Once you have installed WordPress, you’ll see an easy to use dashboard with links to different areas in the left column. From here, you can create pages for your website or write blog posts.

You can also choose a website design template (Theme) for your website. There are thousands of free WordPress themes that you can choose from. You can also choose premium WordPress theme that comes with more advanced features.

All these WordPress themes allow you to set up your website using a simple theme customizer interface. From here you can edit and customize your site design.

But the real power of WordPress comes from the plugins.

WordPress plugins are like apps for your website. Similar to the apps you install on your phone, WordPress plugins allow you to add new features to your website.

For instance, you can add a contact form to your site, or display a lightbox popup to announce a sale.

You can convert your site into an online store using plugins like WooCommerce, or use a membership plugin to make a subscription-based website.

There are 56000+ free WordPress plugins in the WordPress plugin directory alone. There are also premium WordPress plugins that offer full support and guaranteed updates.

You can see some of the best WordPress plugins hand-picked by our expert team to help you grow your WordPress site.

Note: If you want to see how WordPress works behind the scenes from a technical point of view, then please check out our infographic on how WordPress works.

Who Else is Using WordPress?

WordPress is not just for beginners. It is used by many of the fortune 500 companies, universities, non-profits, governments around the world, and more.

The following are some of the top brands and organizations that are using WordPress.

1. The White House

The official website of the White House is built using WordPress. It features a large header on the top followed by the latest updates, news, and resources.

2. Facebook

Facebook uses WordPress for their corporate website. It is a typical business website with a homepage showcasing key characteristics of the brand along with its flagship products. It also has a blog section called the Newsroom.

3. The New York Times

New York Times uses WordPress on its corporate website showcasing the company behind the iconic newspaper.

4. Microsoft

Microsoft uses WordPress to run their blogs website. It features company news, information, and product highlights.

5. Sony Music

Sony Music is one of the biggest music producers in the world representing top artists and labels. They use WordPress to power their corporate website.

To see a full list, check out our complete list on the most popular brands using WordPress.

Why Use WordPress to Make a Website?

Now, if you are thinking about starting a blog or a small business website, then you may be wondering why you should use WordPress as your website platform?

There are dozens of website builders and potential WordPress alternatives on the market that you can use to make your website. However, we believe that WordPress is the best platform for beginners and small businesses.

This is why over 38% of all websites use WordPress.

But here are just some of the reasons to choose WordPress for your website.

1. WordPress gives you the freedom

WordPress is free (as in freedom) and open-source software. Anyone can use it to create and launch a website. It is not owned by a single company, and it is protected by the WordPress Foundation, a non-profit organization.

This means you have complete freedom to use it in any way you see fit. You will have full control and complete ownership of your website and all of its content.

2. WordPress is easy

One of the reasons that make WordPress the #1 website builder is that it is incredibly easy to use.

There is a slight learning curve when you familiarize yourself with the software, but most beginners pass it quickly and easily manage their own websites.

Pro Tip: See our guide on how to learn WordPress for free in a week.

There is also a ton of free WordPress help and support available. You can ask questions on any tech community website and you’ll find answers from other users who started out just like you.

You can also join our WPBeginner Facebook Group to ask all your WordPress related questions and get free help from our experts and other WPBeginner users.

3. WordPress is super-flexible

WordPress allows you to use third-party themes and plugins. This means you can choose from thousands of professionally designed templates for your website.

Using plugins, you can add any feature to your WordPress website. Most of them are available for free, but you can also purchase premium plugins to get priority support from developers.

There are drag & drop WordPress page builder plugins that lets you completely customize your design and make custom templates without writing any code.

4. WordPress is multilingual

WordPress is fully translated into more than 65 languages. You can easily choose your website language during the installation or change it from the settings page.

You can keep the WordPress admin area in one language and create a website in another language. You can also use a WordPress multilingual plugin to create a website in multiple languages.

WordPress themes and plugins can also be translated and many of the top WordPress plugins are already translated into many languages.

5. WordPress is cost effective

With proprietary website builders and hosted platforms, you have to pay a monthly fee for a fixed set of features.

With WordPress, you pay a monthly fee for hosting and add any feature to your website using plugins. Most of them are free or have free alternatives, which gives you the freedom to control the cost of your WordPress website.

Once your website starts growing and making money, then you can spend on upgrading your hosting service or buying premium WordPress themes and plugins.

For more reasons, see our article on why you should use WordPress.

