Owning Your Blog vs. Using Free Blogs

Whenever I talk about blogging, one of the first questions I get is, “What about using a free blog?” Good question. This article will address this question, and show you why it’s better to own your own WordPress blog, even if you also use the free blog options out there such as Blogger, WordPress (Free Version), Live Journal and Active Rain.

Let me start by saying that free blogs have their place in every sound social media program. I use free blogs, I recommend free blogs, I teach my clients to obtain free blogs. However, we all need OUR OWN BLOG that we CONTROL that serves as the launching pad for content, as well as the receptor of inbound leads.

1. You have complete control of your blog.

Your website / blog is the core of your online identity, housing your content, your leads, as well as widgets, plugins and tools for your online users. You need freedom to change your design in precise ways, make programming updates, and control every aspect of your blog. Your blog is your business. There may be things you need in the future that you don’t even know yet. Make sure you have 100% control of your own blog.

2. You can upload plugins.

You cannot upload plugins when you are using the Free WordPress Blog. The plugins are very important for more reasons than I can express in this article. They give you options for clean URLs, SEO, Content, Tools, Social Media and much more. Blogger doesn’t even offer plugins, neither does ActiveRain. If you really want to grow a successful social media presence for the long term, a free blog is not enough to get the job done.

3. You can make adjustments to the design.

Blogs that are free allow you to make template changes, and many of them allow you to go in and manipulate the html, however, there are strict limitations as to what you can do, and making changes may be too difficult for you if you do not have excellent html skills. It’s best to have your blog set-up with a knowledgeable webmaster who can take care of changes that you need in the future. You never know the changes you’ll need to make.

4. You have FTP access.

When you use a blog from a free service, you do not get FTP access. FTP access is needed often for more things than you can imagine, such as trouble-shooting layout issues, form issues, moving the blog, adding plugins, changing the themes, the list goes on and on.

5. You control the domain name.

When you use a free blog at WordPress, your domain name looks like this: http://www.domainname.wordpress.com/ which is not as professional as having a site of your own, with a clean, branded URL, such as http://wwdomainname.com/.

6. You can run Google Adsense ads on your website.

If you’re using ActiveRain or WordPress’s free blog option, you cannot add Google ads to your site to make a profit. Blogger allows you to run these ads, but the benefit of owning your own blog is you control everything, and are unlimited in every way.

7. You can add your own contact forms.

When you own your blog or website outright, you can add your own contact forms, and these forms can be maintained by you in the event that they need upgrading or repair. Your own blog will allow you to place your forms any where on your site you want them to go.

8. You can sell your blog later if you so choose.

If you do not own your own blog, you will not be able to sell it, move it or take it with you whenever you decide to move it some where else. This may not be a big deal in the beginning, but after a while, if you’re really blogging and your blog website is getting search engine rankings, you’ll kick yourself for not having bought it outright in the first place.

9. You will own the blog.

What will you do if the owner of the blog domain decides it doesn’t want to do blogs anymore, or goes out of business? Then where will you be? What use is it to take time and effort to put into a website that you do not own? You never know what’s going to happen with these companies, and if one closes down, you could lose your blog and all your content forever!

10. Why Use Free Blogs?

Free Blogs do have their place in your web marketing program, just not as your main blog or website. Here’s my take on the benefits of the following FREE BLOGS:

11. You can back-up your website / blogsite.

If you own your own WordPress blog, you can back-it-up to make sure that your content is backed-up for safe-keeping. The free blogs are not always backed-up properly, so you are at the mercy of chance when it comes to making sure your information is secure.

HOW I USE THE FREE BLOG SITES

ActiveRain

Active Rain is a good place to blog if you’re a real estate agent, or in a field related to residential real estate, but it is not the best place to house and organize all your content. ActiveRain blogs are also beneficial for getting search rankings, but without owning the blog, you run the risk of doing a lot of work without maintaining control of the content. The great thing about blogging on ActiveRain is that you can use it as a great source for inbound links to your main website. In short, Active Rain is fabulous, but I recommend it as a secondary content source, a place that includes content from your main blog, but not as your primary blog.

Blogger

Blogger is a great free blog resource that I use all the time for some of my blogs, however, my main blog is too important to risk being out of my control. Some of my niche blogs are hosted on Blogger, as well as my personal content. When it comes to my income-producing, bread-and-butter websites, there is no way I’d build an empire on a Blogger free blog. I need control of my main website and blog, and you most likely do too.

WordPress.com

I do not use the free verison of WordPress.com because the free version is not as easy to use as Blogger is, and the free version is not as integrated with the rest of the web, and it lacks the tools that are available on Blogger. Plus, Blogger has a great control panel that shows all my blogs, whereas WordPress.com requires that I login separately each time. This is too cumbersome, so for all my free blog use, I pick Blogger. When it comes to real estate specific content, I use both Blogger and ActiveRain.

Many people go out and get a free WordPress blog, keep it for a week or two, then realize how limited they are and end up getting a real WordPress blog on their own domains.

GET MORE FREE INFO AT MY EXCITING, FUN, AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL FACEBOOK FAN PAGE!!! http://www.facebook.com/dotjennafans

Related Articles

Make Your WordPress Website an Online Hub – Inman News

8 WordPress Plugins to Rock Your Real Estate Website – Inman News

WordPress 3.0 Features Overview – ContentandMotion.uk

How to Move from a Free WordPress Website to Your Own
– CopyBlogger

Your Own Domain vs. WordPress.com – Tim Scullin

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