It’s easy and quick to start blog free with the most popular blog sites like WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumbler, and similar ones. These free personal blog sites make it easy to start blogging after setting up an account, so it’s tempting for people when they don’t have to worry about setting up an internet hosting account or buying a domain name, and of course it’s all free with these popular personal blog sites.
I noticed that too many people are tapping into search on start blog free because I guess they want to start a blog and they want to do it for free, but that is really being cheap and just a bad idea.
How many people who read blogs take those free blogs seriously when the owner couldn’t be bothered to do it the right way?
Just don’t do it!
They want to learn how to create a blog for free and make money but they are ignoring the many reasons why the free part is a bad idea and that part will sink your blog and any chances at making money as a blogger, in the long run.
It doesn’t cost much to have a real hosted blog on your own internet domain.
Believe me, just creating a free account on Blogger or WordPress.com and going the totally free route is a BAD IDEA.
Why is start blog free a bad idea?
Let’s list the ways:
- Hard to do commercial or affiliate offers on a free blog.
- Blog and account can be deleted for breaking TOC.
- No one will take yourblogname.freeservice.com seriously.
- Can’t have your own set of plugins or effects.
- Limited theme capability.
- What if you wanted to sell the blog to a buyer someday?
So let’s talk about these various reasons why start blog free is really a bad idea and not really free in the long run.
Hard to do commercial or affiliate offers on a free blog
Many people want to monetize their blogs with various affiliate offers once they see that it’s free and easy to sign up for many affiliate offers and write about them on their blogs. Affiliate blogs have set many people free from their day jobs and pull in many thousands of dollars per month, so this is something that bloggers are eventually drawn to. Well, if you were el cheapo in the beginning and went the start blog free option, you are now limited since affiliate marketing is verboten (forbidden) on the free services and while you may get away with it for awhile, all someone has to do is report you and quite possibly there goes your blog and all of your hard work writing for it. Friends don’t let friends start blog free.
Blog and account can be deleted for breaking TOC
Okay so we started with this in the last point as it relates to affiliate marketing, but even if you aren’t doing that, if someone out there is offended by ANYTHING that you blog about, they can complain to the free service and your blog can still get trashed for breaking “community guidelines” or something similarly silly. Don’t laugh because today everyone is hyper sensitive and ready to be offended by something. The victim mentality is in full force, so your blog and all of the work can be deleted if the service sides with the offended party. So, don’t start blog free as I am trying to tell you.
No one will take yourblogname.freeservice.com seriously
Do people take free bloggers who start blog free seriously? Let’s face it, if you couldn’t muster enough to get your own hosting account, as cheap as they are, and then get a domain name (again, cheap) and set them up into your own web property, then how many people are going to frequent that type of blog? Of course if you are a good writer you will get some fans and traffic, but I wouldn’t want to trust my cherished work on a free platform when not only is is not safe or under my control, but it appears with the free service branding in the main URL or on the apge as provider ads. Yucky.
Can’t have your own set of plugins or effects
When you have your own hosting service and you install WordPress from scratch, you own the installation, and you can set it up anyway that you want. No one is telling you what to do with it. This means that you can make the blog look any way that you want including running your own plugins and whatever other visual effects that you can make happen. If you are a programmer well versed in CSS, then you can so pretty much whatever you want. Try that with a start blog free service where you aren’t even the admin. You can’t.
Limited theme capability
This is in the same ballpark as the above, but themes are a vital visual part of your blog and to be limited to the themes that the provider sanctions or sells is extremely limiting and not what a real blogger should be limited to. If you start blog free el cheapo then that is what you are stuck with, and frankly deservedly so!
What if you wanted to sell the blog to a buyer someday?
When you build a blog and do it the lame start blog free way, your blog is on a free service, and even if you have a URL mapped and it looks like you own it, it’s still on the free service. How can you effectively sell that? The first thing yo say to the potential buyer is that they have to move it, rather than just turning over the account credential to the buyer. You didn’t know that you could sell a blog? It’s a web property and pretty valuable if a money maker or a busy topic, so of course you can, and it can be lucrative, so don’t be cheap in the beginning.
So there you have it, plenty of good solid reasons why it’s just a bad and cheap idea to start blog free when it’s actually pretty cheap to do it right the self hosted WordPress way.
I have more about it in other blog posts (One, Two, Three) but I can reiterate here for your convenience.
Blog hosting is cheap. You can get started today with services like Hostgator or Bluehost for under $5 per month for very fast and secure hosting, and they each have generous free to join affiliate programs so you can promote them to others.
Installing WordPress is easy. For any service, it’s a quick one or few click install from the web hosting service’s web software in your account.
You can usually buy the domain name from the hosting service at the same time you set up the account. If you plan on buying lots of domains you may want to buy them from a registrar and then point them back to the web hosting account, but that is up to you how you want to do that.
Once you set up your WordPress installation, you then make your admin account secure and then start installing your security, caching, anti SPAM, and other plugins. Don’t go crazy though since too many plugins slow a site down.
Blog security plugins are ESSENTIAL, since your blog WILL get hacked and infected with PHP SPAM if you don’t.
After that, you can decide on a theme to use, and tweak the look and feel. Then it’s time to start writing, as long as you’ve researched and chosen a good topic niche to blog on.
Conclusion
As you can see, a LOT goes into starting and maintaining a blog, and if you go the cheap short sighted route of start blog free, you will possibly end up seriously regretting your decision to go the free cheap route when you really do not have to spend much to get a blog started the right way on your own self hosted account with your own internet domain. When you do it the right way, then everything can flow from there and your site will be a unique internet blog that is all yours and no one can tell you what to do, how to run it, or that you are in violation of some free site’s silly TOC. Then, you are free to do with it what you want, even sell it at a later date for a lot of money if your site gains popularity and you have a willing buyer.
The topic of selling your blog aside, you can have a lucrative web property that earns lots of money in affiliate commissions and this can replace your job as it has for many affiliate bloggers worldwide.
Who wouldn’t want THAT?
Do it the right way the first time and stop giving into cheap “start blog free” temptations.
They’ll get you nowhere fast.
Are you ready?
Let’s do this!