Blog Hosting – Which is best for you, free or paid?

Once you have made up your mind to start your own Blog, one of your first decisions will be the type of hosting to use. This article will discuss five key factors involved in making that decision. What are your blog hosting choices? rnYour blog can be hosted by a free service or in your own domain which you will have to pay for. You will need to consider cost, complexity, ownership, branding, and security to decide which route is best for you. How much will it Cost? A blog requires a domain name and web hosting. A domain name is a website's human readable address for the blog. A web host is computer and software that serves your blog posts to readers. The good news is the free blog hosting services are free. They provide you with a name and web hosting plus the blogging software at no cost. Hosting your own blog requires you to register your own blog name with a domain name registrar. This is not expensive. It costs around $10 per year and can be renewed indefinitely. Web hosting can be rented or run from a computer you own (not recommended). A basic web hosting rental account for a blog will cost $5 to $10 per month. Free web hosting may be available from your Internet Service Provider or from other sources. The Wordpress blogging software itself is free. Which is Easier? The free blog hosting services are as simple as can be. You can set up an account in minutes and can be sending out your first blog post just as quickly. rnHosting your own blog requires some skills. The main steps include telling your domain name registrar where your blog is hosted, installing the blogging software and customizing your blog's appearance. The major hosting services make it easy. They have training videos available to guide a beginner through the process. The major hosting services have scripts (programs) which install the blogging software automatically with a single click. Customization can be the most time consuming part of the blog setup process, not by necessity but by choice. There are varying degrees of customization available but generally your choices on free sites are more limited. This can be a good thing as it can focus your attention on writing blog content. However, most bloggers want to have their site express their personality. By hosting your own site you can use one of the thousands of “Themes” which instantly change the look of a blog and can be further customized with the author's own graphics and colors. Themes can be free or for purchase. Selecting a Theme can take a lot of research and setting it up can be time consuming depending on the complexity and flexibility of the Theme itself. Who will own my Blog? rnWho “Owns” your blog can be an important question depending on your reasons for having a blog. In the case of the free services, they own your blog and the name of your blog. You have rights as defined in the host's “Term of Service”. They can exercise editorial control over your content. They can remove your blog at their discretion. They may fail financially and disappear along with all your content. If you are hosting your own blog, you have significantly more control because you own the name and control the hosting software. Will your Blog build your Brand? The free hosts use what is called a sub-domain name such as yourblogname.wordpress.com. An author or company wishing to establish or maintain a personal brand through their blog's name will find this unacceptable. A self hosted blog uses the owner's domain name yourdomainname.com, .net, etc., and builds a lasting, memorable brand. Having your own domain name also allows more flexibility in the methods you use to promote your blog using so called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Will your blogging be secure? The free hosted services own your blog. They are responsible for preserving your hard work (or not). You can lose your account arbitrarily through a breach of the host's terms or lose days (or all) of your work due to a failure of their systems. With your own site, you become responsible for back-ups and content preservation but you have the choice. If you take the necessary steps, your content can be preserved indefinitely. Whether to use a free service or host your own blog will depend on your reasons for establishing a blog. You'll need to consider cost, complexity, ownership, brand, and security when making your choice.