Should you create a free blog or pay to host your blog?
There are a lot of ways that you can build a website today, but most people don’t need something grand. That’s why blogging is getting a lot of attention. With several blog hosting options, you’re going to find yourself at a fork in the road. There are two main routes here. The first is the perennial free blog solution. Free blog hosting is always something you can find online. Then there is the paid solution. Paid blog hosting is never going to go away, as long as tech companies need hosting, it’s going to be a part of the larger spectrum of tech. So what should you go forward with? Do you succumb to the paid blog hosting route or do you go free? Free sounds great right? Well, the best way to approach this subject is to consider the options carefully and decide which is going to benefit you in the long term. That being said, the following shines light on both sides of the equation so that you are not left out cold.
Free Is Free, Right?
First and foremost, you may ask yourself whether or not free blog hosting is truly free. The short answer is yes. You can absolutely go this route. There’s nothing wrong with it inherently. Just pick a subject, register and then go forward. It seems so simple, and yet so many people don’t go this route. Why? Well, the bigger issue is not so much whether or not this is truly inexpensive, but rather the cost of ranking and promoting these pages. You will find that when you set up a site with a free web hosting option, you will not be able to rank high within SEO very easily.
The protocols of standard search engine optimization today call for more access than what free web hosting companies give you. Free blog hosting is nice, but it’s not going to help you get very far. It’s for that reason that this is best reserved for hobbyists and amateurs that are not taking the world of tech very seriously.
If you want to create a free blog without purchasing web hosting you can do so at WordPress. Just remember that when you create a free blog you’re basically hosting with WordPress and you have limited options and scalability.
If you prefer to host your blog with a web hosting company check out our Best WordPress Hosts list. You’ll find discounts on the best WordPress hosting companies to save you some extra cash.
Content Ownership
For those that are adamant about saving money and going with free blog hosting, consider ownership. When you get a good web hosting company behind you, you will own the content that you build. In fact, many terms of service will list that you are responsible for all the content, not them. Now, in regards to free hosts, you will have to put up your own content as you normally would, but there’s a catch. The catch is simple; you don’t own it. In many instances you are simply putting up items that could easily be taken away from you at any given moment. Whenever the hose decides to shut down, or perhaps deems your site spam, they simply turn it off. Simple as that. Your content is not your own when you are going with a limited, free blog hosting option.
The Bells and Whistles
There are no real bells and whistles when it comes to free options. This is something that can be said about nearly anything in life. Whether you build a house or you’re buying tech devices, there’s a standard model and then there are is the premier solution. In the case of blog hosting, free options are not going to come with the tools, and extra features that paid web hosting will come with. When you pay for hosting, you not only get a fighting chance to gain leverage moving forward, you will end up with a huge jump in terms of opportunity. The opportunities that you will have with paid solutions out number anything that goes on in the free arena.
Limited Bandwidth
Here’s the one thing that most people don’t think about. Free blog hosting doesn’t come with unlimited bandwidth. If you were to get a huge jump in traffic, you could see your page drop or diminish overall. Free hosting usually gives you a set amount of bandwidth, but in terms of “blogging”, many companies drag their feet and don’t tell you what their limit is. It’s going to be a lot less than any paid host, that’s for sure. This is not a good thing. If your site grows too popular, you could end up losing it all as a result.
At the end of the day, don’t go the route of free solutions. It’s when you skimp out on blog hosting, that you end up losing out on the bigger picture of getting a good website going on the internet. Successful websites online, especially blogs, have registered domain names and paid blog hosting, simple as that.
