Are you trying to choose between free or commercial hosting for your blog? When I first started blogging, I went with the free Blogger, because it was the easiest option. Initially, I just wanted to blog for family and friends, and Blogger was ideal for that. On Blogger, you do not have to learn about the technical site of maintaining a blog, and can simply just blog. Furthermore, Blogger is owned by Google, and now allows users to post Google Adsense ads as well as other affiliate ads on Blogger blogs so that you can monetize your blog. In addition to Blogger, there are many other good free blogging sites, such as WordPress.
However, as I started to explore the commercial side of blogging with advertisements and affiliates, I found Blogger to be more and more restrictive. Initially, I was frustrated that I could not place advertisements and graphical elements where I wanted. The final straw came when Blogger’s robots flagged my blog as a spam blog, accusing me of using programs to automatically populate my blog. While Blogger said that I could request a human review (which I did), this only results in my blog being unlocked for a short time before Google’s robot locks it back down again. I could only post a blog entry after manually unlocking it every time, and worse, I could not post any new advertisements on the blog, or on any of the other blogs registered to me. This was when I decided to leave for a commercial paid hosting site. Since then, I have found paid hosting to be a pleasant experience. While I do pay monthly hosting fees, these are typically extremely modest, and easily covered by my modest income from advertisements. There is a bit of a learning curve, but nothing too difficult. Furthermore, you get to choose your own domain name, and the domain belongs to you forever, and you can keep that name and the reader base that you have built up even if you change hosts. To summarize, I think that the choice between blogging with free or paid hosting comes down to the following points :
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If you just want to blog for your family and friends, and are not concerned with making some money from your blog, or with owning your own domain name, then free hosting is for you. It is the simplest route to blogging.
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If you do not want to learn the rudimentary HTML and background knowledge required to administer and maintain a website, then go with a free hosting service. Conversely, if you are a control freak and would like to control every element on your blog, then a paid host is the way to go.
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If you are artistically-inclined and would like to construct a beautiful blog, then you need a commercial host. Free hosts typically place severe constraints on the placement of your page elements which will restrict your creativity.
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If you want post advertisements on your site and making a small amount of money from your blogging effort, then you definitely should go with a commercial host. The key advantage of owning your own domain name and thus being able to take your reader base wherever you choose to host your site is very important. Furthermore, if you host your blog on a free server, they can always change their policies at any time, potentially banning you from your own blog. This cannot happen if you pay to host your own site, and diligently back up your blog. Even if your commercial server bans you (which should not happen unless you’re doing something contrary to their terms of service), you can always choose another host, keeping the same domain name so your readers can still find you.
Many bloggers do not realize that commercial hosting can be very cheap and affordable, equivalent to the cost of one night at the movies for an entire year’s worth of hosting. If you are willing to post a few advertisements on your blog, then it is relatively easy to cover the cost of your hosting. In my next article, I’ll review several commercial hosts that I’ve used or considered.