I mentioned the two big guns of blogging (Blogger and WordPress) in a previous post about switching from Blogger to WordPress, but I also stated I would breakdown the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. There are a plethora of articles on this, including a support page directly from the horse’s, er, WordPress’s mouth. However, I’m going to feed you some candor today.
WordPress.com
- For people with little to no blogging experience
- Can get started in several minutes
- Absolutely free
- Will look like a basic cookie cutter blog site
WordPress.org
- For medium to expert level blogger
- Can get started in several hours
- Some costs involved (e.g. domain, hosting)
- Could look like a professionally developed blog site
So it looked like WordPress.com was going to win by a landslide until we got to the last bullet, which makes WordPress.org the winner if you think you’re ready for prime time. It’s really the difference between coming off as an amateur or a pro. I won’t claim that the look and feel of this site (developed in WordPress.org) is the greatest but it also doesn’t look like it was slapped together by someone who decided to start a blog on a whim. (At least I hope not!) BTW, if you think this site is, in fact, the greatest, please let me know. 
There are, of course, many other pros and cons, many of which you can read at the aforementioned WordPress support site if you wish. However, I tried to make the decision easy for you.
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I think this sums it up nicely in general. You’re right, there are a lot of websites out there that explain the differences very well. I think ultimately if you’re new to blogging that you should look into Blogger. Once you become comfortable with the process you should move to WordPress.com and stay there for a while to get a feel for how the advantage is for you, if any. After that, if you’re serious about really making something of your blog (money or just anything you feel is necessary to use .org for) then you should at least look into WordPress.org. I have yet to move my stuff to WordPress.org but it will be worth everything that happens… I believe that.
And by the way, your blog looks very well put together and it looks like you definitely care about your visitors and about providing very useful content to help them succeed. Great job, really! I don’t like liars and I work hard not to lie myself. I actually want to figure out a way to set up something like what you have with the Blog Sponsors on the right side of your blog here.
I just need to take things one step at a time though.
Blogger has a bad rap. I actually made money from my corporate blogs and blogger.
However, WordPress.org is just way better and offers much more flexibility and control. I think you’ll enjoy once you cut over. It’s a small monetary commitment (under $100/yr for domain and hosting) but it’s a big work commitment.
BTW, the Blog Sponsors are simply affiliates. I currently don’t sell ad space on here. Once you decide what products or services you want to pitch, you can add them almost immediately.