FAQs about WordPress

We made WPBeginner to help WordPress beginners. Since 2009, we have helped millions of beginners get started with WordPress and have been answering WordPress related questions every day.

Here are some of the most frequently asked WordPress questions that we hear from beginners.

1. Why is WordPress available for free?

WordPress is an open-source software available for anyone to use. It is free (as in freedom), but there are other costs involved. For instance, you’ll need WordPress hosting and domain name to make your website.

For a more detailed explanation, see our article Why is WordPress free which explains the philosophy behind free software and WordPress.

2. What are the disadvantages of using WordPress?

Like everything else in the world, there are pros and cons to using WordPress. We have mentioned the advantages in detail, and they are enough to outweigh any disadvantages. However, here are some of the cons of using WordPress.

• You will need to spend a little time learning the basics. This does not mean coding or programming, but learning where things are located and how to use them.
• You’ll need to spend time on setting up backups, security, and updates. Most of these tasks can be easily automated and most beginners manage them without any special skills
• If you are not careful, then you may end up spending more on third-party tools and plugins that you may not need. Spend your money wisely and rely on free alternates whenever possible.

3. How can I learn WordPress?

WordPress is easy to learn, and there are a lot of learning material out there. You can learn WordPress right here on WPBeginner.

We are the largest WordPress resource site for beginners in the world. All of WPBeginner resources are available for free.

For beginners, we recommend starting out with our WordPress video tutorials. It is a series of videos that walks you through WordPress basics and how to manage your website like a total pro.

Our WordPress glossary section explains all the technical WordPress terminology in plain English for beginners.

You can also find answers to your WordPress questions by clicking on the search icon at the top.

Need a little more help from real users? Join our WPBeginner Facebook group to get answers from other WordPress users and our experts. It’s free to join, and there are over 50,000 members.

You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel for regular WordPress video tutorials and guides (over 500 free video tutorials).

4. Which WordPress hosting company to choose?

You’ll need WordPress hosting to start your website, and there are thousands of them out there. Due to fierce competition in the hosting industry, it becomes quite confusing for beginners to make up their minds.

Don’t worry, we did the research for you. You can read about it in our complete WordPress hosting guide for beginners.

For beginners, we recommend starting with Bluehost. They are offering a generous discount and a free domain name.

More importantly, they are one of the biggest names in the business and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

If you have a slightly larger budget to afford premium hosting, then we recommend SiteGround or WP Engine.

5. How do I start a WordPress website?

Getting started with WordPress is easy. You can simply follow our step by step tutorial on how to make a WordPress website for detailed instructions.

It will walk you through the whole process, and you’ll be up and running with a brand new WordPress website in no time.

If you need assistance, you can take advantage of our free WordPress blog setup service, where our expert team will setup your WordPress blog for free, without any costs.

We hope this article explained what is WordPress, and how you can use it. You may also want to see our guide on things to do after installing WordPress, or head over to check out these practical online business ideas that you can start with WordPress right away.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post What is WordPress? A Beginner’s Guide (FAQs + Pros and Cons) appeared first on WPBeginner.

August 19, 2020 at 06:50PM

WordPress vs. Blogger – Which one is Better? (Pros and Cons)

Are you planning to start a new blog? Not sure whether you should use WordPress or Blogger as your blog platform? Well, we can help.

WordPress and Blogger are the two most popular blogging platforms on the internet. They both let you create a blog easily. However, they work quite differently, and each has specific pros and cons.

In this article, we will compare Blogger vs WordPress side by side and show you the differences that matter. Our goal is to help you decide which is the better platform for your needs.

What to Look for in Your Blog Platform?

Before we begin our WordPress vs. Blogger comparison, let’s cover some important things to look for when choosing a blog platform.

• Ease of Use: You need a simple and easy to use platform to quickly set up your blog, add content, and grow your audience.
• Flexibility: You need a platform that lets you add more features or use more resources as your blog grows.
• Monetization options: Do you want to make money online with your blog? If yes, then you need to choose a platform which has plenty of monetization options.
• Support: You may need support while creating your blog, designing, or managing it. If you get stuck or have questions, you’ll want to get help as quickly and easily as possible.

Aside from the above, you also need to consider platform costs, available design options, SEO optimization features for traffic, and more.

With that said, let’s compare how WordPress and Blogger stack up against these requirements.

Table of Contents – WordPress vs Blogger

Since this is a detailed comparison, please use the quick links below to jump straight to different parts of the article.

