Free blogging vs self hosting.

13 years ago

Hiya

For me it is about control. When I first started out I did use the free methods and there is nothing really wrong with that as you can always change later as you get more experienced.

There are too many variables to say that one is better than the other it depends on what you do to promote your blog like link building etc.

Back to the control, you have to be careful to stay within the terms and conditions of some of the free services which you don't with your own system.

There are monthly paid hosting systems out there it's just about finding them.

All in all don't let anything stop you from taking action. If you want to try free go for it and keep an open mind to switching when the time is right

Hope that helps
Lynne

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Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

The two are not mutually exclusive.

Free blogging can also be self-hosted blogging.

Most of the stuff that most people say about the dangers/risks of free blogging is mistaken: they're wrongly attributing those dangers/risks to the fact that it's free, and coming up with all sorts of bizarre conclusions on that mistaken basis. For example, people say "you don't own your site" if it's "free" and so on. It's all nonsense.

The dangers/risks of blogging are actually to do with the host's terms of service.

Yes, there's some overlap between "free blogging" and "horrendous terms of service". Yes, using either wordpress.com or blogger.com for a monetised blog is clearly pretty silly. But there are plenty of ways of doing free blogging without the problems one encounters at those sites.

For example, this is a very well-known, very well-established, very reliable, high-quality free host that carries no advertising/promotion of its own on people's sites with its "free package": Free Hosting, Paid Hosting, Reseller Services & VPS Servers : Byet Internet You can install Wordpress (for example) there, just like you can on a paid-for host.

Some successful marketers have been using that free, self-hosted blogging/site system for many years.

And then there are always places like Weebly, Blinkweb, Yola and so on.

If you host your blog somewhere like Byethost, there's no way for anyone to tell whether whether it's hosted commercially or on free hosting, so the idea that it "looks unprofessional" is nonsense, too. All anyone can find out is that Byethost hosts it (and most people don't know how to do that and it would never occur to them anyway) - and even then, most of their hosting is normal, commercial hosting, so that doesn't tell anyone anything.

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Rob Maggs

13 years ago

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suemax

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Rob Maggs

Some people say that if you use a free blog for business then you'll lose credibility. In my experience this is a myth as I have made thousands on the blogger platform and the free blogs have ranked just as well as my hosted ones.

The problem is your blogger blogs can be taken down at anytime and thus a free blog that's making a couple of hundred dollars a week can suddenly be gone...it's happened to me, so I know this from experience.

I use blogger these days as a test platform, so I can see how well a product is going to sell, if it's successful I register a domain and self-host on wordpress.

I use the free blogs to sell software...that's how I monetize, I also use adsense. Blogger also acts as a great platform for setting up review sites linked to Clickbank, you can do so much with Blogger...but it's vital to realise how vulnerable these sites are.

Cheers

Rob

I'm with Rob here. Why jeapordise your income stream? I presume that income is why you are blogging. His idea of testing a concept or product on blogger first cuts down the small risk of buying and registering a domain name for nothing. Then you are more confident that the thing will at least pay for itself.

If you are concerned about the costs (which really aren't very high - hosting hosts many domains, wordpress is free, domains are cheap enough, then I am wondering whether you are planning to put up a large number of blogs. If so, do you have a reliable means of keeping them up to date? If you don't, then I would recommend the "Rob approach", and fewer, more "natural" blogs which would then pay more per blog.

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imagene

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Rob Maggs

Some people say that if you use a free blog for business then you'll lose credibility. In my experience this is a myth as I have made thousands on the blogger platform and the free blogs have ranked just as well as my hosted ones.

The problem is your blogger blogs can be taken down at anytime and thus a free blog that's making a couple of hundred dollars a week can suddenly be gone...it's happened to me, so I know this from experience.

I use blogger these days as a test platform, so I can see how well a product is going to sell, if it's successful I register a domain and self-host on wordpress.

I use the free blogs to sell software...that's how I monetize, I also use adsense. Blogger also acts as a great platform for setting up review sites linked to Clickbank, you can do so much with Blogger...but it's vital to realise how vulnerable these sites are.

