Webhosting for blogging - free or paid service
Blogging is an abbreviation of "web-logging". The simplest
definition of a blog is that it is an online log that is
organized in reverse chronological order. It comprises of
comments, declarations, links, or anything else of interest to
the blog writer.
There are two basic requirements of starting your own blog. You
need a software to run a blog and a place on the Internet to
host your blog.
Taking into consideration the above mentioned two factors, there
can be four categories of blogs:
1. Free Software + Free Webhosting 2. Free Software + Paid
Webhosting 3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting 4.
Paid Software + Paid Webhosting
We have given descriptions of all these four options alongwith
their pros and cons.
We have also given recommendations regarding the suitability of
these options.
1. Free Software + Free Webhosting
This is a completely free way of blogging. Here you pay neither
for the software nor for the virtual hosting.
But there are some drawbacks of this system. It offers very few
features as compared to the paid services. You cannot post
pictures online or design your preferred look for your site.
The companies that provide free software and free domain hosting
frequently place a banner immediately above your site. This
detracts the visitors from the look of your site. You also have
no discretion over the content of the advertisements.
The key advantage of this system is that it is absolutely free.
This option is extremely useful for a newcomer since he/she can
try this method to find if they are really interested in
blogging.
This option is recommended for those people who would not like
to pay anything or for the newcomers.
2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting
This option provides you free software but you will have to pay
for the domain hosting.
There is a cost factor involved in this option. Minimum cost of
domain hosting would be $5 per month but a realistic budget
would be slightly higher, around $7-8. The annual registration
fee for domain name would be about $10-30.
This system will let you do certain things that you were unable
to do with the free one. Here, you can modify the look of your
site and you can also post pictures. But free softwares have
fewer features than paid ones.
This option is highly recommended because by just paying the
cost of virtual hosting and domain registration, you can avail
great features and flexibility.
3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting
This is a subscription-based option. There are ongoing costs
involved in this option.
You have to pay at least $6 per month for basic services and for
advanced features the fee would be around $15 per month.
The cumulative cost for a year would reach up to $200. That
makes this option a very expensive one.
Apart from customizing the look of your site and posting
photographs online, you will be able to use a software that
provides more features than a free one.
This option is recommended for people who do not want to be
troubled with virtual hosting and software installation issues.
This is the easiest possible solution. It offers great features
but at a reasonably high price.
4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting
This option provides you paid software and paid domain hosting.
The cost of the domain hosting ranges from $5 to $10 per month
while the cost of the software would be at least $45 (one-time
cost).
This option gives you great amount of flexibility. You can
select your own domain name and have a feature-rich blogging
software.
This option is highly recommended for businesses since the cost
is not a major consideration.