Why Blogging

Be it personal or business, blogging is one form of interacting with the ever-changing world of thoughts and ideas. Curious minds out there are always on a lookout for any details or information about current affairs, a new book, a new movie or a new product or service launched. 

Blogging serves as a medium, a channel connecting like-minded people from all walks of life. That being said, we move to a question that is of course worth a debate in the blogging world – free blogging or paid blogging.

Only one way to find out! Read on!

Free Blogging

There are numerous blog sites where you can register yourself and once you login, you will get all resources and options to start your page for free. Free sites allow you to use their application or websites to design and upload your content without any hassle.

There are a number of free blogging sites, however, the following is the list of top rated blog sites that you would want to try.

• Blogger.com (Blogspot)
• WordPress.com
• LiveJournal.com
• Tumblr.com
• Webs.com
• Weebly.com
• Penzu
• Squarespace
• Yola
• Edublogs.org
• Wiz
• Medium
• Ghost
• Pistachio
• Jimdo

Advantages

• There is no investment required or cost incurred to start your blog.
• The application or site provides a variety of designed templates that you can choose from.
• A few sites like blogger.com gives you the option to earn from your site. You can register yourself with Google Adsense and Google would then place their ads on your site.
• The sites have an option to share your blogs to almost all social media channels like facebook, twitter, WhatsApp etc.
• You can get a domain name by default.

Disadvantages

• You have limited control on your site. You cannot design your own template but have to rely on the designs or templates provided by the site.
• The domain name provided to you is a sub-domain name. For eg:- candybabu.blogpost.com. You can only change or edit your username but not the domain name due to limited control.
• Due to the design of the sites not being yours, the readers or viewers might get to see a low quality blog and may not take it seriously.
• Few of the blogging sites do not allow you to post ad links or banners which is not a problem if you are a casual blogger but if you are seriously looking for earning options, then you might have to shift your contents to something better.
• Inactivity is a sin in a free blogging site. The more active you are, the more your blog will be kept live on all platforms but if you remain inactive for a stipulated time, your blog maybe taken out. What’s more, all your content maybe lost one you are re-registered.

Paid Blogging

Another option is to create your own website for blogging or other content development requirements.

You can design a website if your own and contact a 3rd party or site to have it hosted or contact a web designer or web designing company to create it for you and then host it. You will have to pay them a fee to keep the site hosted for as long as you want.

Advantages

• You are in the driver’s seat, in complete control. This is your domain, you can add, change or edit on your own without any permission or approval.
• You can place ads or banners wherever you want, whichever page you want and see your earning options double. If the right people take note of your site, be assured they will contact you to use your site as a marketing tool or channel.
• Unlike free blogging where the templates or designs are pre-defined, here you can design your own templates, create a dynamic website or blog that can captivate the readers or viewers and make them always return to your site for more.
• Inactivity is definitely a sin here too but you don’t have to worry about your site being taken down. It is your blog and it will only be taken down if you have not made the payment on time.

Disadvantages

• Free blogging sites are mostly for casual bloggers who may not be too serious about marketing. The same cannot be said for paid blogging, you have to incur cost or invest considerable amount of money to get your blog on top of all search engines.
• You have to work hard in getting in touch or contacting business entities to create awareness for your site and convince them to market their products or services on your blog site to create a passive income stream.

Be it paid or free, bulk of your investment will go towards generating traffic for your site. This includes your time in giving ample amount of content for people to visit your site very often.

You must also make considerable efforts to be connected with the readers or viewers. Your interaction with the outside world matters if you want your site to be a blockbuster.

So what is it going to be? Paid or free? Whats your decision now….Read more here on how to Start your Blog and Become Successful Blogger