Remote Blog or Self Hosted Blog?

So you've decided to blog, but are not sure whether you should host the blog yourself or sign up for a free service like blogger.com. It is a dilemma that many bloggers face. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, which makes the decision difficult for many. Neither is perfect, and neither is something for everyone. Luckily, you should be able to be the best decision for you if you with sufficient knowledge of the two are armed. In this newsletter we will go over services like blogger.com and others, as well as software that allows you to host your own blog. We also go over the pros and cons of each. After reading this you will know what is best for you.

Who offers free blog hosting?

Many sites offer free blog hosting. Among them are Forumer, Blogger, BlogEasy, Aeonity, BlogThing, and Blogates. A quick search for free blog on Google reveals many possibilities.

What software can I use to host my own blog?

Like free blog hosting, there are many possibilities for software that makes hosting your own blog easy. Most of them are free to use. These include:

WordPress(the most popular software), Apache, Roller, Blosxom, Geeklog, Textpattern, LifeType.

There is also blog software which you can purchase for use on your site. These include:

Community, Server, Movable, Type, Radio, UserLand.

Negative on the use of software and hosting your own blog is one of the times the process is often very complicated. You must download the software and installed on your server, this is not always easy. It is particularly difficult for those who do not have something installed on the server a lot of experience.

Why should I remotely host my blog at a place like Blogger?

Places like Blogger allow you to host your blog there. It's a good option for many people.

The Pros

It's easy to set up and maintain a blog. You don't have to go through the trouble of installing software and configuring it to work on your server. All you have to do is sign up for an account and start posting.It's friendly for beginning bloggers. Sites that host blogs offer good tutorials on how to make your blog postings, so that even someone who is completely new to the concept of blogging can do it easily.Most blog hosting sites are completely free to use. There is no need to pay for things like a domain name and hosting.Monetizing your blog is easy. Rather than having to manually put HTML/Javascript codes on your blog to manually set up things like AdSense and Pay Per Click advertising, you can select an option on most blog hosting sites that does much of the work for you.

The Cons

You do not have as many options to adapt to your blog. Remotely hosted blogs are a bit in terms of what they are not limited by them. You need to what will be made available in terms of look and features. The URL you will always receive yourname.BLOGSITE.com. You do not get to have a custom domain name like YOURNAME.com. This can possibly hurt traffic to your blog. Blogs hosted blog sites do not look as professional as self-hosted blogs.

Why should I self-host my blog?

The Pros

You have more options and more flexibility. You are able to tweak the blog to your liking.Your URL is your address for your blog. Rather than having go to where your blog is hosted to read it, they can read it right from your site.The ability to make your blog look professional. Blogs that are hosted on sites of their own tend to look a lot better than those hosted on free sites.More space for your blog. Free blog sites usually place a restriction on how much space you have for things like photos and music. By hosting your own blog, you are able to use as much space as you need. The Cons

Sometimes, there is a problem with blogging software settings on the server to run the site. If you are not experienced, MySQL, and the process would have to work hard. Not as easy to post updates. You must set up programs to monetize your blog manually. However, if your HTML / Javascript is nice, but it is not that hard. The owner must pay your host and domain

This way you can see, there are pros and cons to both. How to choose? Well, it depends for what you use in your blog who you are. Cases, and to be used for business, the best idea is going to self-hosted blog. If it is a personal blog, and free to host your blog is probably fine for you.