I have never really thought it mattered to me as I have had a blog for a couple years but have never really consistently published stuff.   So I used the cheaper alternative of using WordPress.org (or a self-hosted site) because I have had the server and storage space for some other projects I work on.  It works well for me and I appreciate being able to have full control of the site and can make any changes as necessary.

However, after publishing my first assignment for Blogging101, I realized that there are a few differences between the two depending on what you are looking for.  Specifically for this course, I realized that my posts might not get as much attention as others since they don’t show up in the WordPress.com Reader under the Blogging101 tag and there is not an easy Follow button at the top of my site.  Thinking about that a little more I realized that by having my own Self-hosted site I really would miss out on the community part of my WordPress experience.

I decided to do some more digging on finding the differences and see if there was anything out there that could help bridge the gap but I couldn’t find anything.  In my searching thought I found a couple of useful articles:

I won't go into details as each article does a good job breaking down the questions you should ask yourself to help you figure out which is right for you.

With that information, I was left to ponder the question that I had never really thought about before.  Which platform is better for me now?  Ultimately, I decided to buy a new domain name called StillThinking.me, which will be the blog I use going forward for the time being.  Don’t get me wrong, I will miss having more control over my site by using plugins and other customization.  The nice thing is that no matter which you choose WordPress.com or WordPress.org you can easily import/export to either if you change your mind down the road.

So what platform are you using?  Have you ever moved from one platform to the other?  What do you feel is the pros/cons of each?