A little over two years ago, I decided to start a blog. I installed WordPress and have been very happy with it. I don't think I had heard of Blogger at that time, but then I didn't pay much attention to blogs at all back then. Since then, I've run across quite a number of blogger sites that I visit regularly.
Occasionally, I run across an article that illicits a response. I click on comment and start typing away. But when I try to post the comment, blogger wants to tie it to an account instead of just letting me enter an email address. There's probably a way around this, but I'm so averse to creating yet another account that I don't look any further and simply don't leave a comment.
After a couple attempts, I realized that all blogger sites were set up this way. None of the comments I wanted to make were pressing enough to make me create an account (or see if there was a way around it). The funny thing about idiosyncrasies is that, even when you are aware of them it is still difficult to change the behavior.
Tonight I finally changed that behavior! My cousin started a blog on blogger. His first post was funny and interesting and prompted me to write a comment. I typed in my comment and hit send, only to be reminded that this was blogger and it wasn't that simple. I cancelled the comment and sent him a message via facebook instead.
The absurdity of my behavior finally became too much for me. I decided to take the plunge. I created a google account, followed by a blogger account, and then set up this website (in for a penny, in for a pound). I went to a couple blogger sites I frequent and clicked follow. That done, I came back to the dashboard in order to tinker.
I'm not overwhelmed by the features but I am very impressed with the ease of use and lack of coding required to maintain a site. Personally, I prefer doing all the design myself. That level of control offers much more flexibility. But I would readily recommend blogger to anyone who doesn't want to bother with the extra work that comes with that control.
I have a couple of other reasons for taking the plunge into the blogger community though. As I said, I've been blogging with WordPress for over two years. In that time, I've done nothing to advertise or otherwise attract readers. To be honest, I couldn't care less if anyone actually reads my blog. I do it because it is therapeutic and it helps me organize my thoughts. Well, that's not entirely true. I guess I do care to some degree if people read my blog. It's always nice to see the hits steadily rising and to see the comments. Maybe I should say that's not my main goal. Nevertheless, building my readership hasn't been my focus.
However, I have recently decided to organize my homebrew D&D rule set and publish it under the open gaming license. That's probably at least a year off but, while I'm working on that, I've decided it's time to try to attract more readers in order to attract more interest for when my game is ready for release.
Blogger is an excellent way to advertise. It has its own network of sites and built in support for tracking followers. I thought that by creating my own blogger site, I could attract readers to my main site as well. Once I've looked a bit more deeply into blogger, I'm hoping that I'll be able to set up a cross-posting mechanism as well (so that posts on my main site will automatically post here as well).
The best thing about all of this is that I've gotten past my aversion to creating an account. Now I can post comments on blogger sites. :)