Some questions about the free blogs controversy
 

Hiya all.

I know that you should never make your main site in a free blog service, i understand the limitations and that of course, expecting some cash from them is an old pipe dream.

But, if you have a hosted domain for your main site, why not use free services, wordpress or whatever, to make your support sites? your blog sites for making a network or ring?

Can anyone share some views on that?

well, i´ll throw in a couple more questions and hope you guys get more interested :P

Which places you recommend to submit blog posts links to?

why can't i see my profile pic? lol, the width-height and kbs are less than the limit!

There's nothing wrong with using free blog services providing you understand that there is always a risk that they won't be there tomorrow. If you can throw up some free blogs and make money with them then there is nothing inherently wrong with doing that.

why not use self hosted blogs as support sites? domains and hosting cost nothing, but you have _full_ control over these sites, you can backup your sites monthly (weekly, daily) just in case...

I think there needs to be some clarification. There is two types of "Free Blogging". There are Services and there are Software.

By Services I would assume you mean "Blogger", "WordPress.com", etc... These are not going anywhere, they are profitable and will be around tomorrow.

There is also "Free Blogging Software", or more specific Open Source CMS systems. The three main ones are Wordpress, Joomla and of course Drupal. All three will be supported well into the next version (and beyond), and can be installed on any hosting company you want.

Pagerank is directly effected by the URL, so sub URL's like xxx.example.com or example.com/xxx will get less pagerank then example.com! I also hear that Google checks the age and the registration times on a domain in determining page rank. Thus a Domain name that is registered for 5 years will get more page rank then a Domain name that is registered for 1. That goes for age too... A Domain name that's been around for 5 years gets more pagerank then one that's been around for 1.

If your going to spend the hundreds of hours needed to maintain and update a blog I suggest you install Drupal, Joomla, or Wordpress on an independent hosting company and buy a Domain. I paid around $200 for 3 years of hosting and 5 years on My Domain Name from hostgator. The amount of time I spend on it, which is already 10 hours (not including the hundred or so hours in blogging time I spent) is rather large, so $200 is not much money and I wish I did it sooner.

using blogger.com and wordpress.com for adult is kind of a roulette - sure they won't go anywhere tomorrow, but your _adult_ blog can.

using adult oriented blogging services is another kind of a roulette :)

Thanks for the replies, so i'm guessing that all of you consider that investing in a domain for each and every blog you open as a support site for your main site is a good investment then!

just trying to economize what i can, and learning :)

While I only build self hosted sites, there is nothing wrong with doing a mixture of both. Especially if the free blog services are used more for the sake of backlinks rather than actual money making blogs.

It's also good to keep an eye on Go Daddy promo codes for buying domains. I check these sites regularly and buy in bulk when there are good deals.

http://livecodes.blogspot.com/
http://www.fatwallet.com/GoDaddy-coupons/

Cool, thx for the advice and links, i think im going to get some bulk pricing on the first layer for backlink blogs, some nice stuff, themes and a post each 3-5 days and if it starts working i'll make a 2nd big ass layer of free blogs for backlink to my 2 main sites and all first layer...

Yeah, cuz i'm cool like that... and noob like that :P

Just experimenting.