I've been using Blogger for about about two months. I've got five blogs and post fairly frequently. I've run into any number of problems with Blogger, but manage to work around them for the most part. The fact that Blogger is free is a big, big, deal for me on my zero budget.

How satisifed am I? About 50% satisfied. If I had a non-zero budget I might go with Typepad. If I wanted to roll up my sleeves, I'd download some free PHP packages. My motto: "Simple and Free".

I prefer to use the email posting feature of Blogger, but unfortunately it only works half the time.

You can read about virtually all of my blogging trials and tribulations with Blogger on my "Jack Krupansky on Blogging" blog: http://jackkonblog.blogspot.com

And I have a small blog over on MSN Spaces, mostly just to give me a few extra in-bound links.

-- Jack Krupansky

Wicked, thanks Jack. I'll check out your blogging escapades at the link you gave...

I've been using Blogger for about six months, and am happy with how simple it is to use. However, I've toyed around with leaving to MT or something else, but haven't because it will cost money and require time/effort to pick up extra expertise. However, I sorely wish I could spice up my site's relatively drab design.

I'm curious to hear from people who started with Blogger and then moved on. How much cost/expertise is involved, and is it worth it?

I am an avid proponent of Wordpress. If you do not care to change the look at all of the site, then you are fine to have zero CSS and HTML knowledge. However, in order to get it to look a certain way, you need to tweak the CSS and the HTML. The CSS file links directly to your index.php file, so any changes you make in CSS will automatically update the look of the entire site. There are a gazillion hacks, plugins etc that allow you to expand the scope of the blog.

I know little about MT, but Wordpress is completely free, open source software, with a phenomenal knowledge base, and a great community of experts.

Feel free to check my blog out, and let me know if you have any other questions.

www.thebmrant.com

Eric--I was on blogger for about 4 months before going to WP. If you have even a decent amount of time (1/2 hour per day for a week or so) you'll shit yourself with what you can do with wordpress.

One important point---your hosting service must offer mysql databases for you, since that is how WP runs. May I siuggest cyberqurx with the blogcritics discount. I pay 7 bucks a month for about 500 MB of space, I believe.

Hi,
I started 2 years ago with Blogger but soon it wasn't up for the task.I tried several things, Greymatter, MT and Wordpress. Both Greymatter and MT were difficult to install and had lots of problems. Again, I'm talking about a year ago. They probably evolved.
For MT, getting your questions answered in the forum was a big problem. Nobody answered.
Wordpress is really my favorite. 5 minute install, good template to start with and lots of features. Localization and UTF-8 support, and with the new version a new templating engine for additional pages.

Even if you have no knowledge of PHP or other scripting language, I think Wordpress is the best solution. Good support, many developers and plugins and a wiki.

I am very enthusiastic, but I really think it is that great.

I've used Blogger since 2001. It is easy to customize if you can learn HTML. WordPress has a HUGE learning curve, at least if you are self-taught like I am. There are a lot of guides on how to use WP, but it is not easy. Not to mention, you have to have your own webspace to host it. I agree with the others who say there is a ton of stuff you can do with it, but it's the learning HOW to get to do all that stuff that is difficult, at least for me. If you want to try a WP blog, try a free blog at blogsome.com (I'm not affiliated with them).

I'm a WordPress user after starting out in Blogger many moons ago.

WP is limited only by your imagination. The install is ridiculously easy (once you have the database setup)

While WordPress shines when you throw PHP and CSS knowhow at it, the theme system is easy enough that you could find something you like and leave it as is or customize it later.

The users community is fabulous and there are many tutorials available for the new user. The Codex is a great source for these: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

Finally, there are lots of folks like me who will happily hold your hand through the process and answer your questions. All you have to do is ask!