| Free Hosted Blog or Self Hosted Blog | | | | - There will most likely be advertising that you may not |
| If you are reading this article you are most likely at a | | | | want displayed on your site as well as links to other |
| pivotal stage where you are trying to compare and | | | | sites or content. |
| contrast whether to continue with a Free Hosted Blog | | | | What Benefits Come From Self Hosted Blogs |
| or start up your own Self Hosted Blog. Many first time | | | | - You have full control and functionality of your site |
| bloggers start with a Free Blog site before | | | | with the ability to change almost every detail of your |
| understanding the benefits of that come from hosting | | | | site. |
| your own blog. | | | | - You have an almost unlimited array of themes and |
| Many people start using the most well known free | | | | plugins that you can implement on your site. |
| blogging platforms such as Google's free tool for | | | | - You will reap the revenue from any advertising that |
| creating blogs - Blogger and the ever popular | | | | you display on your site as you will be in full control on |
| What Benefits Come From Free Hosted Blogs | | | | what form of advertising you display. |
| - Free Blogs are great in that there are no costs to | | | | What Drawbacks Come From Self Hosted Blogs |
| start up or any ongoing operational costs. All platforms | | | | - Cost of purchasing a domain name - this is usually |
| usually have a easy to use user interface and it takes | | | | around $10 or less for a one year period for a good |
| very little time from sign-up to publishing your first post. | | | | Top Level Domain name. |
| - You do not need to focus on advertising your blog or | | | | - Cost of hosting the domain - this depends on what |
| getting it indexed by search engines as many free | | | | features you want to have access to and whether |
| platforms have all of this built into the backend. | | | | you want any extra features that may bring a benefit |
| - Free - no ongoing costs for hosting or upgrades. | | | | in starting your own blog. |
| What Drawbacks Come From Free Hosted Blogs | | | | If you already have a website, creating and maintaining |
| - You usually have limited control and functionality. | | | | a blog will definitely bring many benefits and this should |
| - You may be restricted with site layout options, | | | | be even easier as you already have the foundations |
| themes and fonts. | | | | of the website. Create the blog as a sub-domain and |
| - Search engines will see your site as being shared | | | | increase traffic to your website with high quality |
| and this many impact on your search engine rankings | | | | articles. |
| and in-turn impact on traffic to your site. | | | | |