Cheers

Rob

Hey Rob,

If you do use blogger to test if a product will fly, is your test site transferable or do you create a whole new site in WP?

My first site was a free wordpress one, but when it got a little too big, I decided to go to self hosting. Being the token techie that I am - you know.. think I'm technically savvy but realise that I'm not

, I tried to do the transfer myself. I succeeded, but only after 3 days of ripping my hair out, sleeping on floor and losing a few files. So now, self hosting all the way! It's far more flexible and I'm a control freak

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LibbyC

13 years ago

Hi back!

I'd never use a non-self hosted blog for the stuff I care about for the simple reason that you don't control your own real estate.

You could do months, years of work to have the owner (Google etc) delete it without warning one day.

Also, if you're in business then to me a non-self hosted blog is unprofessional. Fine if you're Matt Cutts

but if I see a service on a self hosted blog I automatically have to wonder about why they didn't spend the $100 for a domain name and hosting.

I would use a non self hosted blog to get a backlink into a page I wanted to rank for but that's about it.

Libby

PS: Hostgator does a monthly web hosting plan. It's a bit more expensive to pay that way but it will get you up and running.

Thanks
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Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by LibbyC

I'd never use a self hosted blog for the stuff I care about

Originally Posted by LibbyC

You could do months, years of work to have the owner (Google etc) delete it without warning one day.

Libby, you're using "self-hosting" with exactly the opposite meaning to other marketers. Rather confusingly/confusedly.

"Self-hosting" means "commercial hosting" like Hostgator, JustHost, HostMonster, or wherever - "your own hosting that you pay for", as opposed to "free hosting" at places like Blogger, and so on.

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LibbyC

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Libby, you're using "self-hosting" with exactly the opposite meaning to other marketers. Rather confusingly/confusedly.

"Self-hosting" means "commercial hosting" like Hostgator, JustHost, HostMonster, or wherever - "your own hosting that you pay for", as opposed to "free hosting" at places like Blogger, and so on.

Oops, sorry for confusion, just tired and meant non self-hosted.
1am here in NZ.. need sleep!

** changed it now **

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schttrj

13 years ago

I am a user of both free hosting and self hosting! One of my blog is on the Blogger platform and another one is self-hosted on Wordpress (quite new!).

So hear it from the horse's mouth.

Just like Byethost, Awardspace and Freehostia, Blogspot is also a free hosting service. You can always get a domain (a few dollars per year) and that's it!

If you are going for free hosting, I would suggest Blogspot over Wordpress, because Wordpress.com is not very flexible to Blogspot in terms of free hosting.

Then again, Wordpress.org and self-hosting is even more flexible than Blogspot. So, in that case, self-hosting wins!

Forget about the facts that your free hosting service will suspend your blog for no reason! It happens very rarely and if you comply by the terms and conditions, it won't happen to you. I have a blog in Blogspot for over 3 years now. Nothing has happened to me yet. Three years is enough for you to enter into a niche and get out of it even.

To sum it up, just know what you want and then decide whether free hosting or self hosting is good for it.

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peter gibson

13 years ago

Originally Posted by schttrj

Forget about the facts that your free hosting service will suspend your blog for no reason! It happens very rarely and if you comply by the terms and conditions, it won't happen to you. I have a blog in Blogspot for over 3 years now. Nothing has happened to me yet. Three years is enough for you to enter into a niche and get out of it even.

To sum it up, just know what you want and then decide whether free hosting or self hosting is good for it.

In a word, horsespuckey. It happened to me and if you search just Warrior Forum you'll see it's happened to plenty of others. For me, I was caught by the google automated spam filter and had a hobby blog summarily deleted. The site wasn't anywhere near spam, over 5 years old, and only after weeks of hassles was the site reinstated - with an apology from blogger. In fact here's a line quoted from the google email I received when the situation was finally resolved; "...this sort of false positive happens occasionally". In the interim between deleted and reinstated I lost 60% of my subscriber base and dropped from position 1 to nowhere, waiting months before getting back to the top 10. Never did re-obtain the number 1 spot that I had enjoyed for almost 5 years.

