There is a world of difference between the two blogging platforms, but there is nothing wrong with using free blogging sites. They are simple to use, they look cute, and they serve a purpose. In fact, I used to have a free blog on blogger.com and I was very happy with it because it served my purposes at the time.
Besides, I didn’t know any different. I even recommended it to others and we all had a great time blogging. I think they are such a great service and I am a huge proponent of them, with one exception: businesses should not be using a free blogging platform.
WHAT ARE FREE BLOGGING SITES?
They are sites where you can create an account and become a member for free. Your blog becomes a sub domain blog, meaning that there is a main domain and you are a secondary blog on that domain. Everything you do affects the main domain.
Some examples of free blogging sites (platforms) are blogger.com and WordPress.com. They are really great because there is very little technical knowledge required in setting them up.
Basically, you create an account, choose a template, and start writing. For those of you who are looking to stay connected with family, write about your life, or connect with others around a hobby or any other non-business related activity, you cannot beat the free blogging sites.
WELL THEN, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Some of the less serious problems with free blogging sites are that there can be a lot of spam, and they usually offer very little bandwidth (speed at which you can move around in a site), customization, or template choice.
On a more serious note, if you decide later to change to another site, you will have to change your blog name as you cannot take a name.blogsite.com type of domain name with you. You will also lose your established traffic and people will have to find you once again.
Speaking of traffic, (which affects your ranking on the internet) all of the traffic you have generated by your hard work at blogging only benefits the host, meaning that you do not get any ranking in the search engines for this traffic you have built up.
You have no control over the advertising on your free site (and there will be advertising), and if there is any money generated by the ads, you do not get to keep it.
Finally, and probably the most serious of all, is that the site is never really yours.
Stay tuned for part 2
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