Paid Hosting Vs. Free Blog Hosting

Free Blog Hosting – If you aren’t very technical savvy or don’t want to spend any money then I recommend blogger.com or wordpress.com. Out of the two I would start with blogger. You won’t have as many customizable options with free hosts, but they are extremely easy to set up and start earning.

Paid Hosting – This option would be for more serious bloggers and technical savvy people. You will have to purchase a domain and hosting service most hosting companies will give you a free domain with your purchase. A few paid hosting programs are justhost, host monster, and bluehost.

Pros of Free Hosting Platforms

* Cheap or free to run – Most hosted options are free

* Quick and easy to set up – Most of these sites like blogger or wordpress can be setup within a few minuetes. After filling out some personal info/signing up and picking your template. Ideal if you know nothing about html.

* Simple to Use – Once you get past the easy setup process, blogging will be very easy. It will be as simple as filling in a few text boxes and clicking publish. Blogger and Wordpress also have widgets/gadgets sections to add to your blog.

* Search Engines – Many of the free hosters are already hosted or linked from sites that attract search engines. For example Blogger is hosted by google themselves and is very easy to get indexed in google with them.

Cons of Free Hosting Platforms

* Configuration – With a free service the only options you will have are those available to you, this may not be a problem for you, but you will have fewer choices than self hosting.

* Templates – You will have fewer options on templates and designing your templates. People will be using the same templates over and over again, so your blog will look similar to others.

* Ownership – Not having complete control and ownership over there blog. You own your content, but the url is not technically your own and are at mercy of the platform if there blog is working or not working.

* Generic URL – There many successful blogs on free hosted programs, but bloggers believe that having your own url is easier to link to and more professional. For example your generic urls will look like with example.blogspot.com or example.wordpress.com.

* Upgrading or Moving to a New Host – If there comes a day you want to move your blog to a paid hosting program you will have a lot of work to do and will have to rebuild all of your links.

Pros of Paid Hosting Platforms

* Full Control – Depending on you knowledge with technology and web design, paid hosting blogs generally are very adaptable. Have full control over any aspect of your blog.

* Flexibility – One of the things I love about wordpress of self hosted platforms is the vast amount of plugins which will make your blogging easier.

* URL – Having your own domain like onlinemoneyspot.com is easier to remember, more professional, and easily brand able.

Cons of Paid Hosting Platforms

* Complicated – Again, this depends on your technical and web design knowledge. But most paid options include 1 click installs for programs like wordpress., making it easier to use.

* Cost –You can find free self hosting sites like 000webhost, but you will still have to pay for a domain name. But paid programs have way more features and most of the time will get you a free domain. For paid hosting I recommend justhost and godaddy for domains.

* Updates –Blog platforms go through different versions and changes over time, and can get complicated

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