You're advice is misleading and based on your own presumptions, not facts. You really should qualify this before posting that deletions don't happen "if you comply by the terms and conditions", when in fact they do. They do often enough that there's an entire section dedicated to reinstating wrongly deleted blogs at blogger help.

So, minus supposition and based purely on FACT, yes you can surely have your blog deleted randomly and without merit, and it DOES happen more often than one would expect. You'll find that out once you run into the problem yourself and see the vast amounts of people who have also been tanked summarily and without merit. Any blogger blog can fall victim to the automated spam filter, at any time.

Monetizing a blogger site is an unnecessary risk and truly one of the craziest things I've ever heard of. The site I had on blogger was not monetized, only a hobby site, so I lost no money, but I did lose substantial subscribers, and it truly opened my eyes as to how vulnerable content and subscribers can be as long as google has control. For myself, it was sheer stupidity, but back then I was a newb and that was my first blog. I'm certainly not a newb anymore and I strongly advise anyone considering blogger to go splash cold water on your face and wake up. Alternately, have someone slap you across the face. It's so totally NOT worth the few pennies you save hosting your own domain.

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SommerS

13 years ago

Originally Posted by peter gibson

It's so totally NOT worth the few pennies you save hosting your own domain.

I can't say that almost $100 are pennies for me in my current situation, but anyway I suppose you're right, I already have hosting account with Bluehost, just wondering if that was the best choice, and how many domains I can host with one hosting account, I mean independent domains.

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peter gibson

13 years ago

Originally Posted by SommerS

I can't say that almost $100 are pennies for me in my current situation, but anyway I suppose you're right, I already have hosting account with Bluehost, just wondering if that was the best choice, and how many domains I can host with one hosting account, I mean independent domains.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Why is it 100.00 for you to get hosting and register a domain? You can get a "hatchling" package at hostgator for something like 4.95 per month, and a domain name can be had from as low as .99 if you find a good promotion. Namecheap is the absolute best for grabbing domains and I've never spent more than 10.00 there for a domain, ever. And even if you step up to 7.95 for the "baby" package at hostgator you're paying less for a month than I pay for 2 Starbucks coffees or one pack of smokes.

Wait, I just reread your OP.

They don't mention that for hosting u usually have to pay for year in advance.

Huh? Since when exactly? Anyone else notice a glaring, steaming pile of nonsense there? If a hosting company asked me to pay a year in advance I'd tell them to pound sand. I pay per month and have since the beginning of time. Like I said, "hatchling" packages at hostgator are 4.95 per month. El cheapo. Certainly not 100.00.

Which company is telling you 100.00 is required and to pay a full year in advance? Cuz there's plenty of folks 'round here who would love to know that. Is it bluehost? Because I'm staring at bluehost right now and their quote is 6.95 per month, and I can't find any part of their TOS that states $100.00 up front. Would be interested to know where you're getting this information.

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paulie888

13 years ago

Originally Posted by SommerS

I can't say that almost $100 are pennies for me in my current situation, but anyway I suppose you're right, I already have hosting account with Bluehost, just wondering if that was the best choice, and how many domains I can host with one hosting account, I mean independent domains.

If you have the unlimited domain/hosting plan, then you can host as many domains as you want on your account.

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Istvan Horvath

13 years ago

Originally Posted by schttrj

Forget about the facts that your free hosting service will suspend your blog for no reason! It happens very rarely ...

You know what "happens very rarely"? - People like you happen to read the TOS (terms of service) very rarely and that's why they go around and post total BS advice

To the OP: I will just comment about one of your "free" examples - wordpress.com. It's in their terms that commercial use is not allowed. So, maybe smart marketers read the TOS before setting up a 'free' blog and that's the reason they are not using it.

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JeromyS

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath

To the OP: I will just comment about one of your "free" examples - wordpress.com. It's in their terms that commercial use is not allowed. So, maybe smart marketers read the TOS before setting up a 'free' blog and that's the reason they are not using it.

