Free vs Paid Blog

Introduction

The early years of the Internet spoiled us - we learned to expect to get things for free. At one time just about anything could be had for free - computers, Web sites, server space and, of course, blogs. I remember a day when companies would actually pay us to have ads running on the bottom of our screens. As the Internet economy has righted itself, the amount of free resources has fallen. However, there is still a lot you can get for nothing if you are willing to compromise features for cost.

UNDERSTANDING THE OPTIONS

To begin your own blog there are two things you will need. The first is software that is capable of running a blog. Just as you might use a program like Microsoft Word to create and read text documents or as you are using an Internet browsing program to look at this site, so you need software that will allow you to write and publish your blog. The second thing you need is a place on the Internet to put your blog. Just like you are now visiting a Web site at the address www.blogbasics.com (this is known as a URL) you need an address for your blog so that people can find you. This is known as "hosting" because somewhere on the Internet a server (a type of computer) will host your site. Software and hosting are the two dynamics you need to take into account.

Your Options

Using those two dynamics there are four categories of blog:

• Free software with free hosting - This is the entirely free way of blogging. You do not pay for the software or for the hosting.
• Free software with paid hosting - In this option you will use free software but will have to pay for hosting.
• Paid software that includes the price of hosting - This option is subscription-based and combines software and hosting in one recurring fee.
• Paid software and paid hosting - In this option you pay for both hosting and software.

So now you might ask why, if there is the ability to do everything for free, why would anyone choose to pay? Well, you have probably heard the expression "you get what you pay for" and this holds true in blogging. The problem with free solutions is that they usually are reduced-featured versions of something better. They often include only a small subset of the features you could have if you were willing to pay. So with some software, for example, they will allow you to have only one author on your blog if you use the free service, but will allow unlimited authors if you pay for the service. If you choose to use free hosting, the host will place advertising in or above your blog.

In the following pages we will look at each of these four categories, their advantages and disadvantages, and will provide recommendations for each. This tutorial should take no more than a few minutes to read and at the end you will understand the range of options you have.