Free Blogs - Why You Should Not Use Them

Curious as to whether you should host your own blog, or choose a free blog provider like BlogSpot? This is a question more and more people are asking themselves after witnessing just how far their blog has come.

Although there are advantages and disadvantages to both, having your own web hosting server is always better at the end of the day. Here are to simple (and extremely valid) reasons why you should avoid using a free blog provider:

Reason #1: Limited Resources

Posting content through a remotely hosted blog requires that you relinquish a tremendous amount of control over how messages look and work. This is mainly because a remotely hosted blog by design is built to accommodate hundreds of thousands of bloggers.

For such a big volume of activity, it can only afford to offer the very least. A blog that offers an extensive amount of features to a large number of people consumes much more resources than what its own servers can provide -- ultimately running the risk of major crashes.

Even something as simple as a low-graphic poll can consume an insurmountable amount of bandwidth if over 100,000 bloggers decide to offer one to their visitors. Imagine for example how much bandwidth a popular blog already consumes.

Resources simply aren't an issue with a self-hosted WordPress blog these days. With your blog web hosting, you can deck out your blog with as many plugins and widgets as your heart desires without having to fear server crashes or time outs.

In fact, you shouldn't consume any more bandwidth with your own hosted blog than you would consume with your own hosted website.

Reason #2: Limited Monetizing Opportunities

We couldn't count the number of people who want to monetize their blogs if we wanted to. The simple fact is that everyone and his "mom" wants to monetize their blog but the ugly reality is that many (free) remotely hosted blogs don't allow it.

If you host a blog at WordPress.com for example, you're prohibited from using any form of direct advertising like Google AdSense or affiliate links.

Limited resources could play a factor in this restriction, however since most monetized campaigns call upon the resources of a 3rd party, this restraint is mostly censorship. Blogs that curb 3rd party ads generally want to limit advertisements other than those to their own products and/or services.

With your own blog of course, you can advertise whatever, whenever, where ever. You're only restricted by your conscience (or by the data revealed from your visitor stats) and the only policies that you have to follow are the policies of your 3rd party ad providers. This accordingly opens doors for tremendous opportunities with Adsense, Amazon, and any number of the hundred other affiliate schemes we have available.

Reason #3: Long Term Control of Content

One of the most overlooked reasons to get your own blog hosting is the complete control over content in the long term. Although several free blog providers like BlogSpot are unlikely to go our of business, some of the smaller ones eventually will.

And when that happens, it can be difficult (if not impossible) for you to move your content to another free provider. Even in the case of BlogSpot or WordPress.com (free version) you may want to move your content to your own blog host two or three years down the road.

Unfortunately, any search engine ranking you get, and the free traffic that comes along with it, will be lost. So even if you think you're saving a buck or two today, in the long term you're always on the losing end if you decide not to host your own blog.

Web hosting blog blogs nowadays is pretty affordable - mostly under $7 a month - so there's no real reason not to take your blog to the next level. The security, flexibility and professional image it gives you more than covers for the meager cost.