By Alan Altman
When a person starts out thinking about earning money online, or just establishing an online presence, a free blog is very inviting.
Using WordPress or Blogger is super simple. And it's nice to be able to build a website without putting any real effort in. Apart from that, it's free. You haven't wasted any money on a domain name that you'll hate in 2 months time.
Then again, what will happen if you build up a massive following and then want to own your own site? It can be confusing and many people don't even really know their options when they start out.
The benefits of a free blog are very enticing:
- They're not scary. Face it, when you start thinking about having a website do you think 'I'll just upload WordPress and install the Flexibility theme and it'll be a piece of cake to create a mega impressive site in 20 minutes'? Probably not. What you're thinking is 'right, what do I do?' Blogger and WordPress and Blog.com and the rest of them allow you to just start writing your pages and POW!, click submit and your words of wisdom are online.
- They're free. Don't underestimate how important this is. You may be the sort of person who doesn't care about shelling out $10 for a domain and the same for a monthly host, but many people don't have even this amount of spare cash. And when it's free you can create as many sites as you like. Experiment. Go crazy.
- They're easy. Especially Blogger. As many widgets as you can handle. Adsense and Amazon accounts thrown at you. Traffic even.
For a rank beginner these benefits are exciting. And just like any other walk of life, the veterans poo-poo what the newbs do.
If you ever read the Warrior forum, people are constantly asking this question about free blogs, and mostly the experienced 'Warriors' slam that idea to the ground.
And they're right.
For anything you really want to cherish and keep for a long time the control must be had by YOU.
When I was starting out, I had a Blogger blog. I put a pop-up on it. One similar to the one I use on this site. Google didn't like it and deleted my blog. Just like that. All that work. For nothing.
And that's the rub for me. Google, or WordPress, or Weebly or whoever, all have their own little rules and if you fall foul of them you may be kissing goodbye to your hard work.
And for many people, me included, the stuff I write is personally important. It may not be Hemingway, but it's mine and I cherish it.
So, for the first benefit of having your own website:
- It's yours. Yup, nobody will take that away from you. In extreme circumstances, for example if you decide to start a race hate blog or other things so unsavory I won't mention them, your host may decide that they don't want your custom, but that's a different story. You can put what you want on it. You can put 10 pop-ups if you like (please don't) or a page full of adverts. It's your soapbox, your sandbox, your playground. Or shop front. Or lead generator. Or just somewhere you can write down the things that make you happy.
- It's not easy. So you'll learn. And in no time, you'll be a website building genius. We don't learn when we're not challenged.
- It has value. Years ago when I first learned that you could download stuff for free on the internet, I stole a whole bunch of music. And I didn't listen to it. I didn't appreciate it. When I was a kid I saved up my allowance to buy the records I loved and I appreciated them so much. I still appreciate those albums and artists now, all these long years later. If you work for something and earn it and you invest your blood, sweat and tears into paying for it. It's worth more than a throwaway site you probably won't put that much effort into and you'll try that much harder to make it work.
- It's not that expensive. A domain sets you back 10 bucks and hosting a little bit less, on which you can host unlimited domain.
As always there'll be exceptions to the rule, but I urge you to get your own web property. Own your sites.
Learning how to build a website will be one of the most valuable skills you ever learn. Visit my affiliate marketing website to find out some tricks of the trade.
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