Free Blogs vs Paid Options

Definitely get your own domain, if you want to make money with this! No question about it.

You probably want to create a brand, your domain name should become a brand too, and it would be really unfortunate if you invested all of that time and work (and a bit money) into it and would not fully own it.

The costs are marginal in comparison to building a physical business. You should be able to afford them.

Hope this helps.

If you're hosting your content on a Blogger blog; it's essentially giving benefit to Blogger, and not to you. Like the above poster said, you need to build your brand before anything else, and having a domain is a huge part of this. It's cheap too, so you don't have much to lose.

There is a paid blogging site that offers you the ability to have your own domain name. The beauty of this system is that you essentially have two blogs: one on your domain and a duplicate on their domain, which ranks in the top 100 in the US. So you get great SEO and build your own brand as well. Plus, you can do all your posting--including video and text--from a mobile phone. It's not expensive at all.

At some point, you will almost certainly make the decision to buy a domain and have your own hosted blog or website.

I fully understand your caution however and whilst many will think the time you spend on blogger is time wasted which you could be spending putting content on your own self hosted website.

To a large extent this is true, but if you bare in mind that once you do make the leap .. you can go back to your original blog and add links back to your new website and if your blog has gained a following, this can only be a good thing .. so shooting yourself in the foot is not entirely the case.

Do not abandon your existing blog, but maintain the two as and when you decide to take the jump.

If you would like to have full control over what you do, buy your own domain and get web hosting. It only cost me $15 per month for web hosting with HostGator.

GoDaddy has domains for less than $1 for new customers like you. Plus, they have a TON of discounts that will have you paying no more than $2-3 for each domain you buy.

In my experience, having my own blog allows me to download plugins that make my site operate faster and look cooler. You have social media plugins for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ and more.

You have plugins such as Quick Cache and WP-Optimize which speeds up your website load time. You don't have worry about using up your limited data storage with a free Wordpress site.

You can edit your theme's CSS to make modifications. You're able to have something that you can completely call yours. For example:

josepharandall.com

vs.

josepharandall.wordpress.com

Having your own website is like owning your own car vs. getting a rental vehicle. You'll better brand yourself in my humble opinion.

So yeah, those are a few things.

Self hosted WordPress blog under your own domain name is definitely a better choice.

Not only will you have more control over your blog but it is also good for branding.

Most of the free platforms will have a problem with you promoting affiliate stuff.

Owning your own online real estate is def the way to go.

Hi Dan:
Get your own domain name. Also, get hosting {PAID} and word press. This program is easy to use. Here are some other good programs. OK so there are drupal, joomla, etc... Also, for word press there are a lot of themes that are free to copy. Google Blogger can take your BLOG away. It did happen to me. Best to exercise some care. Do not make it too controversial or trouble will kick your front door in. Yeah, word to the wise.

Definitely paid. I struggled a lot with the same question.

You get started with a $12 domain from NameCheap and $8 hosting from HG. I hope you succeed!

I lost four Blogger blogs in 2009 because they were unexplainably infected by malware, while I had them since the beginning of 2008. This was painful.

However, I can tell you that I made many mistakes in the beginning, and it was hard to drive traffic to four blogs and update them all the time. I really feel that it was better to just let this initial work disappear. I started a new Wordpress blog in my own domain name after this experience.

Moral lesson: use free platforms for a while, without working too hard. When you will feel that you know how to make money, you should have your own blog in your own domain name because you will lose your work if something happens.

However, there is no rush. If you are not making money yet and you ignore many things, it will be better for you to study without spending anything.

When you will be ready, get our own domain name and create a good blog. Then, work hard and write a lot.

i would surely go for paid domain, it makes your visitors more confident if you are selling something, in long terms if in future you decide to sell then you can do it without any hassle, you are like building your presence and growing your website worth on daily basis, else on free blogs you are actually promoting them !

And there are things you cannot do freely, you can do pop ups, you cannot do your email opt in campaign well, so it is surely advised to get a paid domain, and now a days you get it for some measly cents/day

Definitely get your own domain. Using wordpress plugin with your website makes it extremely easy for blogging. Getting rid of the .blogspot makes you look more reputable and more like an expert.

I wouldn't even think about using Blogger: it's totally unnecessary and unsafe, has no advantages at all, and is all potential downside and loss.

"Free or paid" isn't even the point: the point is safety and ownership. You can have safety (compared with Blogger) and ownership even on free hosting - just not on Blogger.

Blogger's terms of service are so idiosyncratically and inconsistently applied and interpreted that there's no real point trying to decide these things "logically" or "reasonably".

Even Blogger themselves openly admit that blogs are sometimes deleted as part of an automated process, without human intervention, when people (competitors?) "flag" blogs.

It makes no sense at all to let any part of your business, unnecessarily, be dependent on a site you don't yourself own and control.

See what a real expert says, and why he'll never use Blogger again: blogger being deleted!!

The reality is that there are only really four (partly overlapping) groups of people (in "internet marketing") who use Blogger ...

