Anyone using WordPress.com will know how easy it is to set up a WordPress blog. Could that be a reason for the spectacular growth of WordPress?
Say you are looking for a blog hosted on WordPress.com. You type in the URL in your browser’s address or location bar. But you are wrong, there is no website at that address. WordPress will then ask you if you want to create a blog using that "blog domain" or internet address. You just have to click on a button for WordPress to set up the blog automatically.
WordPress.com also hosts blogs for free, like Blogger, and unlike TypePad or Movable Type. So it’s no surprise WordPress has become the third most popular blogging platform, after Blogger and Windows Live Spaces, with more than 60 million unique users.Blogger has nearly 160 million and Windows Live Spaces almost 120 million. Six Apart ranks fourth with 40 million users. The figures appeared in the Guardian after Six Apart announced it was selling off LiveJournal three days ago.
Of course, plenty of bloggers pay to use WordPress on various web hosts as well to have more storage space, more choice and their own domain names. It’s amazing how rapid has been its growth since it appeared in 2003 though it must have spread even more rapidly after WordPress.com appeared in 2005 and started hosting blogs for free. Another reason for its popularity must be the ease with which one can transfer a blog from Blogger, for example, to WordPress.com. But unlike Blogger, WordPress doesn’t offer unlimited storage. So it must have other great features to have attracted plenty of serious bloggers.
TypePad is great too. What surprises me is so little is written about Vox, Six Apart’s other blogging platform. Vox has beautiful templates, plenty of storage space, privacy controls and best of all it’s free. Blogs can be moved from Blogger to Vox, too, though I am not sure if WordPress blogs can be transferred there as well. WordPress blogs can be moved to TypePad.
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