Articles: Free vs Paid Blogs

Free Software With Paid Hosting

In this option you will pay a hosting service to host your Web site and then download and install free blogging software on that server.

There are some concessions you will have to make in using this option.

CONCESSIONS:

Cost - Where the previous option was free, there is a cost involved in this one. Hosting is likely to cost a least $5 per month for a basic package. Depending on how many readers you gain, your costs may increase moderately. Realistically you should budget at least $10 per month for hosting. You will also need to register a domain name for your site. This is an annual registration fee that will cost between $6 and $35 per year, depending on which company you use to register it.

Features - Free software often has fewer features than paid software. Your two options for free software are full-featured open source packages or reduced-featured commercial software. Open source software is essentially software that anyone is free to edit and change as they see fit. There are some outstanding software packages available as open source, but they most often lack the quantity of features you might find in commercial software. Free commercial software will usually be lacking features that the package would have if you paid for it.

Installation - The software you purchase will need to be installed on the server. Though the process is usually quite simple, a moderate amount of technical knowledge may be necessary. This effectively means that you may have to either pay someone to do this for you or ask your friend's neighbor's husband (or someone else who is technically proficient) to do it.

ADVANTAGES:

With this system you will be able to do certain things you are not able if you go the entirely free route. For example, you will probably be able to customize the look of your site and you will have the ability to post photographs. With your own domain you will be able to host your blog at a site you want (such as www.billsmith.com).

WE SAY:

We highly recommend this option. For only the cost of hosting and registering a domain you can install and use a software package that boasts great features. This option provides great features and flexibility for a reasonable cost.

YOUR OPTIONS:

There are several software packages available for no cost. They include:

Movabletype Free (reduced-featured commercial software)
Geeklog (open source)
WordPress (open source)
Pmachine Free (reduced-featured commercial software)
Greymatter
Nucleus

Of these options we currently recommend WordPress. WordPress is positioned to gain prominence now that Movabletype no longer offers a free, full-featured package.

For hosting and domain registration, BlogBasics uses and recommends 1and1. You can help support this site by clicking on that link to sign up for their services.

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