New Zealanders prefer Blogspot over WordPress
Halfdone says New Zealand has about 200 notable blogs. Google's Blogspot accounts for half of the total. WordPress.com is a shade under 20 percent. Typepad has only a four percent share and the rest are not immediately obvious.
Why does Blogspot (also known as Blogger) dominate?
Its technology seems dated and Blogspot sites look inferior to WordPress.com sites.
WordPress is intimidating for beginners, but far more flexible and, once mastered, is easier. It makes better use of graphics and has many useful built-in features.
Blogspot dominates
At first, I assumed it is because Blogspot, being owned by Google, has a higher profile. It is easier to find and the Blogspot name is more descriptive of what it does. These things matter for raw beginners.
Safety may also be a reason. People know who and what Google is, so they feel comfortable. WordPress is obscure by comparison and something of an unknown.
There could be a mercenary reason. Blogspot allows users to place Google Ads on their blogs, which, theoretically at least, means they earn money. Not much. In fact, I doubt if anyone below the top ten New Zealand blogs has seen as much as a dollar from Google advertising.
WordPress doesn't allow Google ads on its hosted blogs. Occasionally WordPress may put one of its own ads on a WordPress.com blog.
Scrubone, who runs Halfdone, suggested the reason for Blogspot's success is that it's been around a lot longer than WordPress. This is true and it is a likely reason, even though many Blogspot sites on the list are recently created. Being the incumbent in a technology market is often enough for success.
Other than the money factor, frankly, no. I have blogs both on Blogger and WordPress, and I find WordPress way ahead.
damyantig
7 Jan 09 at 5:26 pm
Actually, that list is acording to Tumeke!, and it’s political blogs only.
And trust me, many are not of any note whatsoever :)
scrubone
7 Jan 09 at 9:10 pm
You’ve already got the reasons I have – linking in with the rest of the google applications is pretty handy, and the name recognition blogger had before google came along was a good pitch as well.
Having said that, more people I know are canning their blogspots and moving on to wordpress, so it could merely be a matter of time before wordpress overcomes blogger.
PB.
pbmcbeth
7 Jan 09 at 11:40 pm
Scrubone:
1. Point taken.
2. Yes. I know what you mean. But there are plenty of even less noteworthy NZ blogs out there.
billbennettnz
7 Jan 09 at 10:52 pm
I think it’s just a matter of familiarity with blogspot, people knowing other people on it and … possibly the fact that you can customise the CSS on blogspot for free too
snipergirl
8 Jan 09 at 8:01 pm
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Snipergirl
Hmm, maybe. But hardly any of the New Zealand sites in question appear to have any modified CSS.
billbennettnz
9 Jan 09 at 9:08 am
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12 Jan 09 at 9:52 pm
I don’t think it has anything to do with location, but has to do with the ease of signing up for Blogger. If you want to blog, that’s pretty easy to remember and find. Well, that’s my take on it.
Good Day
P.S. How about a survey for different countries? Might find some interesting stats…
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