which is better- your own blog or a blogger blog

Go with your own blogs instead of Blogger. With your own blogs you are in total control and you own the content. Blogger can shut you down any time they want and if you have a blog with them that is making good money, you stand the chance of losing all that income.

Realise that you don't own the Blogger blog. They do and they can change their terms of service as they please. Many people have lost their Blogger blogs as a result.

Some will disagree with me but I'd rather own something that I earn my income from.

Can someone explain why it's better to build your business on something someone else owns as opposed to something you own?

Also, if $10 a domain is something you're simply not prepared to risk, when starting your own business, perhaps this isn't for you. Besides, .info's are about $2.00 with Namecheap and the like.

For me, risking a paltry $10 on a business opportunity is not a big issue. I appreciate it may be for you but this is business, there are risks and this is a small one.

Just like life, what you consider losing is really learning...
It's only a loser if you don't learn from it.

Why not start off with just 1 domain and go from there?
Starting off with 10 seems a little overwhelming, especially since it seems you are a little new to this. Unless of course you plan on scraping content and not do any actual blogging/reviews, yourself. If that is the case, then it doesn't matter, not many will be visiting them anyway, so you might as well go with something free.

If you are going to start IM, you should have at least a few hundred bucks to invest.

You can put it in sub-domains but that will really lose ranking on Google.

Google views your domain name with more respect if your keyword is in it. However if you are on a tight budget, i suggest you dont even start.

Heres a short outline of the budget you may need in IM.

$100/yr - Hosting
$100/yr - Domains
$30/mth -Autoresponders
$ 200-500 - for some learning investments

first i started with blogging and later i got a domain and continued with it !

I would go w/ your own blog, because Blogger or Wordpress.com can remove your blog without warning or just cause. That happened to me before w/ Wordpress. I had a ton of keywords ranked for that blog too, and one day, suddenly, my blog was removed.

With that said... it's much easier to rank a blog on Wordpress or Blogspot than it is on your own domain.

Your own blog by far. It just seems more professional and leaves what you want to do with it somewhat limitless.

I agree with the others. You definitely need your own blog that you control.

Gotta go with the "your own blog" crowd.

Not only do you own it (as well as the backlinks coming to your site improving YOUR property's value) but you have a lot more control over the layout, ads, etc.

Always get your own blogs (running wordpress) hosted on your own domains

You have control over them... You are not under the mercy of google who can delete your blogger blogs at anytime with any reason

Having a own hosted blog is far better than a free blogger blog.There are no doubt that operating a blogger blog is flexible to use but the problem is sometimes they delete the blog without any notice and retrieving it is also a difficult job.

I like to be in control of my own blogs

I began with Blogger last month. Fortunately I learned the limitations and weaknesses of Blogger early, before I had much invested in it (content and time wise).

My opinion: Blogger is fine if you're just planning to blog on things with no commercial intent, and are looking for an easy platform to use to do that on. Otherwise Blogger is a mistake.

You're restricted to Adsense & Amazon exclusively for monetization. Any other affiliate marketing risks a suspension of your account with no warning.

You also have all your eggs in one basket: domain, host, and site software are all owned by one entity. Unintentionally run afoul and its game over. If G decides tomorrow to shut Blogger down without warning, its game over too.

Having been brought into the light (the painful way) I've learned what almost everyone here will tell you: buy your domain from one company and your hosting from another.

I use Name Cheap for my domains and Host Gator for hosting, but there are other options too. Plenty. If you're serious about getting into this, even just as potential side income, Blogger is not the way to go.

-Spyder

Your own, No doubt about it.

Blogger can decide to shut you down at any time. If you own the domain though, they can't just shut you down so it's better in the long run.

If you want to use Blogger you should use the 'custom domain' feature. The feature allows you to use a domain name you bought separately and install a blogspot blog on your domain name. It's a tiny bit complicated the first time you do it. By the third or fourth time you do it it's a snap.

