Getting Started with Free vs Paid Blogs

To Pay or Not To Pay: Free vs Paid Blogs
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.

Free Software With Free Hosting

This is the way to have your own blog without spending a dime of your hard-earned money. However, there are several concessions you will need to make.

CONCESSIONS:

Subdomain - A domain name is a unique name on the Internet that usually ends with .com, .net or .org. The domain name of this site is blogbasics.com. If your name is Bill Smith, it might be nice to have your own blog at the address www.billsmith.com. Unfortunately with free software and free hosting, this will not be possible. You will need have a name that is part of another domain, perhaps www.billsmith.blogspot.com. This is known as a subdomain. So your first concession is that your site will be part of the free hosting service's domain. In the case of our example this is Blogger (or Blogspot - they are the same company).

Features - Free services often have fewer features than paid services. If this were not the case there would be no need for anyone to pay! Features you will likely have to do without if you use free software with free hosting are: the ability to post pictures online and the ability to create your own look for your site.

Advertising - Companies would not give away free software and free hosting if there was not value in it for them. So they can derive benefit from your blog, they will run advertising on your site, most often placing a banner immediately above your site. Naturally this detracts from the look of the site. Also, you have no say over the content of the ads, though you can generally assume they will be relevant to the content of your blog.

ADVANTAGES:

The primary advantage to this option is that there is no cost involved. This is a great way to start blogging because you can try it out to find if it is something you will truly enjoy. If you find it is not a hobby you enjoy, you have not wasted any money. If you become an avid blogger, you can move to a better option in the future. Of course there is a downside to moving your site in the future that may cause you to read many of your readers.

WE SAY:

We recommend this option for people who simply do not wish to pay anything. If you have the ability to pay a few dollars per month, we recommend using a paid solution as it provides more and better options.

YOUR OPTIONS:

There are several companies that offer free software and free hosting. Among them are:

Blogger
Livelogcity
Livejournal
Squarespace

Of these services, we currently recommend Blogger as the best entirely free solution.

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.

Paid software that includes the price of hosting

In this option you will pay an ongoing subscription fee that will include both the software and hosting fees.

CONCESSIONS:

Cost - Because this is a subscription service, there will be ongoing costs involved in this option. For basic service you can expect to pay at least $6 per month and for more advanced features this may rise as high as $15 per month. The more features you want to have, the more you will have to pay. These costs can build up (up to almost $200 per year) so that the subscription-based options can become the most expensive over time.

Features - Depending on your budget there may be concessions to the features you are able to have. Unless you are willing to pay $15 per month, you will likely have to forgo certain features. The features you will have to do without will vary depending on the package you choose.

Subdomain - A domain name is a unique name on the Internet that usually ends with .com, .net or .org. The domain name of this site is blogbasics.com. If your name is Bill Smith, it might be nice to have your own blog at the address www.billsmith.com. Unfortunately with free software and free hosting, this will not be possible. You will need have a name that is part of another domain, perhaps www.billsmith.typepad.com. This is known as a subdomain. So your first concession is that your site will be part of the free hosting service's domain. In the case of our example this is TypePad.

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. This option also has certain advantages over free software with paid hosting. Depending on how much you are willing to pay for your subscription, you will likely be able to use a software package that offers more features than the free options. You also avoid having to deal with installing software on a server.

WE SAY:

We recommend this option for people who do not wish to be bothered with their own hosting and software installation. If you are willing to pay for blogging but are looking for the easiest possible solution, this option is for you. Subscription-based services offer great features, but they can come at a high price.

YOUR OPTIONS:

Due to the popularity of subscription-based blogging, there are several companies that offer this service. Some of them have different packages which provide more features as the monthly cost increases. The options are:

Typepad (Basic, Plus and Pro)
BlogIt
LiveJournal Paid
Squarespace (Basic, Plus and Pro)
Radio Userland

Of these options we recommend TypePad. Built around the extremely popular Movabletype software, Typepad offers excellent features at a reasonable cost.

Paid software and paid hosting

This option provides maximum flexibility, but is also likely to carry the greatest cost, for you will need to pay for software, hosting and domain registration.

CONCESSIONS:

Cost - Up-front Cost will be the most significant concession. 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 and realistically you should budget at least $10 per month for hosting. The software will cost at least $45 dollars, though this will be a one-time cost.

Features - Depending on your budget there may be concessions to the features you are able to have. Unless you are willing to pay close to $100, you will likely have to forgo certain features.

ADVANTAGES:

This option offers maximum flexibility. You will be able to choose your own domain name and have the most feature-rich blogging software possible. This software will come with full support from the manufacturer should you run into trouble.

WE SAY:

If cost is absolutely not a consideration, we recommend this option, especially for businesses.

YOUR OPTIONS:

Movabletype (Personal, Commercial)
Pmachines (Business, Non-Business)

We recommend Movabletype Personal. They offer the greatest number of plugins and a huge community of users that are constantly devising ways of extending the capabilities of the software.

Conclusions

There is a blogging solution for everyone, from those with unlimited wealth but absolutely no technical know-how to those with barely a penny to their name but the ability to strip-down and rebuild a computer in 10 minutes. No matter your situation there is nothing holding you back...except you.