Should You Start With Free Blogging Web Sites
By Donovan Baldwin
For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is probably the best way to get a foot in the door of the blogosphere.
More popular blogging web sites like blogger.com and eponym,com allow their users to set up and host a blog without paying any out-of-pocket fees at all. Naturally, this encourages people who are hesitant to get started blogging.
But WHY do many people start blogging in the first place?
Well, many people just have something they want to say, and a blog is a great way to get that done.
However, many also begin because you can make money with a blog! That's why this site is called Blogging for Cash, and Rob Benwell wrote his great book, Blogging to the Bank! Really, that's all the incentive some people need.
Whatever your particular reason is for starting a blog, the fact that one of these sites can provide you with all of the tools that you need to get your blog up and running without spending any money means that you truly have nothing to lose by starting a blog. The fact that it is so easy to find a way to blog for free is one of the reasons why so many people who have never had any kind of web presence before find themselves drawn to the blogging lifestyle.
If you do choose to sign up with a free blogging web site, you will probably find that it is somewhat easier to get listed in search engines than you would if you were starting up your own blog, or website, from scratch. For example, Google runs the free blog hosting site blogspot.com, which has joined with blogger.com, and crawls its pages very, very often looking for updates. So, if you have your site hosted on blogger .com or blogspot,com you are almost guaranteed to be listed on google's blog search engine.
This quick and easy access to search engines can take some of the work out of promoting your blog, and your product, and can help you gain a following with a minimum of marketing effort.
However, being listed doesn't always mean that your blog will get a high search engine ranking! That will depend to a great extent on the quality of the content on your blog and the extent of your Internet marketing efforts.
That's right, you need to market your blog almost as hard as you market your product or service! Maybe even harder!
If your blog does wind up attracting a large readership, you may eventually want to consider moving your site to a paid service.
Many people feel that having any website, including a blog, hosted by a free web hosting service or blogging web site gives that blog a bit of an amateur flavor. That's fine for a new member of the blogosphere, but may not be appropriate for a more high-profile blog. Having your own domain can also help you make your blog feel professional, and finding a company that will host your domain is not difficult or expensive.
Once your blog takes off, you will probably be able to sell enough advertising space to be able to afford to buy a domain and pay for a hosting package, and still have money left over. However, don't put the cart before the horse. It does not make sense in most cases to invest in these glossy luxuries before you have a sizable readership.
From my personal experience, free hosting is not the boat anchor many would have you believe. I started my first online business, which eventually reached a six-figure income, with only free websites.
Well, as you can see, starting your blog on a free blogging web site can be a great way to build a following before you spend any money on your blog.
If and when your blog does become popular and you are ready to take the next step and purchase your own domain, your readers will almost certainly follow you to your new home. The fact that it is possible to use a free blog host like blogspot, blogger, or eponym as a kind of incubator for your blog is great news for bloggers from around the world.
To learn the proven techniques of blogging for cash, download a copy of Blogging to the Bank, by Rob Benwell.
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