Is anyone still using free blogs or are they a waste of time?

[madison_avenue]

Is anyone still using free domains like blogspot, they seem to have become increasingly unfashionable . I still think they have their uses I've several running and they are earning a few dollars. I've had no luck with squidoo though they seem to have got bad reputation now.

I think they're useful for testing out keywords at no cost, and the domain authority of blogger seems to help in rankings. I think if they can be run in large numbers say 20+ they can still make useful contribution to the bottom line.

Yes they are a risk but even with your own domain there are no guarantees, if you have a good ranking they still have to worked at:backlinks built and content and content added otherwise they'll drop down.

[M Thompson]

Originally Posted by madison_avenue

Is anyone still using free domains like blogspot, they seem to have become increasingly unfashionable . I still think they have their uses I have several running and they are earning a few dollars. I have had no luck with squidoo though they seem to have got bad reputation now.

I think they're useful for testing out keywords at no cost, and the domain authority of blogger seems to help in rankings. I think if they can be run in large numbers say 20+ they can still make useful contribution to the bottom line.

Yes they are a risk but even with your own domain there are no guarantees, if you have a good ranking they still have to worked at:backlinks built and content and content added otherwise they'll drop down.

They can be useful... but don't build your business on anything you don't control.

[madison_avenue]

Originally Posted by M Thompson

They can be useful... but don't build your business on anything you don't control.

But for lot's of mini-sites they're good. Some people have had their blogs removed because they've not been careful enough in their traffic strategies, looked spammy and have been caught out. Put real content not just MFA looking sites. I'm glad they've been taken out less competition!

The key to success when using free blogs is being 'whiter than white' in your traffic methods, and you will have no problems, they can run for years. Even one gets taken out, if you have 20, you still have 19!

[Droopy Dawg]

Use them as a property in your link wheel... for nothing else but backlinks. But make sure you put good content on them or else they'll be viewed as a spam.

[sharpturn]

I agree with Droopy. I'm a newbie and have been told to get my own sites and I will soon but I think I will do some more practicing first on these free sites. That way I have nothing to lose.

[Vaan]

Hi..

don't be so negatife about blogspot..

if you search in google for keyword "make money online"

you will see there is one blogspot blog standing there for number 1 in google!
Imagine this site beat 170 millions in competitor..,
I do use blogspot on my marketing where first I am still newbie.., and with proper SEO and Link building, I can rank well on Google SERP,

Maybe you should selective about your keywor you are targeting to dominate..
more competitors mean more difficult your blog to be found..

cheers,
Vaan

[spartanic]

Definitely give wordpress a try. You have more control over your blog and its much easier to monetize from.

[Razer Rage]

Free is always a good option when you are either not tech savvy enough to do it yourself, or if you are truly broke. They are also a great place to start when learning about IM.

They work just as well as "advanced hosted" blogs. But you don't control them. And anything you do not control is subject to being deleted without any notice whatsover.

[Amelia O]

Still pretty useful for building backlinks..

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Razer Rage

And anything you do not control is subject to being deleted without any notice whatsover.

The same thing can happen with shared hosting.

[tommen]

I would rather invest in a domain name and reliable hosting.No point in investing a lot of time in something you cannot control and you can be shut down any day with a free blogspot blog.

[newBum76]

I'm still a beginner, but made a couple hundred in sales purely from a squidoo lens and a couple blogger blogs, so I can attest that they do work.

These have been quite amateur looking too lol.......my new blogger page looks pretty good though, the only thing giving it away as blogger is the url, so I'm excited to see how that works out for me.

Best thing about these is that they're free, so it's easy for newbies to establish places on the web if startup cash is a problem.

[Kevin Williams]

Thanks to a certain free tool that I got somewhere I'm able to register blogs that often have tons of backlinks and are expired, other than those I would never waste my time though.

[actionplanbiz]

I thought Blogger Blog was good For quick google indexing

[CLcrax23]

Originally Posted by Droopy Dawg

Use them as a property in your link wheel... for nothing else but backlinks. But make sure you put good content on them or else they'll be viewed as a spam.

Awesome post!!! Use them as legs (thats what I call them) to a link wheel. Point all legs to a hosted site (squeeze page or whatever). And point each free site to each other. Then wheel around each free site and you'll have tons of nice backlinks. Make sure you anchor your links to a keyword you want to rank your middle page in.

[chonji36]

I think as a newbie starting out cost factors are always at the forefront of your decisions for me personally using a free system to begin with is a great idea god bless 'blogger' if I make mistakes its not going to cost me!

Well maybe time but hey in this game we never have enough right!

[devilishsaint]

They are still widely used and it all depends how well you utilize them. You can still differentiate your free blog by cool design and interesting content.

[chonji36]

Mate I totally agree they are a great learning tool and linking them to your main site with relevant links and targeted keywords can boost your page ranking in warpspeed.

But the key is content if you can't provide good content then its not worth the effort!

[Caragui]

I use the free blogs like glospot.com and wordpress.com in my overall linking strategy.

IMHO, it's best to own your own site (i.e. paid hosting) as you have direct control.

[HeySal]

I use that google blog that links to twitter - but I've only used it for my products for backlinks and for a tad extra content. Other than that, if someone asks me questions that would take some explanation - I write it on the blog then send them the link. Other people can view it that way too. Also just write personal interest stuff on it. So it functions a bit as a personal blog but does work the business ends just a tad. I can't see me ever setting up one of those blogs as a business blog in its own right, though.