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| Building a blog should be a little easier than this |
Death Match
I spent most of my life doing artistic things, actually working as a professional cartoonist, doing design and layout and even drawing charcoal portraits of children. Like many visual artists, I also have a talent for composing music.
When music and art meet, a true marriage (artistically speaking, of course) occurs. Obviously not all artists are great musicians and not all musicians are great artists. But one does help the other, just like in a marriage.
Yes I've designed album covers before, for local bands as well as my own which shows a kind of conjugal union between art and music. However, I see that there is another medium that joins the two together, and that is blogging.
Many bands use blogs basically for disseminating information. MOST of the time it is dry and boring and many times unnoticed. This is especially from blogs posted on a service site such as Reverbnation (this is not to dis RN because their site and services are awesome), or blogs connected to band's website. (I'm not going to divulge any names here.)
Most musicians see blogs as info setting (like a text or email) or even perhaps as a marketing tool. That's fine and dandy but I want candy! I like to see, beyond information, eye appealing text, illustrations, photos, music players. I want to see color or for emphasis black and white or sepia. I want cake but don't give me stale cake.
I want to see original art, modified art, and borrowed art. I want to see and sense that some thought was put into DESIGNING the blog as well as each and every post.
Listen, how many times do you click on a link for some information and you're whisked away to either a landing page or a blog?
Landing pages are getting old. Most of the information blogs are dry and there's too much pastel. (I can't stand it!!). Boring design makes me bored and then I feel ho-hum about the information.
Nothing exciting there, folks. Off to the next site, or a nap.
So some add pod casts or a million pictures or way too many links and ad words and ads on top of ads. No concept of design, no experimentation, no real feeling for the reader (or listener).
Give me something that will make the cones and rods in my eyes stand up and take notice. I have done this with color on my Fantom Phactory cover (both versions) where the red or blue gyrates naturally in your eyes and even create a sense a 3 D. Don't stare too long or you may start to see things.
Let's Get Specific
Now I have to hone in more on blogs, not generally, but at the provider level.
Although many bloggers use WordPress and provide some valuable information, the blogs are drab.
And many who use Blogger tend to seem either simplistic or non-professional.
So we know there is ugly on both sides, and there is without a doubt a lot of good information or things valuable on both as well. However, I am tired of getting bored. I am tired of getting hit with paragraphs of keywords. I am tired of ads interfering in the middle of an article I read.
And I hate pop-ups. These annoying little redheads show their freckled faces just when I was ready to get interested in the post. What a turn off.
Enough of my rant. You say that WordPress free does not have ads and that is true. But the dang thing is so boring, no matter what you do to it.
Blogger, you can have ads, and that is fine, and Blogger too, because of the writer/creator, can be boring as well.
So let's get to the fight. A Death Match, if you will. In one corner is free WordPress and in the other corner is free Blogger.
Round 1. Which is easier?
for me, hands down, Blogger is easier. Although I have a degree in computer programming, I don't need to jump through hoops to make a well designed. WordPress was a pain in the neck, but Blogger jumps keeps making things easier for me.
Round 2. Which is more flexible?
again, WordPress seemed to restricted and restrictive. There's a lot of things you can do on Blogger that would frustrate me if I had to use WordPress. Blogger's connection to You Tube and integration for music is a big plus. Also, I can easily change the blog design, structure, and tone without hassle. I especially like that I can add tabs, modify them and make the blog look like a web page.
Round 3. Which offers more?
Since blogger is a part of Google, Blogger has more. Easily integrate charts and forms, and other blogs and gifs and videos and sound and special effects as well as cool apps. Again, maybe you can do that with a paid WordPress, but free WordPress is a times-consuming headache (I don't mean this to hurt anyone's feelings. If you can convince me otherwise, let me know and if true I will retract these words. Amen.)
Round 4. What about Art and Design?
Ah yes, that brings us full circle, the reason I wrote this. If I want to have a blue pastel site like everyone else, on Blogger I can. Then I can add blood dripping from the top. And I can add a woman's scream to play every 10 seconds. I can turn this drab blog into a slasher-film type blog to make your skin crawl. WordPress, sorry - I don't see that happening. Text, images, sounds, movement, and COLOR. This is what I enjoy using and Blogger makes it possible.
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| 'Twas a tough battle |
The Winner is . . .
Blogger.
When you do research on blogs take note of the best and most creative ones. Skip raw information for now (Remember there is a lot of good data out there and ugly blogs and websites). Make note of the cool ones. Comment to the owner that the art or design is excellent and ask them what platform they use. Most would be from Blogger.
Not all of you are artists, so if your blog looks like whatever, that's OK. I am also not saying that Blogger is perfect because there are areas that do need improvement, but right now when it comes down to choosing Blogger VS WordPress, I continue to choose Blogger.
To be fair, here are other reviews on Blogger versus WordPress. Remember, my opinion is that of an artist and musician, not a dispenser of dry information.
Related links:
This blog was an experimental blog and it changes frequently, but if you want to see my Super Blog then click Rob Lattin Music just to see a simple heading but some excellent use of color and design. Check out some of the tune as well. I used to have fireworks as well as snowflakes in the background just for fun. I decided that the fireworks made the blog TOO EXCITING, and settled on the snowflakes to give an interesting appeal to the overall blog.
If you are reading this a year from now past the original post, my Super Blog may have changed - check it out any way. (It's like I'm speaking in a time machine - Wow!)
I am not against simple, btw. My new site Songs About thrives on simplicity and the purpose is to drive the reader to become a listener to the tune. We must all keep our purposes in mind.
Other blogs to discover and get ideas*:
* If you want to know why I chose these samples, contact me.
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