• Overview: WordPress vs Blogger
• Ease of Use
• Ownership
• Control
• Design Options
• Security
• Support
• Future
• Portability
• Pricing
• Conclusion: Blogger vs WordPress – Which One Is Better?

Note: This comparison is between self-hosted WordPress.org and Blogger (not WordPress.com vs Blogger). See our guide on the differences between self-hosted WordPress.org vs WordPress.com.

Overview – WordPress vs Blogger

As we mentioned above, WordPress and Blogger are the two most widely used blog management platforms in the world.

According to blog technology usage stats from BuiltWith, WordPress is the #1 most popular blog software. It’s used by about 38% of all sites in the top 1 million sites and by an astonishing 95% of all the blogs among those sites.

The same report shows Blogger as the second most popular platform used by about 1% of the blogs in the top 1 million sites.

We also compared the search terms ‘WordPress’ and ‘Blogger’ in Google Trends to see the interest over time for each:

As shown in the screenshot above, WordPress steadily rose to popularity beating Blogger by 2005. It’s still much more popular today.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is free open source software that allows you to easily create a website, blog, or an online store. Started In 2003, WordPress now powers more than 38% of all websites on the internet.

You can download the WordPress software for free and use it on as many sites as you want.

To create a blog in WordPress, you will need to buy a hosting plan and a domain name, so you can install WordPress. It sounds a bit complex at first; however, it is pretty simple with tons of user-friendly tutorials on WPBeginner and other sites.

Our team can even setup your WordPress blog for free. Learn more about our free blog setup service.

What is Blogger?

Blogger is a free blogging service from Google. Started in 1999 by Pyra Labs, it was acquired by Google in 2003.

Blogger is a free blog hosting service that lets you create a blog without paying anything at all. You also get a free Blogspot subdomain.

Your blog’s address will look something like this: www.yourname.blogspot.com.

However, you can also use a custom domain name with your blog. For that, you need to register a domain name through third-party domain registrars, then connect it to your Blogger blog.

Ease of Use – Blogger vs WordPress

Most people who want to create a blog aren’t web developers. They might own a small business or a non-profit, want to share their ideas with the world, or be keen to try a new hobby.

To get their words out there, they need an easy to use blogging platform.

Blogger – Ease of Use

Blogger is a simple blogging tool where you can create a blog in just a few minutes. You’ll need a Google account to get started.

Go to the Blogger website and then sign up with your Google account. After that, click the ‘Create New Blog’ option. Next, you can choose your display name, then create a blog title, blog address, and a theme.

Once you’ve done that, your blog will be set up. Next, you can configure blog settings, edit your blog layout, and add posts.

The setup process is pretty simple. However, if you want to customize your theme, that’s a lot trickier. To change your blog’s design in Blogger, you’ll need HTML skills.

WordPress – Ease of Use

Setting up a blog in WordPress is a simple and quick process. You won’t need any coding skills. You just need to know how to point-and-click on a computer screen to set up WordPress and install WordPress plugins.

You can follow our step by step beginner’s guide on how to start a WordPress blog, and you’ll be up and running in less than 30 minutes.

Once the setup is done, you can choose a WordPress blog theme that’s a good fit for your blog. A theme is like a template for your blog. It controls how your blog looks.

After that, you can install the best WordPress plugins to give your WordPress blog more features.

Adding content to WordPress is simple with the system of posts and pages.

You can easily create text content, add images, videos, and other media to your WordPress posts and pages using the intuitive block editor.

Aside from the block editor, WordPress has the option of drag and drop page builders that let you customize absolutely everything.

While the setup process of Blogger is quicker, WordPress makes it much easier to customize things to look exactly how you want.

Winner: WordPress.

Ownership – Blogger vs WordPress

Ownership of your blog is another crucial aspect to consider while choosing a blog site.

Having full ownership of your blog gives you the freedom to do anything, including how to handle it, how to monetize it, and when to shut it down.

Who Owns Your Blog on Blogger?

Blogger is a blogging service provided by the tech giant Google. It is free, reliable, and has enough features to easily publish your content on the web.

However, it is not owned by you.

Google runs this service and has the right to shut it down or shut down your access to it at any time. It’s just like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which can ban people or suspend their accounts without warning.

Even if you don’t do anything wrong, you could still lose your blog if Google ever decides to stop supporting Blogger. Google has a history of abandoning projects without warning, such as Feedburner.

Who Owns Your Blog on WordPress?

