Why Free Blog Hosting is a Bad Idea

Posted on April 30, 2008
Filed Under blog hosting, blog strategy, blogging, free blog hosting, setting up a blog |

Starting a blog seems easy enough; just go to Google’s Blogger or WordPress and get started for free, right? WRONG!

Sure, you can start a blog for free, but what you don’t want to have happen is to start blog that grows into something that you want to continue to develop only to have it shut down by the powers that be. I know this first hand as I had a profitable blog shut down once in the past. That was all it took for me to learn how to do it on my own. I will be honest, my first blog sucked. I used a lame free template which had lots of limitations. But during this period, I learned about blog hosting, plugins, widgets, tagging, pinging, and social media. All of the elements that help make a blog successful.

I STRONGLY recommend starting out with your own blog so you maintain full control over it. The few extra steps you take in the beginning will be well worth it and you will learn some valuable skills in the process.

This isn’t meant to be an all inclusive guide to blogging, but just a list of things you need to keep in mind and some resources. As a disclaimer, this is based on using WordPress, which is probably the most used blogging software out there. There are others and you are free to do your own research, but I think it is a waste of time. So many people develop free resources for WordPress blogs that it’s a no-brainer.

Anyhow, here is my list:

1. You need a domain name. I recommend having a dot com domain and I recommend getting it from GoDaddy.

2. You need a hosting company that hosts blogs and blogging software. There IS a difference. when I was getting started, I tried several different hosts before learning this and finding a great blog hosting company.

3. You will need to choose a template. You can build a custom template if you are a web designer or pay to have one built, but there are plenty of free WordPress templates out there to start with.

4. You will want to use plugins. These are software components that make your life easier, give your blog more features, and allow yor users to have a more enjoyable experience at your blog. Here is a great list of recommended WordPress plugins.

If you need professional assistance with getting a blog set up or a corporate blogging strategy, please visit Web Traffic Team.

Happy Blogging!

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