Agreed. I don't think it is against the terms so much if you softly reference your own website when blogging about a topic related to your main website. In fact, I think this is what many many smart marketers do and through this model a lot of value is created on free platforms, such as Wikis. It seems to me that getting your free site removed from one of these site happens, most likely, because people create free blogs that are blatantly promotional in nature and of not particular value to the reader. If you create value, which I think it key to any successful website, including a free one, then you should be OK to link back to your own site, which is were where the largest value comes from a Free blog. If you create garbage and link around with no particular rhyme or reason to relevancy, you will, and should, get your free site canned.

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Martin Luxton 13 years ago

This is something that I used to worry about but now I find pointless spending time on.

There's very little people actually "own" online.

Do you own your domain name or are you really renting it for an annual fee?

As Alexa says, you don't own the hosting (unless you have your own server).

You don't own your Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo account.

When people say "I own my home" a large number of them are mistaken - their mortgage company effectively owns it.

Don't sweat the little stuff.

Martin
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- SommerS 13 years ago
  
  Wow guys!
  
  Thanks for responses, I really appreciate your help, and as I can see, there is no harm in free blogging, except that some people think free hosting isn't serious, but really If i wanna set up multiple blogs, paid services might be quite expensive at first, I don't think all people are starting with heavy wallet in pocket.
  
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  myob 13 years ago
  
  Here's what has happened to me. Quite a few years ago I was told the quickest way to make money on the internet was to use Blogger because its not only free but ranks extremely fast. So me and my writers put together nearly 500 Blogs in about a month. We made a ton of money, but it was alot of work and now there are only about a dozen or so left. (Although, they are still pulling in nice chunks of Adsense and affiliate commissions) There seems to me no rhyme or reason for all those sites to have disappeared and others remain. The longterm reliability of free hosting is no different IMO.
  
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  SommerS 13 years ago
  
  Initially I didn't mean free hosting but free blogging platforms, like Blogger, Wordpress and Drupal.
  
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  paulie888 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by SommerS
  
  Initially I didn't mean free hosting but free blogging platforms, like Blogger, Wordpress and Drupal.
  
  That's not a good idea, as the above example shows. You could have your free blogger blog pulled without notice or warning, and if it is already generating income then this can be a very painful experience. Really, self-hosted blogs are pretty inexpensive with typical hosting plans, or can even be free with free hosting.
  
  This is far more favorable to something like Blogger, which can change its TOS at any time and decide that your free blog is in violation of the rules.
  
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Andrea Wilson

13 years ago

Getting your own domain and hosting has more advantage than settling with free options because with paid, you are the one in control. Ever heard of blogger deleting blogs? Another thing, of course a paid site using wordpress is more professional than a free blogger.

Andrea

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Debbie Kennedy-Crook 13 years ago

Free blogs are great for family/personal interest/ hobbies etc and I hear Blogger is very good for this, but for running a business I would definately say wordpress on your own domain.

I've heard some real horror stories about people having their blogs deleted and losing years of work when using free blogs.

Also, if you are intending to use your blog to make money, which I presume you are, then many of the free blogs are very strict on promotion of products, affilliate links etc. If you go to blogger.com you can read all this in their terms and conditions. If you can't promote yourself in your own blog, then what is the point?

Also, with Wordpress there are new plugins being developed every day by some very clever people out there, for example there are plugins which, everytime you update your blog, "pings" to let directories and search engines know you have put new content on. This helps with SEO.

These plugins, plus the fact that there are so many people using Wordpress now, that whatever problem you come across, you would only have to visit this forum or go to Youtube to find a solution.

Hope that helps.

Regards
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- canard5 13 years ago
  
  I wonder this myself quite often. I run a site off weebly and haven't had any problems yet. It's been running for several months now. Could they just randomly pull the plug someday and leave me high and dry? Sure. And unfortunately it's always a thought in the back of my mind. But I didn't have the extra money to spend on hosting. So I went free and it's provided me with enough money to go for the paid services.
  
  It's been mentioned before in this thread, but I want to second it. I love using blogger to experiment with possible niches and keywords I want to get into. If I can rank in google and earn some cash from a free blogger site and a cheap domain name that's a pretty good indication to me that it's a winner. And with a solid wordpress blog and a .com that I'm going to be successful.
  
  Go free and get your feet wet. It's the best thing you can do to just jump in. Experiment. Try things. Figure out what works for you.
  
