There are loads of reasons to blog and plenty of free blog options out there. Whether you choose to do a free blog or host your own or do a combination of the two is up to you. Today’s post explores the pros and cons of each option. I choose to do a combination of these things for my own purposes mostly because in my early online days, I didn’t realise the benefits of having my own blog on my own domain and didn’t realise just how inexpensive it could be to do it on my own and be able to have just what I wanted.
The pros of free blogs include that there are no costs and that they usually have an easy interface or template for you to use so you don’t have to be at all technical to figure out how to use them.
On the con side, you have no control and they can be very simple so they may not have all the functionality you’re looking for.
With a free blog, there may be some advertising that you cannot control. With a blog on your own domain, you have much more earning potential and power over the layout of the site.
How Much Does Having Your Own blog cost?
You can typically get a domain registered for $10 or less for a one year period and hosting is often less than $10 a month when you want a basic package that hosts a blog. WordPress is the most popular and most versatile option and you can install it for free. Your own host might even have WordPress built into your hosting control panel making it that much easier to get up and running quickly.
Benefits of Blogging
In terms of money making potential, blogs can definitely help you. Not only do they do great in search engines because of being continuously updated but they create viral marketing for you because people will link to you in their blogroll and on their site as well. Whether you’re planning to blog for profit or add a blog to your existing site to enhance search engine optimization, you can definitely benefit. If you’re not yet blogging or not yet using this to your full advantage, it’s definitely worth looking into.
About Sean Rasmussen
Hi Sean,
I think a free blog is a great way to start writing about your passion. Once you get more serious and want to really monetize your blog a self hosted (or like YOTB greatly managed) blog is better. Like being with a stall on a market or having a proper shop.
I just wonder how you can best “move” from one to the other without damaging or losing your ranking …
Hi Renee
Sometimes it is just best to start up a totally new blog when you are ready for self hosting, and just be happy with leaving the content on your free blog. You can then place some links on your free blog that point to your new self hosted site, giving you SEO benefits.
Sean is spot on here. I have several freeblogs that I started just to get a feel for blogging and the platforms, etc. I then decided to setup myself up with a self hosted platform due to the level of functionality offered.
While the free blogs did not have much content, they were indexed and had a few backlinks so I added a type of blogroll with the url of my new blog and also added a RSS feed so my content would be displayed on the free blog to capture as much traffic as possible
Well done Cemil. Perfect use for free blogs.
Great thinking Cemil.
I am in a similar boat, having started on a free blog, and then set up a self hosted blog when I was ready to really focusing in on what I wanted to do. Thanks for your suggestion – I have just set up an RSS feed on my original blog, which should hopefully build a few links to my self hosted blog.
Hi Sean,
WordPress is my favorite platform for blogging. There is so much help and advice for bloggers running WordPress blogs that I think it’s a logical choice for me.
However, there is a great option for someone is serious about wanting to become a successful blogger and actually learn to make money blogging from their passion. Sean, your Year of the Blogger package is the best I have seen. I would highly recommend it for everyone who wants to be a serious blogger.
I skipped the free blog route as it was pretty cheap to go to a self hosted option. As you say Sean there are some very good hosting packages available.
I was not aware when starting out that sites like Squidoo and Hubpages existed. If I had I might of considered it.
I am very happy with the setup I now have and have been able to learn the skills to operate the sites properly.
No thanks to some people in this industry.
Same here Gee. I found out about such sites only after I got into the forum and continued my education. Especially with the fact that so many people just create hub pages and lens and that’s it.
I started writing a couple personal blogs on free blogs a few years ago but am now inclined to move Grateful We’re Not Dead to a self-hosted web site and blog. I like Cemil’s comments on making that move. I’ll be looking seriously at that approach once I finish with the Learn and Earn competition. Even if I don’t “earn” anything in the competition I’ll have accumulated untold wealth in what I’ve learned.
I must admit that I’m currently not all that familiar with the capabilities of WordPress and tend to favour Joomla and especially Drupal mainly because these are ones I’ve used on client’s sites. However, I imagine my exposure to WordPress will be increasing significantly over the next few months.
Hi Don
Check out the video sharing sites where you will find plenty of tutorial videos on WordPress.
YouTube in particular has lots and lots of them.
I haven’t found too many limitations on my blogs – they’re UWC ones!
I have linked them to my websites both for SEO purposes and as another dimesnion to my marketing attempts.
The beauty of blogging is that it can be quicker than adding a page to a website. I’m like Jazz – I prefer UWC as it uses the WordPress platform which I like better than Blogger.
Free blogs are definitely the way to go when your starting out. Using them as a kind of introduction site or stepping stone to creating a self hosted blog with affiliate links or your own product and linking the two sites is ideal as long as you are keeping up with your education with SEO techniques, not to mention the keywords and regular posting.
Free blogs are ideal especially when you are new to the whole internet marketing world.
The step by step process is invaluable even though you might have some gliches on the way.
The beauty of free blogs are that you can trash the content and start all over again.
Being able to access a support forum is ideal too.
I found the blog you offered fantastic for practicing and having the choices for plugins and themes narrowed down made it a lot easier to get stuck into actually developing the blog instead of cousing on colours and layout.
Ultimately, if you are going to be serious you really need to consider self-hosting your blog (and also as I have discovered this week you can’t get an Alexa review with a free blog!)
Hi Sean,
I like WordPress as a platform for blogging. I think it’s easy to use especially with all the video tutorials on how to set it up, available in the YOTA forum.
I’m learning a lot about the pros and cons of having a free blog.