(i) People who are unaware of the unnecessary risks

(ii) People who imagine that those risks are all problems that happen "only to other people" and that they'll be ok "if they stick to the terms of service" (this is, of course, nonsense but a lot of people believe it )

(iii) People who don't know that you can have your own reliably self-hosted WordPress blogs without even paying anyone a penny for the blog, the theme or the hosting

(iv) Very few people who still imagine that "they must rank well because Google owns Blogger" (seriously, there are still a few people who believe that - it's also nonsense).

Google Suspended My Innocuous Blogger Blog
Squidoo/Blogger as primary website
Blogger and deleted blogs?
Blogger blog removed
Wow Blogger Deemed All My Hard Work Spam
Is blogger blogs worthy?
have blogspot energy?
is Wordpress really a better choice than Blogger in my case?
Blogger Hosting...Is that ok??

If you are serious about selling stuff, then owning your content is a must. Most of the free platforms out there tend to have an issue with marketers to some extent, so there's no sense in putting your business in their hands.

Go ahead and invest the $20 for hosting and your own domain

You can start with free then move to paid. It's easy to do with blogger or wordpress. Since you're new, start with free.

Yes, you are.

It definitely pays to have your own domain and hosting, as you would have FULL control over your blog. With free blogs you are allowing them to have control and you are basically promoting their brand.

It depends. If you are just starting out and don't want to invest too much money, then a free blog should be a good choice. But know also that there are many other ways you can make money online without a website.

A big YES...

By the time you realize that it would have been too late..

Why build other people's site and something you have no control over when for a merge sum of $10 + $9.95 you get a domain and hosting. If you can't design yourself simply look for videos on YouTube how to find and install free classic WordPress themes.

What happens when the free blogs gets shut down and all your traffic effort is sabotaged.

This is a wrong perception and you got to revert immediately..

If i were to start all over again i would create budget for risk, experimenting and trial, without these you have no knowledge or make new discoveries.

Besides there are so many limitations from a free blogs such as:

Poor conversion inevitably leading to poor earnings
Limited themes and plugins
Paid upgrades
Violate TOS and get deleted
FREE WP can't be monetized with ads.
Blogger sucks.

Don't use a .blogspot blog. Go with Wordpress for more control, flexibility, and clear state of mind... without having to worry everyday whether or not Blogger .com will delete your blog because you said the word "crap" in one of your posts... out of hundreds that you have created.

So yeah... go with the "MyName .com" format.

You'll certainly make more money for your time spent, by using your own domain and hosting. So you have to decide whether you want to test first, then spend the money later, or spend the money and take some risk.

OR . . . you can have the best of both worlds . . . start a free blog, then when it's making money (with affiliate marketing, or whatever you choose), you can get your own website, and direct traffic from your old free one to your new one, and lose none of the traffic that was getting to your old one.

Hope that makes the decision easier

Chris

I would definitely pay some money to have my own domain. It gives you independence and the ability to manage your site however you want. Although it may seem now a money waste investment, you will enjoy its benefits in time. If you are serious about your project, then you have to create your own website.Good luck!

You should get your own domain because, besides the obvious, technical benefits, if you change your mind, you can at least sell it and recover some of the money. Besides, assuming you are a good blogger and you manage to get traffic to it, you can make money from advertising as well. The domain in itself is not such a big investment.

Begin with the end in mind. If you want to be serious with internet marketing and really take it up as a career than you need to make the small investment and have a real url.

At the end of the day I would look for a mentor that could help coach you so that you are not just 'seeing if it works' but know it works and know you are learning real methods and strategy

It's about branding. Having a blog on a free domain like blogspot, tumblr, etc. doesn't give you ownership of the material. They can do whatever they want to with your posts. It's better to have a blog on your own domain.

I would certainly buy a domain and go with cheap hosting. If you are going to monetize it you definitely would want control of it.

Dani, FREE can be more expensive!

Once you do anything not to their liking, your hosts can just nuke your blogs.

I saw this message on a train station in Australia some years back :

"Free rides cost more"

Some good logic there. Always go for paid if you can

Buy a domain for your blog it's the best option if you want to make money

Anything you do, get your own domain.

I've purchased close to 100 domains easily over the years, even if it's just for forwarding purposes.

So far you've done the right thing. You say you're completely new, so it makes sense to "get your feet wet" with free resources.

It's just the first step of your journey. Do more research, do some writing, and when you feel confident enough, THEN buy a domain and hosting.

It's not a race, so go at your own pace. You'll KNOW when you're ready to step up a gear.

Good luck

IT's a great business advertising expense. All the best no matter what you choose and share your story

I believe that having your own domain is better. It lends more credibility to what you are doing. It also seems to be easier to find via search engines when you don't have a dot blogspot or dot wordpress attached to it (I say it seems to be because there are exceptions. I once had an at blogspot blog that did really, really well with search engines). That being said, you can always start off with a free blog and easily buy a domain later and transfer/redirect your traffic. If you have a blogspot you park your domain and when someone goes to your old blogspot address they are automatically redirected to your new address. With Wordpress it's a little different but just as easy.