Free Blog Hosts Vs Hosting Your Own Blog

Many new bloggers launch their first blog on a free blog host like Blogspot or WordPress.com. Personally, I’d say that’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a blogger (when it comes to professional blogs or those designed to help you make money online). Here’s why:

Free blog hosts are less professional from a marketing perspective.

The domains for a free blog hosting account are longer and harder to remember from a reader-standpoint.

It’s hard to take a blogger seriously when they don’t care enough about their blog to spend a few dollars per year on it.

As a blogger, you don’t have as much control over your blog’s appearance and functionality as you might if you hosted your own blog on your own domain.

You may not be able to use all available advertising and monetization options when you use a free blog host.

You can run into problems down the road if you do decide to switch from a free blog host to your own domain and hosting, because you may not have access to be able to redirect the old blog to the new blog (meaning lost backlinks, rankings and visitors).

I can only see one really valid excuse for using a free blog hosting account (out of completely noncommercial blogging), and that would be if you wanted to test a new niche to see if there’s a potential audience. However, I’d also say that’s a pretty flimsy argument. if you did find the niche to be profitable, you would run into the problems already mentioned if you chose to move it or market it more thoroughly. if it weren’t a good niche for you, s ure you wouldn’t lose anything. but if you did invest in a real blog from the get-go, you would have only lost a minimal investment anyway (just the domain registration fee if you host several blogs already on one hosting account). and if you’re not willing to invest even a few dollars into a potential business model, you very likely won’t have what it takes to cut it as a serious professional or business blogger to be ;gin with.

On top of the financial aspect, there are other ways to conduct market research and figure out if a niche has potential. and that’s something anyone serious about blogging should have done long before launching the blog itself.

I’m all for saving money as a business owner, and not spending anything not absolutely necessary. but your identity is absolutely necessary. if you’re considering launching a blog, don’t make the mistake of going with a free blog host if you intend on becoming a serious blogger. They’re fine for hobby bloggers; not for those using blogging as any kind of business model or significant marketing tool.