More and more people want to express themselves and one of the best ways is via blogging.

Blogging is a simple way to share your thoughts, provide advice, sell products and services or just share your best photos.

To start blogging you need a blogging platform and there are quite a few to choose from.

And there are better platforms than others and choosing the right platform for your blogging journey is crucial.

You have two choices.

A free blogging platform or one that costs you money!

The decision is entirely yours and, I think, depends upon the kind of content that you want to share as well as the objectives and the target audience that you aspire to have.

If you just want to share your thoughts and not sell your services or products, then a free blogging platform is all you need.

The major free blogging platforms include Blogger.com and WordPress.com. They both host the blog for you on their own platform. Although free, these blogging platforms give you very limited options as far as showcasing your individuality or creativity is concerned as they have standard design options. You will also not be provided with your own URL.

Even if you think you may one day sell your services or try and make money blogging, I would NOT go for a free blogging platform.

Why?

If you opt for a free blogging platform at the start and then later on upgrade to your own personalized hosting account, it could cost you dearly. If your ‘free’ blog takes off and gains lots of visitors and you then decide to transfer to your own hosting account, you will have to start all over again. You will not be able to take your free domain name with you.

If you did find yourself in this position, you could tell everyone you are moving to a new domain name and blogging platform and some will follow you but there is one major, major company who won’t and that’s Google.

Google could love your free blogging platform blog but once you move to your own hosted account and domain name, Google treats it as entirely new and in their eyes, you are starting again.

So if you feel, one day in the future, you may start to sell things via your blogging, always, always, always go for your own domain and hosting account.

Having you own blog with your own domain name and hosting will cost you less than $100 a year. That’s not the cost per blog. That’s the cost for your first one. If you were to add another blog with a different domain name but the same hosting account, it could only cost you another $10. So you now have 2 blogs for $110 per year, each with their own domain names.

By having your own hosting account, you can use the blogging platform WordPress.org.

Note this is different from WordPress.com. WordPress.com is the wordpress hosted version while WordPress.org is the blogging software you can install on your own domain and hosting account.

By using WordPress.org, you have much more flexibility and scope for designing your own personal blog.

WordPress.org is also loved by Google due to it’s SEO and functionality.

Check out this video from Google about WordPress: Google loves WordPress

My recommended hosting partners are HostGator, LunarPages and Bluehost.

You can get step-by-step advice on installing wordpress in my free guide. Here’s the link: Make a blog

Have you ever changed from a free blogging platform to your own hosted version? What’s been your experience?

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Post from: Blogging Guide

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