Not that after a month and a half of having a blog I am any kind of an expert but that doesn't stop me from having an opinion. Blogger or TypePad?
The original "News Views & Schmooze" was built on Blogger. The remnants are still up during this transition. I thought Blogger was very simple to learn, and I enjoyed how quickly I could get this blog up and running. My son had been using it for a year and really liked it. The look was simple and clean.
But it did not have categories. This meant that, effectively, your recent ten posts were all that anybody had a realistic expectation of every seeing. Anything older was archived according to date and people, in my view, simply aren't going to have the passion necessary, even if they like your blog, to look indiscriminately at, say, those fabulous posts of March 2005 or whatever.
So a friend of mine, Scott Leverenz, suggested I moved to TypePad where he built his blog Wheezer Society. Now I can assign each post to one or more categories and the groupings are based on interest. I've got the usual -- ranging from current events to television -- but I've also got ones I've made (i.e. "Whack Jobs" with postings about today's crazies from Michael Jackson to Tom Cruise).
Much as I thought I liked the Blogger look, now that I'm on TypePad, I think it's more professional looking. I have three that I'm working on now, and you're welcome to check any of them out. In addition to "News Views & Schmooze", there's:
- Instant History -- As a collector of Time and Newsweek, this features covers from past issues and excerpts from their coverage of major events. As an example, you can check out the issue with the Beatles on the cover and see what was being written about them when they first came to America.
- Movies-Squared -- Two reviews for the price of one. A movie that's out in the theaters is compared to a similar movie now out on DVD. So War of the Worlds gets reviewed in a head-to-head with Independence Day.
What I like is how individual each one looks. Check them out -- TypePad is a smooth deal.
So... others may disagree, but TypePad wins this one. The main reasons to use Blogger, I think, are that it's free and by being a part of Google, I wouldn't be surprised if it's easier to get people to notice you.
