1) I am now paying for server hosting rather than using the free hosting that blogger provided

2) Using WordPress instead of blogger gives you allot more flexability. There hundreds of plugins that you can use on your wordpress blog that change the look and feel of your site. These plugins require little to no configuration. If you want to be able to use plugins on your blog you’ll have to buy your own hosting and not use the free hosting that WordPress uses.

3) With the use of plugins I’ve been able to use a bunch of AJAX on the site. This allows page content to change without actually reloading an entire page. You probably noticed this when you left a comment. This is also used in the archives at the top of the page.

4) By hosting your own blog like I am, I’ve found that its much easier to play with your site layout. Both the Blogger and WordPress’s free hosting services have ways of limiting what you can do with your blog. I can effortlessly change any file on my blog. Before I couldn’t, or if I could, it wasn’t very obvious how.

So, depending on what you want to do with your blog I’d recommend something different. If you just want to get started quickly and be up and running in the next 10 minutes I’d recommend Blogger. Its super simple to use and if all you want to do is make a few posts here and there then it’ll probably be good enough for you. If you want to take things more seriously I’d say give WordPress a shot and get your own hosting. I use DreamHost. They offer HUGE amounts of STORAGE and BANDWIDTH. The storage and bandwidth that they give you also increases as time goes by. You get 1 free domain name registration if you use their hosting as well. At only $7 a month its almost unbeatable for what you get. I tested lost of different free hosting before deciding on DreamHost. All the free hosting that I found was horrible.

If you have any more questions about getting set up let me know. I’m no expert, but in the past one and a half months I’ve gotten quite a bit of experience.