Free Blog Hosting |
A question came up over at DP regarding whether or not you could sell your Blogger blog. Other than the usual “it’s your blog you can do with it what you wish” comments, wrong by the way (see bullet# 7), or the various other more or less helpful responses a very important question still remains. If you plan to be a serious blogger or to make your blog a brandable commodity should you even consider a free blog provider like Blogger? For me the answer to that question is a resounding, it depends.
While that sounds like a cop-out, the reason for it revolves around what you plan to do. Personally, I have always hosted my blogs on my own domains that for the most part relied on Wordpress for my platform of choice but that might not be the best for some individuals. Registering your own domain name, finding a reliable web host, and then getting your choice of blogging software installed and running is not a task for some people not to mention the fact that it can be a bit spendy for some. Free web hosts take all that hard work and expense out of the equation. Spend a few minutes signing up, pick a domain name and template, and you are ready to blog. Along with the aforementioned benefits of a free Blogger/Wordpress blog, you can add that your site software will always be up to date and you will have pretty much limitless bandwidth (not really but close) which could lead you to believe that your choice is a no brainer. Hold that thought.
Some of the downsides of free hosted blogs.
1. Ownership Part 1 - You spend months/years building up a readership but what happens if sometime down the road that free site isn’t free anymore or what if your site gets shut down for some reason? You either must move it to another free host or rebuild on your own domain.
2. Ownership Part 2 - As the DP poster found out, while you do own your content, you do not own your domain. What good is spending all that time branding your site only to have it be pretty much worthless when and if you wish to get rid of it.
3. Under the Hood - While free hosts like Blogger and Wordpress.com offer many look and feel options, you are limited to what they offer and can only do what your limited access to the “under the hood” functions allow. If you want custom programming or special features, you are usually out of luck.
4. Professional Appearance - This is more of a branding issue but depending on what your market might be, having your site hosted with a free service doesn’t always portray the professional appearance you might hope to present. Blogger/Wordpress blogs have the earned reputation of being a spammer haven. Is that something that would affect your brand?
If none of the bullet points above bother you, by all means go the free route. But if you have the limited resources needed to get up and running with your own domain, save yourself the potential hassle in the future and start out on your own domain. Like I said, it depends…
