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Starting a new home based business blog leaves room right away few important questions: What type of platform should I choose?
A hosted or self hosted blog? Which one is better?
Which is easier to work with especially when I?m a newbie, less skilled in the area of online marketing?
The goal of this post is to help you have more clarity and answers to all these questions.
As I did in previous post about geting blog traffic for free or through paid advertisement, I will come up the pros and cons for both decisions while you will play the judge role. Sounds fair?
Bassically you don?t have to do nothing.? There are services that do all the ?dirty techie stuff? for you. They will give you a generic URL like johnjames.wordpress.com.
The only thing to do is creating an account and start blogging.
The most popular hosted blog platforms at this moment: WordPress.com(free to use) ,Blogger( free to use), TypePad ( requires a monthly fee- from $8,95 to $29,95).
Advantages:
- it?s free or very cheap(TypePad)
-if your budget in the beginning is limited you? can choose a hosted home based business blog
-very easy to set up and use
When I first started online I opted for wordpress.com. The set-up took me only 5 minutes and another few minutes to decide what blog template to use.
All the services mentioned above have user friendly features. Thus, you just write a new post and hit the publish button.
- automatical updates
You don?t have to do any updates.. If the platform changes they will take care of it.
- Love from the major search engines.
A hosted home based business blog is easily indexed and traffic comes quite easily( especially for Blogger which is owned by ?Grandpa Google? .
Disadvantages:
- less branding and authority because of the generic URL
-less control:? you own only the content, not the url. More, the hosted platforms can monitor and delete your blog if they consider it appropriate. The content you created can say ?Bye Bye? over night.
- limited design and configuration
You have to be contented with the standard themes, plugins and widgets they provide.
-less commercial
Creating multiple streams of income is a pretty tough task with hosted platforms as they don?t allow too much promotion.
?Case 2: You have a self hosted home based business blog
The situation is different in this case but again, with pros and cons.
Best platforms: WordPress.org (most popular among home business owners), Drupal or Joomla
These are free to use( you only pay for domain and hosting).
Advantages:
- total control
After you buy your own domain and a reliable hosting service you?re the boss.
For domains I highly recommend Godaddy, one of the best providers on this market. Regarding the hosting service you can still use Godaddy?s services or the more popular choice, Hostgator.
Thus, the design can be changed at any time and you are able install/uninstall all sorts of plugins that will make your work( traffic, seo, reader engament, social media syndication) much easier.
Note: check out these posts for more info about WordPress plugins
Top SEO plugins to boost your blog traffic and rankings
13 powerful plugins to make your blog more ?social?
- branding: with your unique URL it?s easier to stand out
Disadvantages:
-monthly cost
-? the setup is more difficult: some technical skills are involved.
Fortunately now there are tons of video tutorials on Youtube on how to set up and configure a blog.
- manual updates
Yes, you have to update by yourself each time they come up with changes. In some cases, the updates can create little errors here and there in your back office.
- Issues with the hosting service
Even if you?re in control , the hosting service may experience troubles from time to time which means a suspended blog for you.
Final thoughts
Having a hosted or self hosted home based business blog is a double edged sword. It?s good to start with the first one, get used with blogging for a while and then move to the other.
However, if your goal is build a solid business for the long term, grow your business opportunity, create more streams of income and brand yourself as a professional/ leader, then I recommend to start directly with a self hosted blog.
Quick tip: Let?s say you already have a self hosted blog. You can start a WordPress.com/Blogger account and post from time to time variations of your already published posts.
Since these are indexed very fast by Google or Yahoo, you will have more backlinks and traffic to your main blog.
Your turn: which option is better in your opinion: a hosted or self hosted home based business blog?
What are your experiences related to this?
Let?s talk more below in the comments area 
I?d love to hear your feedback.
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PS: If you don?t? have a simple Blueprint to make your home based business work and prosper, Check This Out (Of course, unless you don?t need too many leads ) ? Click Here For Instant Access
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To your prosperity,
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Thanks for reading my post. I appreciate you! Radu Dascalul is a romanian entrepreneur passionate about blogging, social media, transformation and network marketing. On this blog he offers creative solutions and tips to make your home based business prosper.
Tags: blogging, home based business blog, radu dascalul
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