With WordPress, you use a WordPress hosting provider to host your site. You are free to decide how long you want to run your blog. It won’t be shut down without warning.

Also, you’re not tied to any specific web host. You can move to a new web host at any point if you want to. With Blogger, you can’t take your blog anywhere except for Blogger itself.

When you use WordPress for your site, you own all your data, and you control what information you share with any third party.

Winner: WordPress.

Control and Flexibility – Blogger vs WordPress

Another important thing you need to consider is how much flexibility you’ll have.

Does your blog site let you fully control the design of your blog? Are you able to add new features to your blog?

Let’s see how Blogger and WordPress compare on this aspect.

Control and Flexibility with Blogger

Blogger is designed to be a simple blogging tool. That means the things you can do on your Blogspot blog are limited.

Blogger has a set of built-in “gadgets” that let you add features like advertising, subscription links, a contact form, and more. But these gadgets have limited functionality, and there are no alternatives available for them. They’re all provided by Google.

Advanced options like popups, eCommerce features, and more simply aren’t available on the Blogger platform. This seriously limits your potential for making money using Blogger.

Control and Flexibility Options with WordPress

WordPress is open source software, so you can easily extend it to add new features. You can add almost any feature imaginable to your WordPress blog with plugins and third-party integrations.

There are thousands of free and premium WordPress plugins that allow you to hugely modify and extend the default features.

For example, using plugins, you could:

• Add an online store to your website
• Create a portfolio
• Make a popup to capture visitors’ email addresses
• Add social sharing buttons

… and much more.

If you visit the plugins page on WordPress.org, you’ll find over 56,000+ free plugins there.

If you have coding skills, you can even create your own custom plugins and use them on your blog.

So how do WordPress vs Blogger compare for flexibility and customization options? WordPress is hands down the best long-term solution for any serious blogger who wants to grow their site or build an online business.

Winner: WordPress.

Appearance and Design Options

The appearance or design of your blog plays a vital role in attracting visitors and keeping them around. Your blog design needs to give a great first impression to engage users and reduce your site’s bounce rate.

The design also needs to make your blog easy to use and navigate to improve the time spent on your blog.

Blog Design Options in Blogger

Blogger only provides a limited set of templates to use. These templates are pretty basic and have been used on thousands of blogs.

You can change the colors and layout of these templates using Blogger’s built-in tools. However, you can’t create your own templates or make modifications.

There are some non-official Blogger templates available, but it can be really tough to find quality ones, plus you’ll need to pay for them.

The small range of templates, the limited customization options, and the lack of layout choices make Blogger seriously fall behind in terms of design choices.

Blog Design Options in WordPress

In WordPress, there are thousands of free and premium themes, making it easy to select the perfect theme for your blog.

There is a WordPress theme for any type of website you can think of. No matter what your site’s about, you’ll find plenty of high-quality themes that are easy to modify and customize.

You can find a collection of 7,400+ free WordPress themes on the official WordPress.org themes page. If you go to Appearance » Themes in your WordPress dashboard, you can search ‘blog’ to view the themes specifically designed for blogs.

You should find more than 2,000 free blog themes:

And, you can get more themes from third-party theme providers like Elegant Themes, Themify, and Astra Themes.

Not only that, you can also use the simple drag and drop WordPress page builders to design stunning landing pages easily in WordPress.

You can even create your own custom WordPress themes without writing any code.

Winner: WordPress.

Security – WordPress vs Blogger

Security is another essential aspect to consider when selecting your blog platform. If your site is blacklisted or hacked, you could lose months or years of hard work.

Managing Security in Blogger

Using Blogger, you have the added advantage of Google’s robust, secure platform. You don’t need to worry about managing your server’s resources, securing your blog, or creating backups.

However, if Blogger goes down, your site will too … along with all the other sites hosted on Blogger. You can’t do anything to recover your blog when the Blogger site is down.

Managing Security in WordPress

WordPress is quite secure, but since it is a self-hosted solution, you’re responsible for security and backups.

The good news is that there are plenty of WordPress plugins that make it easier for you.

For example, you can use UpdraftPlus or VaultPress for creating a backup, and Sucuri for web-application firewall to improve site security.

For a complete guide on managing security in WordPress, see our ultimate WordPress security guide.

Winner: Tie.

Support – WordPress vs Blogger

Support is another critical factor to consider while choosing your blog platform. Check whether there is a reliable support system to help you out when you need it.

