Free or Self Hosted Blog?
This is a very common question when someone is starting out with blogging and other Web 2.0 networks.
Start With Free:
I started my first blog on a free wordpress.com site. It is free to setup and you can have a domain set up in a matter of minutes.
Advantages:
- It’s Free!
- Wordpress.com domain gives you some automatic PR (page rank)
- Easy to setup and use
- There are many free themes you can download
- Good way to see if you are really up for writing a blog
- Good practiced for the WYSIWYG editor in wordpress
Disadvantages:
- Domain ends in wordpress.com (ie keithbloemendaal.wordpress.com)
- Not allowed to put ads on free wordpress blogs (shouldn’t be worried about that anyway)
- If you write really great content that gets linked to, may be difficult to move over to self hosted later.
Conclusion:
I suggest if you have never blogged, that you start with a free account. I did just that, and got such a good response, I moved over after only a month or two to a self hosted site.
Learn to use the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. You will need to learn how to add hyperlinks, pictures, video, use headers, quotes, lists etc… Doing this on a free blog helps you to learn your way around before spending money on a site.
Learn about different plugins you may want on your site.
Practice your writing skills and structure.
And probably most important is to see if you are really up for the “blogging” task. It is very time consuming and can be discouraging at first.
Tagged with: free • hosting • wordpress
Filed under: Blogging
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I recommend Blogger over Wordpress as a free host just because Blogger offers so much more and you can have ads.
I don’t have anything against blogger, I just haven’t ever used it. Starting on a free site is something I recommend to people starting out (wordpress/blogger/typepad etc..) because I don’t think blogging is for everyone, and it allows you time to get through the beginning of the learning curve.
I started blogging on blogger in 2003 before Google bought it. It was great back then and it still is quite useful and more feature rich in the sense that you can add your own scripts.
It’s perfect for new bloggers for learning the ropes and building the habit but for serious bloggers it’s not really advisable as the blog content you post there is technically property of Google.
I have heard both good and bad things about Blogger, I was pointed to Wordpress and have stuck with it….
I am currently blogging at blogger, but I hate that I cant customize it like I want, But Im not good a xml, php, css. Im old school – HTML..hahah
Im gonna stay here for awhile though to see if this blog is something I want to continue.
Brian, I don’t know hardly anything about CSS, PHP, or XML, and I know just a little HTML. I would suggest going to wordpress.com start a free blog (call it anything) and play around with it, there are a million free themes, and you can maybe see how much you like it. Won’t cost you anything. If you like it you will be glad you did, if you don’t, then no harm…
What Browser Are You Using?
I might do that, I think I wish I would have started wordpress first. I didnt even know of wordpress until after I started on blogger. Can you suggest any free host, that uses wordpress?
Go to Wordpress and you can create a blog there for free so you can check it out. If you decide you like it there are programs to move your site and all the articles over to a self hosted wordpress site.
Awesome, Thank you. I will try Firefox tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Thx Again
Keith, I finally found the “sweet spot” on this blog for me. Here’s why, first because I’m doing exactly what you suggest – trying out free blogging services to see if I’m ready for the real thing and to become knowledgeable about the functions and features. The second reason I call this post my sweet spot is because I have both – WordPress.com and Blogger blogs. In fact the primary focus of my Blogger blog is to find articles comparing the two services and in combination with my own personal experiences give the final verdict on which one is best. In the end, I’ll migrate whatever I can from these two blogs into a self-hosted blog.
Besides being a great learning and teaching experience, I also want to earn enough income to cover the cost of self-hosting. So far I am up to $.68 so I have a ways to go yet. lol
One last thing, I am absolutely having the time of my (cyber) life blogging and I never dreamed it could be this much fun, so I am in it for the long haul.
Thanks! Btw – love your blog I guess you can tell since I’ve been hanging out here most of the day. I’m glad you joined Blog Engage.
Unfortunately, you can’t earn any money on the wordpress.com site can you? They didn’t allow ads when I used it a couple of years ago.
Would love to hear your final assessment on the 2 free blog platforms too!
Thanks for stopping by again!
I have adsense on the Blogger blog and my podcasts on blip.tv (and a whole bunch of other places) are monitized.
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i think self hosted is the way to go, eventually you’re going to have a lot of traffic if you’re diligent and it would be worth it. it’s really not that expensive.