I love me some blogging, and have since 2006, when I started my first blog.
The other day I gave you a complete step-by-step tutorial for how to launch your own self-hosted blog on WordPress.
In response to the post, I got lots of questions from readers about starting your own blog. One of the most common questions I got was:
Why should I pay to host on WordPress (about $50/year with my special Bluehost deal) when I can get a free blog on Blogger.com?
Here’s my answer. Hopefully, it’ll help;)
When you’re thinking of starting a blog, you’ll quickly find out that there are two main options for “hosting” your blog (keeping your blog live somewhere on the Interwebs):
- Free (through a third-party like blogger.com)
- Paid (called “self-hosting” – this happens on your own .com domain name)
I firmly believe most people will do best with a paid option (I recommend BlueHost, and here’s that simple guide to setting up your blog using Bluehost I mentioned above.)
Although this infographic will show you some of the differences between free and paid hosts, here are my reasons that I personally recommend going with the paid option.
Why I Recommend Paying for Blog Hosting:
Although free options (like Blogger) are indeed FREE, they offer much less functionality than paid options. But that’s not the main reason I don’t recommend them. In the beginning of my blogging days, I started several blogs (maybe more?) on Blogger for free and it gave me a good chance to try blogging without making a monetary commitment. That said, free platforms like Blogger do have limits, and don’t have all the bells, whistles, and functionalities that paid platforms offer.
Like many bloggers, when I did decide I wanted to take my blogging to the next level, I faced a frustrating hurdle: migrating my website from the free Blogger to the paid WordPress. This not only cost me hundreds of dollars, but forced me to deal with rebranding — as the name I had chosen for my original blog on Blogger was not available on the rest of the Interwebs.
All in all: frustrating.
Ultimately, if you think there is a chance you might one day want your blog to be bigger, do more, or take a larger role in your life than it does on Day 1, think about spending the <$50 bucks a year to pay for hosting. It’ll save you money in the long run.
Want step-by-step directions? Watch my video here on how to set up your self-hosted blog with BlueHost.
Do you have a blog? Is it self-hosted or on Blogger.com? What do you think about the pros and cons of self-hosting versus having it on a free platform like Blogger.com?
Online purchwsing gives you enormous ectra benefits. What can
you do to reduce thee anxiety thee next time you go tto buy a car.
Your ttime is valuable to you; make the dealer respect your time by doing as much work for you before
you arrive.
I don’t currently have a blog, but in the process of creating one. I wanted to sign up through bluehost.com, but had a quick question. When you sign up through this site and use wordpress.org, are you able to make money off your blog from different vendors and ads once it takes off and you get a lot of followers? Blogging is something I would really love to do, but I want to know that if I do get followers am I able to do that with bluehost and wordpress, or will have to pay additional fees and switch my blog over and go through a lot more trouble?? Thank you so much, and I look forward to subscribing to your blog and learning more in the future.
Thank you!!
Haley
Hi! My name is Lexi Martina,I am a 15 year old girl. Some friends and I have created a blog that will eventually be on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube; the name of our blog is going to be named 4girls4blogs. however, we have not posted it yet; we want to make sure no one can claim that our blog is theres, but we don’t know how to do that. Can Bluehost do that for us? If not can you please suggest where to go so that we can post our blog? We are trying to get it posted in 2 weeks max. Thank you!
Hi Lexi!
SO exciting about your blog!! I’d say purchasing a domain name is your best bet. Once you purchase the domain, you own it.
Hi, my name is Hakim, if i start a blog for free, do i get paid, or do i absolutely need to purchase a plan to get paid?….thank you