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  canard5 13 years ago
  
  Oh and I forgot to say... Some people may care that there is a icon or button or whatever that says that you are using a free service. But the majority of people don't. If you are offering good solid content then it doesn't matter at all.
  
  I've gotten nothing but positive feedback for my site. No one has said, well I liked what you wrote, but you did it on a weebly hosted site. I think I'm gonna go elsewhere.
  
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Mike Nikolz

13 years ago

If you make money of the blog - then only self hosted.

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Anonymous Affiliate

13 years ago

This is a business, treat it us such: go self hosted to have full control of your sites. The cost is almost zero anyway (10 bucks a month).

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shuvo

13 years ago

Its always self hosting.I just dislike free hosting because all your hard work can wasted in to water due to a simple reason.

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JeromyS

13 years ago

Originally Posted by SommerS

Hi everybody!

I'm just curious, why people don't use free blogging platforms for IM very much, I know u can't monetize them every way u want, is that a main reason, or there is something else to? Can u rank high with free blog, cant u SEO-ise free blog to get it on Google page one, or there are some problems with that?

What kind of monetizing is best for free blog, if any. Why people prefer pay for hosting if free platform is available to, that's understandable for already experienced internet marketers who already have some success, but for new starters with no or almost no money, free blogging would be an option.

Every guide I have read, e- book or report suggests self hosting," buy domain name for cheap there or here...." "set up hosting account at less than $.... per month here or there" They don't mention that for hosting u usually have to pay for year in advance.

Could somebody put light on this, why it's so, maybe Google like self hosted blogs more than free ones?

My thought is that a free blog is a good way to get started, get your 'feet wet' in the world of blogging. It is also a good way to cross promote your primary website, if you have one. There is a lot more flexibility, obviously, with a blog you host yourself, Wordpress being one of the main platforms. Considering that hosting is ultra cheap, less than $5/month for a light hosting account, which is generally plenty for a blog website. My thought is to put your effort into developing your own hosted blog and utilize a couple of free blogs that point to your main one. This will help give your hosted blog a bit of a boost with regards to being "found".

Free Blog Pros
Ranking authority of the hosting free blog,
Community of other bloggers using that platform,
Higher chance of being found and having visitors,
Simple interface, very little to no code required,

Hosted Blog Pros
Full control of your website, graphics, content,
Unique website domain address,
Higher potential perceived "professional" website,
It belongs to you.

I like my hosted sites, for the last pro mentioned, it belongs to me. But, I do have a number of free blogs, each intended to promote the related blog of my own. A fair bit of traffic comes from these simple free blogs, that to be honest, I don't spend a lot of time adding content to our 'prettying up'.

That's my 2 bits!

Cheers,

JeromyS

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shahidusman

13 years ago

I started on free hosting at Blogger but didn't really like the interface and it was hard to tell the people the lengthy URLs. If you are low on budget then go FREE, there is no harm in it but I prefer paid hosting.

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TrekkieGrrrl 13 years ago

I have free blogs that bring in money. I am looking into self-hosted options, though.
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- Marian 13 years ago
  
  Free blogs are good for backlinks, for more exposure of your main money making site - but they're bad if you have them as your main business site!
  
  You don't want your real business site deleted all of a sudden - right? Often it's without any notice or warning - that's the price for the free site hosting. I myself would never want to risk it - and I've not started talking about all those long hours spent by adding the quality content...
  
  Also, imagine you promoting such free site, giving away business cards, social sites invites, messages, etc... all with your free URL - and then one day your site gets deleted. This is no good at all!
  
  Use the free services - but for particular or specific reasons.
  
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carlaadler

13 years ago

Free blogging does help you to create good backlinks but self hosted blogs are always more powerful.

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claire012

13 years ago

you dont have to pay for hosting for a year in advance...personally i have had a free blogger and wp, but moved to a self-hosted wordpress blog and have been building self-hosted wordpress blogs for others ever since.

Thing is it's far better working for your own website than working for a free one which is technically never yours. I've had free blogs deleted permanently when some promotional material was put up. With a self hosted blog nobody can tell you what you can and cannot do cos its yours.