Support Options in Blogger

There is limited support available for Blogger. They have very basic documentation and a users’ forum. In terms of support, your choices are very limited.

You can click on the Help option in your Blogger admin panel to see support tutorials as shown in the image below.

Since it is a free service, Google can’t provide one-to-one support to individuals using Blogger.

Support Options in WordPress

WordPress has a very active community support system. There are question-answer forums for each theme and plugin on WordPress.org. For example, this is the official support forum of the popular coming soon plugin SeedProd.

If you are using paid WordPress products, then you can get even more dedicated support from their creators. You can also get live support from your web hosting company.

Aside from that, there are thousands of online tutorials created by WordPress developers and community members. Our team of WordPress experts is also helping thousands of users via our Facebook group.

Even with free plugins, you might be able to get help and support if you get stuck. Check out our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support to boost your chances of getting help.

Winner: WordPress.

Future – Blogger vs WordPress

The future of your blogging platform determines how far you can go with your blog. What’s going to happen to your site in a year’s time, or in five years’ time?

Future of Your Blog on Blogger

Blogger hasn’t had any major updates for a very long time. Over the years, we have seen Google get rid of popular services such as Google Reader, Google Adsense for feeds, and FeedBurner.

The future of Blogger depends on Google, and they have the right to shut it down whenever they want. So, the future of your blog also depends on Google’s decisions.

Future of Your Blog on WordPress

WordPress is open source software, which means its future is not dependent on one company or individual. To find out more about how it works, check out our article on the history of WordPress. It is managed by a community of developers and users.

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS). Thousands of businesses around the globe depend on it. The future of WordPress is bright and reassuring.

Winner: WordPress.

Portability – WordPress vs Blogger

The purpose of this article is to help you choose the best platform, so you don’t need to move your site. But mistakes can happen. So, it is essential to check whether your blog platform has secure options to move to another platform or not.

Portability of Your Blogger Blog

Moving your site from Blogger to a different platform is a complicated task. There is a significant risk that you will lose your SEO (search engine rankings), subscribers, and followers during the move.

Even though Blogger allows you to export your content, your data will stay on Google’s servers for a very long time.

Portability of Your WordPress Blog

Using WordPress, you can move your site anywhere you want. You can move your WordPress site to a new host, you can change domain name, or you can even move your site to other content management systems.

Winner: WordPress.

Pricing – Blogger vs WordPress

You don’t want your blog to be a huge money drain. Equally, you don’t want to become so obsessed with “free” that you struggle to grow your blog.

It’s important to think about how much your blogging platform is going to cost you in terms of both money and opportunities.

Cost of Making a Blog in Blogger

Blogger is an entirely free blogging service. It provides free blog hosting and a free Blogspot subdomain to get started. All Blogger’s themes, gadgets, and other options are free as well, though there are some third-party themes you can pay for.

If you want to use a custom domain name with Blogger, you’ll have to buy it from a domain registration company like Domain.com. A domain name typically costs $14.99 per year, but you can get a discount with our Domain.com coupon code.

Ultimately, while the Blogger platform is totally free, it lacks many features you will need to make your blog successful.

Cost of Making a Blog in WordPress

The WordPress software is free, but you need to buy a hosting plan and domain name to start a blog.

With Bluehost, you can get a WordPress hosting plan for just $2.75 per month and a free domain along with it.

Once you’ve set up your blog, the ongoing cost depends on the services you want to use. If you use paid themes and plugins, that will obviously cost more than using free ones.

However, paid themes and plugins can also bring you a great return on investment if you’re monetizing your blog.

For more details, see our complete guide on how much does it really cost to build a WordPress website.

Winner: Tie.

Conclusion: Blogger vs WordPress – Which One Is Better?

WordPress and Blogger both are widely used blog platforms. But since you need to choose one, it comes down to the purpose of your blog.

If your goal is to make a personal blog and share your stories, then you can choose a simple platform like Blogger.

But if you aim to make a professional blog which can earn a living, then you need a robust and scalable platform like WordPress.

With WordPress, you can add a shop to your blog, create a membership website, and add tons of marketing tools to your blog, and earn money.

We hope this WordPress vs Blogger comparison helped you understand the pros and cons of each and helped you make the right decision for your blog.

To learn more about WordPress, we recommend you read our guide on Why is WordPress Free? and our article on debunking the most common myths about WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post WordPress vs. Blogger – Which one is Better? (Pros and Cons) appeared first on WPBeginner.

August 18, 2020 at 06:00PM