I have been getting alot of questions on what type of blog you should use to start your blogging venture. There are many options, from using free blog sites like Blogger, WordPress.com or WordPress Direct to hosting your own blog with your domain and paid hosting.
The last option is my personal preference and I created a list of 5 of my top reason why.
The Big 5
* If you have a blog hosted on your domain, you have control over everything about your blog. You can have your own layout and design for your blog, which means you can have a blog that matches your website logo. You can make your blog as unique as you want. This gives you an edge against other competing blogs in the same niche which may have similar layouts. You also have complete freedom to do anything you want with your blog. By hosting your blog on your domain, you can control your blog in many ways you want and you can add any features you want.
* By hosting your blog on your domain name, you make it easier for people to remember your blog.
* Hosting your blog on your domain means that you can develop and promote your own brand using your blog. You can make your blog headings similar to your website. In terms of search engine optimization (SEO) and advertising, this is very important because you will be advertising and optimizing your own domain and your own brand. SEO is also effective to do with your own domain name that includes your keywords. This will increase your blog’s visibility on search engines.
* By hosting your blog on your website, you have added security. This means that you don’t have to worry about losing your information or getting locked out of your account.
* You present a professional image by having your online business logo on your blog. This gives you ad edge against other competing website or blogs.
Based on the advantages outlined above, if you are serious about your online business, you must consider hosting your blog on your own domain.
Don’t Make Excuses
I know you are yelling at the computer right now that you don’t php from css to ftp so you can’t possibly create your own blog. Yes, it is easier to head over to Blogger and enter your email and your name and be blogging away within 10 minutes. But think of all the opportunities you are missing… and risking….
If you order a hosting package from some of the bigger hosting companies you can easily re-coup the small hosting fee you are paying with all the different ways you can monetize a blog with good traffic.
Good traffic that you can build using all the super cool tricks and plugins that only a self hosted blog will produce.
If you are still afraid of not being technical enough to load a blog you can pay someone a small fee to install and optimize your blog for you (like Moms Business Coach), a small investment in your automatic monthly income or follow a very short, step by step process that most hosting companies make so easy!
I recommend my host provider, I had my blog installed in under 10 minutes!
http://moms-business-coach.com/recommends/bluehost
Go Ahead, take a leap and if you have questions just let me know- we’ll help you out!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=32b219f7-1ee1-49ae-8fb4-1a6ea6551a52)
September 5th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I discovered your homepage by coincidence.
Very interesting posts and well written.
I will put your site on my blogroll.
September 7th, 2008 at 2:51 am
What do you think about using an add-on domain to a hostess website. So I have wahm-tips.funfelt.com but wahm-tips.com is an add-on domain and I point the wordpress blog to that…?
Karen
September 7th, 2008 at 3:43 am
Without a doubt, I love add-on domains! It’s seamless to the average visitor but the extra traffic to another domain helps all your sites.
If you already have hosting it’s super easy- buy your domain or use the “add on domain” feature if you like from your host so you don’t need to mess with redirecting your domain then I personally prefer to install WordPress from the Cpanel to the new domain directory.
You can always make a page in your blog to be your static home page if you don’t want the posts to appear on the front page. But there are so many neat themes now that give you a wide variety of looks & feels to meet your needs with only a couple clicks. You can even carry over your headers and graphics from your other site to make them blend if you want.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Great article! Now, to put it to use. I have a blog, which I am going to ditch. In hindsight, it is completely wrong!
Now, I spent the whole day today trying to figure out how to ftp WordPress.org download to my host. I think I got it, but now I am soooo stuck at one of the steps. I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. How can I get some help?! It is so frustrating.
But, on a good note, I do understand the concept you are teaching here and now I understand why my blog was not receiving many hits and not helping my site in the SEO department. Makes perfect sense now.
thanks Kristen!
rae
http://www.kidzcomfort.com