Blogging and Marketing Resources for the Average Blogger and Business
Free Blogging, or Pay to Play?
As with any topic that will cross the bow of this boat, there is an enormous quantity of quality arguments on both sides of this issue. I will of course try to break this down in simple terms, but provide additional reading for those who need it.
First, some definitions.
Hosted (free) blogs: A free service provided, allowing users to create their own blog in minutes, contained in the provider’s domain. For example, TheBloggedWord.Blogspot.com is my initial blogging effort, hosted by Google’s Blogger service. Free. Easy to set up. A great place to get started, which I did. When I realized I wanted to formalize by blogging activity, my strategy changed to “self-hosting” and The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit came to be, using WordPress, hosted on BlueHost.com.
Self-hosted blogs requiring a web hosting service: There are many Content Management Systems (CMS) available, both free and not, that allow the user to load that platform into the disk space rented through a web hosting provider. The domain name you register, at a cost, is completely your own.
There really are only a few questions you need to answer to determine which blogging platform approach is right for you:
- Why am I blogging?
- What are my goals?
- How technical am I?
When searching the web, I found many arguments for each side of the fence, but this article from ProBlogger is probably the best one with pros and cons clearly spelled out in one place. It’s a bit long, but a very good read.
Essentially:
If you are relatively new to blogging, interested in blogging as a hobby or as an enjoyable side activity and don’t want to learn or deal with technical issues, hosted blogging is for you. If you have some experience, are serious about focusing on growing and/or monetizing your blog and have a moderate amount of technical skills, a self-hosted solution is for you.
Yes, I know, this is not black and white. It has many shades of gray. But remember, The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit tries to provide simple perspectives to complex issues. You can make it as complex as you need it to be. Me? I’m a simple guy.
Dave
| This entry was posted by Dave on January 26, 2009 at 7:29 PM, and is filed under Uncategorized. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
I am a new blogger and I currently have 3 blogs hosted on Blogspot. I enjoy blogging and do it almost daily. However, I find blogging as a sideline business in which I can give a couple of 200 posts, stop, then earn passive income from whatever the blogs give me.
Of course, wordpress does give you a “personalized” blog and is friendlier for most users to see. But, how far is it actually from earning potential from blogger given same quality posts?
Hope you answer my question. Will continue to visit this site. I find it interesting. Btw, I also use adgitize and entrecard as extra income earners and for advertising. Ciao!
about 1 year ago
@Jonasan
Thanks for the kind words. You are making a strong case about the differences between Blogger and WordPress being minimal as long as quality posts are made on a timely basis.
There are three points I’d like to make.
First, when I originally made this post, it was during my first month with this blog. My first foray last year was with what turned into The New Blogged Word at TheNewBloggedWord.Blogspot.com. At that time, I was comparing my initial project and a number of Blogger sites to some of the more robust WordPress blogs like Internet Business Mastery at http://www.internet-based-business-mastery.com. It seemed at the time, the more professional bloggers seemed to use WordPress.
Secondly, my perspectives have changed slightly since then. Entrecard has been a big factor in helping me get exposed to many other blogs – many I like – many I don’t. While I still see WordPress as having more potential through extensive customization capabilities, I have found a number of Blogger-based blogs that are frankly, amazing. The part that keeps me from jumping back into the Blogger world with both feet is something I read (sorry, I can’t find the link) about the writer not being able to take a site seriously with Blogspot in the name. (Sure, you can buy your own domain name.) I don’t know if I totally agree, but I can see his point: professionalism seems to be higher with your own domain and a site that doesn’t look like hundreds of others.
With that said, I’d like to make my third point, which circles back to your original question. Taking everything I’ve just said into account, it doesn’t matter what a blog looks like if there isn’t compelling, well-written posts added on a regular basis.
It may matter less about which platform is used and more about the quality of the blogger. The key is to select a platform and get everything out of it you can.
Thank you for your comment and again, thanks for the kind words.
Best regards,
Dave