June 13, 2008

Some points from my blogging experience

Just sharing some of my views/experience.

- Blogspot or wordpress
Though I publish on blogspot I think that wordpress is more systematic and more beautiful. It is true that you can change template and make your blog look whatever you want but basically, Wordpress is better. This is my observation only, so may not be 100% true. I hope bloggers who have published on both will share their views.

- Content
Blog readers like to read blogger's personal stories/experiences. Most of the people don't want much politics in blogs. The reason may be that mainstream media around us already carries 'poltical load' far more than anybody can digest.

I am saying this, not only from the comments I receive in this blog but also from the comments I receive while talking to some of my 'silent readers' (my friends or their family members). Sometimes people whom I don't know personally and who don't want to comment on the blog itself, e-mail to me.

Though I mostly write in Nepali, I think it might be true for blog in any language.

I know tech-blogs or any other 'specific-subject' blogs are different.

- Widgets
Too many widgets and animations 'slows' your blog. Some may cause irritating pop-ups. I used to use a 'site meter' widget from motigo webstats. (I had another one too. It was something like "Things remembered coupons--".) Some another page would open first everytime my blog was accessed. I saw this happening to other blogs and sites too which were using motigo webstats. After removing that widget, I got rid of the problem.

I think google analytics is enough for me. So I don't plan to have any other site-meter.

I also disliked the "Recent Comments" widget that I used until last week. It was making my blog 'slower' (taking long time to open). So I removed that too. It was easier to track new comments and respond with it though.

9 comments:

  1. Dhanyabad Basanta jee,

    I like This post about blog widgets, i am feeling same as you about widgets. Once i have removed many widgets from my blogs. I think it's time to Check again.

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  2. great!!
    thanx for the sharing your experience.

    I also feel like that widgets slow the blog.....and I use 1/2 widgets only....

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  3. Yeah, it may be true that, wordpress is simple and blogger is little bit complicated than wordpress. bUT, I'm using blogger only.... By the way, for webstats, google analytics is enough but you may place sitemeter as well. I'm confused why you have used other's widget for sitemeter/webstats?

    Lastly, widget like recent commments and recents post are hacks for blogger.So, it take little bit much more time and takes time to open IN a page.
    Beside removing such widgets, You can place it in the last column. For your template "bottom of right side column" is right place for widgets like recent comments.

    ANYWAY, thanks for sharing your experience.

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  4. Thanks Basant ji for sharing your experiences. I haven't worked in wordpress, so trust your observations. Also, I agree with "Too many widgets and animations 'slows' your blog".

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  5. I think most of us re using blogger and are habitual of it, I also personally feel that wordpress is better....but the migration is a painful process so letus decorate our own blogger pages to look better and work smart.

    And yes! those widgets and scripts are; like they say "बिबाहको लड्डु":- खाने पनि पछुताउने नखाने पनि पछुताउने । नराखे पनि ब्लग खालि खाली देखीने राखे पनि के के हुने के के!

    But I think we can balance it with choice of correct template and selection of some useful scripts and widgets.

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  6. After hosting my blog in blogspot for more than a year, I decided to switch to wordpress. The switching was little dfficult as I was so much used to blogspot, but I'm very much satisfied with my decison now.
    The best thing about blogspot was you could customize the page however you liked (*few restrictions apply), but not all of us are savvy with HTML to maximize that benefit. Other advantage was adsense, but I felt Adsense wasn't of much help for small blogger like me (unless I tap my friend base to enhance clicks).
    Wordpress gives every possible widgets, and their other design and formatting are superb. If you want more CSS customization, you can do that by upgrading your account. It is very easy to move from blogspot to wordpress, open an wordpress account and with one click all the contents from blogspot will be imported to wordpress.

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  7. Thank you all.

    tibet artsjee, thank you for the visit.

    Badri, I see you too are using the motigo site meter and some another page gets opened first when your blog is accessed. Have you checked it?

    aakar, I am grateful for suggestions. I will try your suggestions.

    deependra, welcome to this blog!

    Dilip dai, my template is minima, one among many provided by blogger.com. I just added the third column (at left hand side) by copying codes from a "how to----" blogger-hack. I don't know what happened, may be some unnecessary codes too were inserted or I unknowingly changed some codes, I am having this problem since then.
    I will look for a good template when I have some time.

    Deepak, its great to blog simple. Content is the main thing. If you can give great content, template is not that important. But sometimes you want to decorate your house with some 'extra lighting'. Thats all.

    Prajwol, thank you for sharing the experience. To be frank, I am still sticking to blogger just for the hope that I will be able to 'monetize' it well some day. But I ee now that expecting revenue from a blog like mine is not a good idea. And me too, don't want to be unethical by requesting all my friends and relatives to 'click'.
    So I may migrate to wordpress soon.

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  8. Dear Basanta jee,

    Thank you very much for your informations and suggestions...

    Before I didn't know about that firstly some another page is opened when my blog access, cuz in my PC another page is not opened when I access my blog.

    Now, I have checked and trying to resolve it.........

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