Summary: WordPress.com offers free, instant blogging but lacks the full features of the WordPress platform.

A lot of clients are asking me about WordPress and how it stacks up to other blogging platforms like Blogger or Typepad. Only problem is: There are two types of WordPress: WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

If you go to WordPress.org you’ll see the site for the WordPress blogging platform. WordPress is an open source software project. Open source software is developed by a global community of programmers – anyone can contribute to an open source software project.  Further, open source software is free to download, free to install and free to tweak as you see fit (there’s a lot more to open source than that, though). WordPress.org is for information about software – the blogging platform called WordPress.

WordPress.com is a hosted version of the WordPress platform. WordPress.com, like Blogger, offers anybody not just the software to manage their blog, but also the server space to host it. WordPress.com uses a slightly scaled down version of the WordPress platform – a version called WordPress MU, intended for multi-user sites with up to thousands of blogs. WordPress.com is intended to give interested bloggers a place to get started, the software to blog, the space to host and a flavor for the full-scale WordPress software that they could install on their own servers if they so choose.

WordPress.com is an instant solution much like Blogger. There’s no installation and no fees to pay – you simply sign up and start blogging. But WordPress.com lacks the full features of a blogging platform that you’ve had installed on your own server for full control over the functionality and look and feel of your blog. Plus, WordPress.com does not offer domain mapping yet so your WordPress.com blog’s URL is always going to look like something.wordpress.com.

WordPress.org is where you go to download the full-scale WordPress blogging platform that you install on your own web server for full control and functionality. To complicate things further, many webhosts offer 1-Click Install of WordPress so you don’t have to go through too much geeky rigamarole.

In retrospect perhaps they should have called WordPress.com WordPress Lite to help differentiate it. It can be a bit confusing. Usually folks call WordPress.org simply WordPress and then differentiate when they are referring to WordPress.com.

I finally bought a leather couch a couple weeks ago. Nothing says ‘acclaimed author’ like sliding off a leather loveseat as you type on a laptop – sliding because you’re still in sweats and it hasn’t been broken in.

Anyway.

Ron and I went couch shopping and on our way stopped by Sleep City mattress store in Chicago on Diversey Avenue because we wanted to see about getting him a box spring and a bedframe. We’d been to this store a year ago to get him a mattress and returned this past summer to get me a mattress, box spring and bed frame. The guy at Sleep City set me up with a supah-soft Englander mattress that is like sleeping on a freakin’ cloud. Money well spent.

Anyway.

I wrote a quick entry about this Chicago mattress store on my personal blog and how fantastic the service was, how affordable the prices were and how I generally just had a great experience there (compared to the over-price place just a block away).

Recently, I’m at the gym and a guy we know comes up to me and says ‘Oh, I stopped off at that mattress store you recommended and got a bed.’ Strange, I hadn’t mentioned to Sean about the store. ‘Oh yeah, he’s got that review from you posted at his store.’ Strange, I hadn’t mentioned to Sean about my blog.

So Ron and I go into Sleep City and we’re talking to the guy about the bed frame when Ron spots my blog post. Printed out on the guy’s desk. ‘Look honey, this is your post!’ The salesman then says, ‘You’re Andy! You wouldn’t believe how many people have come in because of that review – and how many people know you!’

Sidestory: I have a massage therapist that I highly recommend back from my structural integration (aka Rolfing) days. I blogged about him too and I get at least one email a month of someone inquiring for his contact info. He recently called to thank me for the referrals.

This is why local businesses should blog. Or give discounts to bloggers in exchange for reviews and posting. You don’t have to be in a ‘techie’ business. If you aren’t findable online you’re dead. Blogs are word-of-mouth made trackable, searchable and archived.
Bonus sidestory: I’m walking out of my apartment building when a car horn honks and I hear somebody yelling my name. I go up to the car and meet two guys I’ve never met before. ‘We though it was you. We love your podcast!’ Then there was the time I got recognized in a local diner for having a blog. You never know your reach…

This is why you should be blogging. To forge meaningful relationships globally and locally. Bloggers can help new customers find you, a blog can help you find new customers.

VistaPrint first gained fame as the company that would send you a few hundred business cards for free. And so a million small businesses ordered the free cards and would eagerly scatter them to prospects, clients and colleauges. The caveat was that the back of the business cards said Get your own free business cards at VistaPrint.com. These spankin’ new business cards told the recipients the business’s contact info but also that they were too cheap to drop a whole thirty dollars on custom made business cards that advertised their business, not VistaPrint’s.

And so anytime a business uses dirt cheap or half-assed solutions for their business, I call it The VistaPrint Syndrome. This is beyond starting business on a shoestring or bootstrapping… You’re starting it on a stale ricecake, an eye booger and a dream.

And so it is with Blogger. I roll my eyes every time a business announces their new business blog and the address is at blogspot.com. I’ve been accused of being a blog bigot for telling clients to not use Blogger under any circumstances. Using Blogger and the free Blog*Spot hosting is basically telling the rest of the world that you’re too cheap to spend a few dollars for a halfway decent blog for your business. You’re too cheap to pay for web hosting, too cheap to pay for a 1-click install of WordPress, too cheap to pay for a domain-mapped TypePad blog. Business bloggers who use Blogger/Blog*Spot are telling the rest of the world not to take them seriously.

Sure it is just a blog. Blogs are supposed to be fun. Cheap and free was the initial allure of blogs. That was great at the beginning. I expect this same trend to eventually apply to WordPress.com once newbies figure out that the .com is the free hosted product and the .org is the free installable software – hopefully by the .com will have domain mapping.

Having a Blog*Spot blog and expecting someone to be impressed is like having a Yellow Pages listing and expecting them to go Oh. Wow. Shocker. You’re listed in the phone book.

Solutions?

1. Buy a domain name, get hosting for it, publish with Blogger to your own domain name.
2. Move your blog to a service like TypePad or BlogHarbor and domain map it.
3. Date/marry/hookup with a geek, have them install WordPress, Movable Type or TextPattern for you and be done with it. And then dump/divorce them if necessary.

If we want business blogs to be taken seriously we have to raise our expectations of our blogs and the newbies just starting out. Each time some company says Go to our blog at yadda-yadda dot blogspot dot com we should all feel as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Final word: I love VistaPrint. They are a great service and their express shipping option is a dream. I love Blogger. I started with them five years ago with my personal blog.

The New York Times has an overview on a blogging phenom: brand blogs. Take Michael Marx, for example:

"I’ve been drinking Barq’s for 15 years. It’s my beer," said Mr. Marx, who started his blog, thebarqsman.com, last year to collect news about Barq’s, commercials he likes for the drink and musings on why he thinks Barq’s is the best. As
the number of blogs has grown, more consumers like Mr. Marx are keeping
Web diaries dedicated exclusively to their favorite brands.

Juicy detail: Coca-Cola (owner of Barq’s) didn’t know about the blog. Free tip: Use Feedster, y’all.

Isn’t this the Holy Grail of marketing? Customers freely promoting and glorifying your brand?

Most consumers are searching for unbiased opinions, a niche that blogs
can fill. A testimonial from one blogger can speak directly to readers
in a way advertising does not.

Granted, bloggers can still criticize the brand with the same tools.

Also mentioned:

• Starbucks Gossip Blog
• First in Thirst (Gatorade blog)
• The Disney Blog
• Tracking Trader Joes