Blog Hosting

Both WordPress and blogger.com provide a hosted option. If you use this option your blog is hosted on the WordPress/blogger server which means that you don’t need to get a hosting package.

In addition because the blog is hosted on their servers you don’t need to buy
or register a domain name as you use a subdomain of WordPress/blogger.

The hosted option I find good for learning how it works, and I often recommend beginners to get a free hosted blog ( I prefer WordPress) and see if they like it.

However the hosted option has its disadvantages. They are :

• You don’t control the domain Name
• You don’t control your data

Therefore if you are blogging as part of your business or are monetizing your blog via Google Adsense/or affiliate programs then I recommend that you use a self hosted blog.

I also think you should consider the self hosted option even for a personal blog, especially if you want to keep the blog over a number of years.

In this scenario you will need to get a hosting package and register your own
domain name. This isn’t as difficult or as expensive as it first sounds. It costs around $7 per month for a host and they usually include a domain name for free. (UK hosts are usually more expensive).

The ones I’m familiar with are: