Thoughts from my journey

I have moved this blog to be hosted at WPEngine. I know that as a reader you don’t really care where this blog is hosted, and you’re right. But I care that you as a reader will get a great experience, and in this case, experience means speed! Yep, the time it take the blog to load and serve is very important.

You should expect me to also write more often, as it’s also easier and more fun to me with this new speedy site.

Well done WPEgine guys, keep up the good work!

After few years on JRoller, I wanted to have a much better blog editing experience and I start this blog over here at WordPress.com.

I’ve been using the WordPress blogging software on and off in some side projects over the years and figured that probably WordPress.com would be the best on-demand version of the WordPress software, so I didn’t check much before I moved over.

I was wrong. Although the editing experience is very good as expected with WordPress software, the configuration and settings are way too restrictive. It is so restrictive that it can not be used for professional blogging.

Here are some of the limitations I came across while trying to setup my blog:

• No Google Analytics – There is no way to install Google Analytics. The only option to view the track readers activity is through a very nice graph available as part of the admin console, clearly this isn’t enough. I’m using Google Analytics to track much of my online content, and would love to see it all in the same place.
• No Plugins – One of the killer features of the WordPress platform is it’s extensibility. Many blog extensions were written with WordPress in mind. On WordPress.com none of those great tools available. On JRoller I had to integrate everything by hand and was under the assumption that on WordPress.com it’s going to be much easier. On the contrary, nothing is available!
• No Access to CSS – On the free version, there is no access to your blog’s CSS. Small changes one wants to do on top of pre-defined themes can’t be done. Again, very limiting.

Bottom line, for me WordPress.com doesn’t deliver on the promise of hosted WordPress.

I guess my other alternatives are: TypePad, Blogger or simply by a hosting package on GoDaddy and setup a blog software.

If you feel there are better alternatives, I’ll be happy to hear