Construction Marketing blogs: Blogger, Wordpress or both?

The North Carolina Construction News website is hosted on our server with Wordpress software.

Which vehicle is best for your construction marketing blog, Wordpress or Blogger?  As time has passed, I think both have their strengths -- and in fact the ideal model may be a hybrid.

We effectively use both systems for our North Carolina publications, including Triangle/Triad Construction News and Charlotte Construction News.  The websites' home pages and substantial content are hosted on the Wordpress framework on our own server, but the North Carolina Construction News blog is published with Blogger.

This approach allows us to develop a customized, relatively easy-to-maintain site design hosted on our own internet service provider's server, while the blog is extremely simple to maintain and update and (appropriately) is clearly distinguishable as a blog.

Last year at this time, I decided to "move" my main Construction Marketing Ideas blog from Blogger to Wordpress, gradually fading away from daily updates on the Blogger site.  Certainly, Wordpress allows me much functionality, especially in the incredible selection of plug-ins to add features and special extras to the site.  However, Blogger has also evolved with some really nifty tools to make it easier to use and expand.

I think, in practice, if you are just starting out with a blog and lack much experience, or you wish a blog to look, feel, and behave exactly like a blog (in other words, readers to perceive it entirely as a blog and not a website) Blogger is a good idea.  If you wish to control your site and build in many extra features, then go with Wordpress hosted on your own server.  (That is, a Wordpress site where you build it from Wordpress.org rather than Wordpress.com.)  Finally, as I've described here, you can certainly use both systems effectively in combination.

In the next week, I'll set a plug-in on the Wordpress-formatted Construction Marketing Ideas blog to allow you to post your blog listing directly on the system, with additional graphics and description opportunities. (Obviously, I'll set a moderation and review system to prevent anyone from spamming the system.)  Meanwhile, I'll use this Blogger blog to highlight the project and share with you the details of the nomination and voting process for the Best Construction Blog competition.  Watch for more daily updates.