When you start with your first blog, you often have two options: set up a blog via a blog service or set up a blog on a self-owned private domain. In this article, you can read the advantages and disadvantages of both options. This way we help you to make that choice that is currently the most appropriate for your situation.
Start a blog via a blog service.
There are many blog services available, of which Blogger.com, WordPress.com, and Tumblr.com are just about the best-known names. When you are entirely new to the world of blogging, a blog service is a low-threshold way to get acquainted with blogging. A blog service makes setting up a blog easy and in many cases free. We list the advantages and disadvantages of blog services for you:
Benefits:
- Often for free
- Easy to set up
- No technical knowledge required
- Your blog is part of a large blog network
Cons:
- Choice of themes/templates is limited; this makes your blog less unique
- Design often cannot be customized or limited
- Addition of functionalities is not possible or limited
- Less control over your blog and therefore less flexible
- A subdomain on a blog service gives the less professional appearance
- Fewer SEO opportunities
Start a blog via a self-hosted, private domain.
A blog service is often very suitable for beginners who want to get acquainted with blogging. However, the real pros choose a blog on a self-hosted, private domain. Because you have complete control over your blog you are more flexible, and you can go in more directions than is possible through a blog service.
Benefits:
- Full control over your blog
- Add extra functionalities through plugins
- Fully customizable
- Flexible and ready for the future
- Easy to optimize for SEO purposes
- No restrictions on themes/templates
Cons:
- You have to set up / install the blog yourself
- There are (limited) costs associated with it
- Customizing requires some knowledge of WordPress and sometimes of HTML / CSS
- You have to take care of updates yourself
The moment you can monetize a blog, we advise you to always do this via a self-hosted domain.
Which should you choose?
We started blogging ourselves through blog services because it is very accessible and often does not involve any costs. And we certainly did something about that. By building several blogs of blog services, you can for example test which market segments are worth the effort to continue. You quickly set up a blog, write articles about certain subjects and thereby also learn which niches and segments attract visitors.
And yes, now he comes: “but…”
The moment you see potential in a particular blog, you would do well to switch to a self-hosted blog with your own domain name. Why? Just because of the fact that you can, therefore, exercise full control over your blog and have many more possibilities than with a blog that runs on a blog service. The moment you can monetize a blog, we advise you to always do this via a self-hosted domain. When a blog can be monetized, you also add value to the blog itself. The more revenue generated, the more your blog will be worth. And then, of course, you prefer to have all the cards yourself.
Plus, the internet landscape is continually evolving. A self-hosted blog can be adapted much more easily to changed circumstances. If you take blogging seriously and have the ambitions to make a living out of it or even live on it, then you need flexibility, and you need to be able to make adjustments quickly.
Fortunately, the threshold to start a self-hosted blog on a personal domain name is nowadays no longer that big. If you have no idea how you approach such a thing, we would be happy to help you. Read more about this in our section about ” starting blogging .”
Good luck with setting up your blog!