Blogs are similar to regular websites. However, they are powered by consistent and routine posts for content. Setting up your own blog can be a hectic task. In order to reduce the load of incorporating a blog, some companies have come up with a service concept of hosting them. It is up to you to choose from a service provider, which would cost a fee to set up your blog or to use free software to generate a basic template.
Blogging Software for Blog Hosting
Blogging software is an application that helps you to set up your site in simple steps covering most of the generic features required. These are often referred to as content management systems, or CMS.
Many companies provide these CMS apps such as TypePad, Blogger, LiveJournal, Xanga and WordPress. The features of each are often different, but you can be assured about the basics they all provide. In many cases, you can either use the free version of these management systems or pay for premium services.
Pros and Cons of a Free Blog Hosting
To decide whether to choose a CMS that is freely available on the market, it is necessary for you to know the pros and cons.
Pros
- Perhaps the biggest influence behind using these systems is the aspect of being free. This gives you a chance to explore what each one offers and gives you a chance to become comfortable with blogging as a beginner.
- Free blogging software should be more than enough if you just want to share your experiences, photos and memories with your family and friends.
- Some of these content management systems provide options to reblog other people’s posts.
- The free blog hosting company maintains the software and troubleshoots problems. This means you don’t have to worry about running maintenance checks, fixing bad plugins or managing bad lines of code.
Cons
- Control constraints are high. You’re unable to access the code or install most plugins if you want to customize the appearance of the blog.
- Free blogging sites do not give you access to using a specific domain name. In most cases, you’re restricted to subdomains only. For example, a free blog from WordPress would look like, “BobsFishingSpots.wordpress.com” instead of “BobsFishingSpots.com.”
- Free blog sites do not perform as well in search engines such as Google. While it’s not impossible to rank high in search results, it’s far more difficult in most cases.
Choosing a Paid Blog Host
If you wish to make money from you blog, it is advisable to opt for a paid blog host to set up your site. This will give you a greater scope to customize the site.
A blog host is nothing but a company that provides a space in the server and offers service to host your site for a specified amount. The blog host offers updates and also provides additional space for storing your web page database and files.
At which point you are responsible for content and design of your site.
GreenGeeks offers blog hosting and special tools like 1-click installers for WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. All of these are effective CMS applications to build virtually any kind of website.
Pros and Cons of a Paid Blog Host
Like using free blog hosts, paid services come with caveats. Here are a few of the pros and cons behind choosing a web host over free platforms.
Pros
- You can add any advertisement platform you wish to make money from your site. For instance, some free systems do not allow ad servers such as Google AdSense.
- You use your own domain name, which influences marketing and branding. People don’t see things like, “wordpress.com” after your domain name.
- It’s much easier to market a paid blog and domain on search engines and social media.
- You have complete control over the code, layout, design, images and content of your blog. This means you can customize to your heart’s content as you have access to everything regarding your website.
- Most web hosts put in a lot of effort to help you build a successful blog. For example, GreenGeeks offers CloudFlare CDN and a free SSL, both of which will impact your ranking in search results.
Cons
- Most web host providers charge more than $100 per year to maintain the hosting plan. However, being able to monetize your blog will help recuperate those losses.
- Beginners may have a more difficult time customizing the code if they don’t know how. On the upside, platforms like WordPress and Joomla are easy to modify and many can be used without adjusting a single line of code.
With the wide number of options available in the market, you can easily choose one that best fits your bank account and start hosting blogs instead of relying on free versions. With the right marketing platform and a hosted plan, you can reach a much wider audience.
Choose the Best Option for Your Needs
Blog hosting has tremendously grown over the past years, and virtually anyone can create a successful site regardless of skill level. As most platforms are easy to use and built with beginners in mind, you can start today without knowing the first thing about building a website.