1. Pros and Cons of Two Ways to Create a Blog#
Creating a blog can generally be divided into two categories: independent blogs and blogs provided by service providers (such as Blogger). Each type of blog has its own advantages and disadvantages, and people have a certain understanding of them.
Combining the description of the pros and cons of the two types of blogs from ChatGPT and my own thoughts, the advantages and disadvantages of both are summarized as follows:
The advantages of independent blogs are: blog owners have complete control over their blogs, including domain names, themes, plugins, advertisements, etc.; at the same time, it is more conducive to brand building; helps with SEO optimization; helps with income diversification.
The disadvantages of independent blogs are: higher technical requirements; require financial support; require more time investment, including the operation and maintenance of independent blogs, which requires relatively more time.
The advantages of creating a personal blog through Blogger are: free to use, providing subdomains, and can also be linked to your own independent domain; good service support, including easier access to Google Analytics and Google AdSense services; stable and secure, Blogger is supported by Google's security technology and cloud server support, making it easier to withstand various network security issues such as DDoS attacks; good community service support, Blogger has official tutorials (although some details of the tutorials are no longer valid, relatively speaking, it is easier to find solutions to problems).
The disadvantages of creating a personal blog through Blogger are: relatively low degree of customization, not many fancy features or beautiful pages, plugins, etc.; Blogger has some restrictions on content (such as adult content, copyright violations); relatively single source of income (Google AdSense).
2. Why I Choose to Build a Personal Blog Through Blogger?#
2.1 The Cost of Building a Personal Independent Blog is Too High#
One of the costs is the need for more financial investment. Independent blogs not only require payment for purchasing VPS and domain registration services but may also require the purchase of blog themes, etc. The most important cost is time and energy. Since independent blogs involve more aspects compared to Blogger, in terms of blog operation and maintenance, more attention needs to be paid to aspects such as preventing website attacks and preventing domain name misuse. Especially the concern that the website may go down or be stopped at any time will greatly reduce the enthusiasm for sharing personal content.
Personally, I have tried to purchase VPS and domain names and build an independent blog through LNMP from Oneinstack. Although I learned a lot about network construction, including database settings, domain name resolution, nginx settings, etc., for someone who is not dedicated to network operation and maintenance, continuous attention to operation and maintenance requires more energy to focus on various security issues that may occur on the website. All of these will go against the original intention of the blog as a content sharing platform and my own intention of just wanting to share content.
2.2 The Blog Built Through Blogger is Stable and Secure#
2.2.1 More Customizable Content#
Usually, blog services provided by blog service providers (such as Sina Blog) offer fewer customization options, while the blog service provided by Google Blogger offers more customizable content, including: the ability to bind a custom domain name, such as the domain name bound to this blog is igengdu.com; the ability to remove the Blogger copyright statement; the ability to customize themes; the ability to customize templates, and so on.
2.2.2 Based on Google's Technology, Secure and Stable#
Websites (including blogs) usually encounter CC or DDoS attacks. For independent blogs, the monthly VPS traffic is usually limited, and encountering a large influx of traffic will result in huge costs and may even cause the website to be inaccessible.
However, Blogger blogs based on Google's technical support have the ability to resist DDoS attacks. If not bound to a domain name, it is difficult to find the personal information of the blogger through Blogger.
For someone like me who emphasizes content output, what I need is a free and secure blogging platform, and Blogger is such a platform.
2.3 Hoping to Help More People with the Content I Share#
Recording the little experiences in personal growth is not only beneficial for summarizing my own experiences and lessons but also beneficial for others. If I can help others through my own sharing, it is also a happy thing.
Another Blogger blogger summarized his reasons for choosing Blogger in six points, which are simple and interesting, you can take a look.
3. Brief Summary#
Building a blog through Blogger is stable and efficient, which is conducive to long-term and continuous content output and habit formation.
Through the operation and maintenance of this blog, I hope to develop some good habits, such as continuous summarization and thinking about the little things encountered in life, including learning, work, and life. Ultimately, through continuous thinking, I can promote myself to learn new professional and essential knowledge, achieve myself, and facilitate others.
Note: This article was originally published on January 1, 2024, here, and archived here.