Oh and personally i pay monthly and have been paying as such since day one.

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Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by claire012

Thing is it's far better working for your own website than working for a free one which is technically never yours.

This is a widespread misunderstanding, Claire, as explained in post #3 above.

It isn't whether or not it's free that determines that. It's the host's terms of service.

Originally Posted by claire012

I've had free blogs deleted permanently when some promotional material was put up. With a self hosted blog nobody can tell you what you can and cannot do cos its yours.

A blog can be self-hosted and free. Contrary to popular belief, these are not mutually exclusive concepts.

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mindykoch

13 years ago

I can understand the concerns about cost if you are from a country where $5 US dollars might be an extravagance.

If, however, you are not from a country such as that, I would strongly suggest that internet marketing may not be the best option for you if you aren't able to find $5 a month to spend on webhosting.

Perhaps you would be better served by spending some time on fiverr.com and learning how to pocket over five dollars a month that you could put into your hosting.

I go self-hosted because I have MANY MORE OPTIONS for themes, plugins, etc on my wordpress blogs.

I chose self-hosted because I don't want to gift-wrap reasons for customers to doubt my professionalism.

I strongly support choosing self-hosted because I would hate to put in all the work on developing backlinks to a freehosted blog and then decide I was ready to finally move to my self-hosted blog and lose all those backlinks.

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JeromyS

13 years ago

Originally Posted by mindykoch

I can understand the concerns about cost if you are from a country where $5 US dollars might be an extravagance.

If, however, you are not from a country such as that, I would strongly suggest that internet marketing may not be the best option for you if you aren't able to find $5 a month to spend on webhosting.

Perhaps you would be better served by spending some time on fiverr.com and learning how to pocket over five dollars a month that you could put into your hosting.

I go self-hosted because I have MANY MORE OPTIONS for themes, plugins, etc on my wordpress blogs.

I chose self-hosted because I don't want to gift-wrap reasons for customers to doubt my professionalism.

I strongly support choosing self-hosted because I would hate to put in all the work on developing backlinks to a freehosted blog and then decide I was ready to finally move to my self-hosted blog and lose all those backlinks.

Nicely put! I agree entirely. $5/month is pretty minor. I understand that perhaps what this person is getting at, is that the monthly cost of hosting often goes down when the commitment is a year or better. But I am pretty sure you can just go by the month too. The ability to control every aspect of your sit is pretty important to most Internet Marketers.

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cashonly

13 years ago

It's definitely a control issue. You don't want to be shut down for something that doesn't suit the free host. It's worth a few bucks a month to have your own.

Thanks

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inplainview

13 years ago

This is about the freedom of decision and flexibility in marketing products.

Let me ask you a question: why don't you use a shared car with your next door neighbor?

Well, for the very same reason you should be able to "drive" your site wherever you want and do with it what you want, including selling it when you like to make some quick cash.

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BillWynne

13 years ago

Shared Hosting is cheap and you keep control.
Your domain, change hosting or whatever...
Just keep good backups (:

Bill

Thanks

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alanbluecat

13 years ago

very useful thread for me. Thanks for the info everyone. I was debating which way to go in the very near future and this has helped me see some pros and cons.

Thanks

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BudgetSEO

13 years ago

You are actually promoting wordpress.org and blogspot.com if you use free blogs, those aren't actually your sites

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Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by BudgetSEO

You are actually promoting wordpress.org and blogspot.com if you use free blogs, those aren't actually your sites

I think you mean wordpress.com. That's the free-hosted one for non-commercial blogs. Wordpress.org is the home of Wordpress software for self-hosting on your own site.

The point here is that "free blogging" and "self-hosting" are not mutually exclusive concepts at all.

It's not whether it's free that matters: it's the host's terms of service. There's nothing at all wrong with having free, self-hosted Wordpress blogs at byethost.com, for example.

This subject is so misunderstood! :p
- Thanks
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clkbm

13 years ago

I use both but sometimes no matter what I do I can not get my blogger blogs anywhere near the first page of google but if I get my own hosting and do the same thing with my own blog I can get it indexed near the first page quickly. I do not understand why though.

Thanks

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Free blogging vs self hosting.

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