Among other positives, you don't have to pay for hosting. Google picks up your hosting tab. There is a possibility Google will wipe out your custom blog even though you own the name. But as long as there's some originality in your blog their hands will be off. They just don't like brainless duplication.

The only problem with this is that you lose all your back links since you have no DNS to redirect to on Blogger as you would if you were just moving hosts, which goes back to part of the fundamental problem with Blogger: hosting, DNS, and content publishing software all coming from the same source which is a bad idea in its own right.

Alexa has already given a far better no cost alternative if money is an issue.

I started on Blogger. It was a mistake. I can't stress that heavily enough from one who's been there, done that, learned and moved on. The only upshot (such as it was) is that I learned early why it was a mistake and moved my content offsite, before nuking the Blogger page, and now have a separate host & DNS (each is from a different company), with no worries of anyone being able to exercise undue control over my content.

-Spyder

- I resolved this thing in a such manner :

1. Bought a domain DDDD.com and placed on it a blog.

2. Then in CP - Control Panel - of hosting made 11 sub-domains :

aaaa.DDDD.com
bbbb.DDDD.com
……….
qqqq.DDDD.com

and placed on them blogs , it is allowed and free.

3. Then in CP where is a function to set up WP - placed 11 other WP in folders like :

DDDD.com/dssd

It is also allowed and free.

In result I have 23 separate blogs on one domain .

PS : I did not read all post above - may be such thing is described above .

Hi Always, always get your own blogs! wordpress.org!!

On the internet ownership is so important. The risk of losing your blogs on a free service isn't worth the small saving you make by starting your blog hosting there. If you are interested in cheap hosting, $2 a month let me know, then all you have to spend money on is a good domain. Like someone already mentioned .infos are the cheapest bet but some say not as favoured by the buying public.

No doubt, own blog is the best you can do whatever you want no T.O.S. simple as that.

It's better to have your own blogs. Wordpress is superior to blogger IMO.

Definitely your own blog, even if it costs more. It's better on the long-term.

Having your own blog on your own domain is far superior in every aspect compared to using a blogger blog. It's like having a fully-funded trust for your assets versus having a will (trusts are far superior to wills in almost every way too).

Think of your own domain name with your own website / blog as a piece of virtual real estate. You own it. You can build on it. You can lease it out or sell it later on. Whereas a blogger site is owned by a landlord who tells you what to do and can raise your rates or evict you at anytime.

RoD

Your own blog with wordpress installed.

Blogger blogs can be taken away from you by google at any time with just a simple "You have violated our terms and conditions" email without explaining what you did wrong.

Spend that $100/year. It's worth it.

Yea I would have to go with my own blog! Just like everyone was saying, This is your business and you don't want blogger to be in control of it. I use blogger as a funnel site to my money sites. And If I have an idea I'll through a blog up on blogger real quick to see if I can get some hits from it.

I agree with most others, get your own blog. Your own WordPress site is the most versatile way to go. If you can't risk 10 bucks, business isnt for you.

Yup, go with your own blog. Im a newbie and doesn't want to loose much money if unsuccessful. At the moment, I made 1 blog. And geeezzzzz seo is giving me headaches. I'm trying to do all the work myself. This is an experiment, if all goes well then Ill make more of them.If it doesn't work, still ok cuz im learning in the process. so yeah go make your own blog.

If you are running low on budget ... you would probably use blogger for it .. so that you can also invest in advertising of the blog ..

If you can afford it .. Owning a blog of your own is better ...

If you have your own site you generate authority and celebrity status in the community.

Also you can have add to cart buttons, incredibly good themes, optin forms for auto-responders and you can advertise on your site once you generate traffic. It's pretty cool and definitely worth the $20 bucks for domain and $7/month hosting.

it's always best to have your own domain name..

Go with your own blog.

Your own blog is going to give you the full flexibility of operating the platform. If you can fiddle with FTP and web backends than you can really see the difference here. You can easily set up test servers and do all kinds of things that you don't get to do with blogger.

Also, you're going to come across as much more professional. You also get a lot of information and setting up websites which can be used to sell as a service