Hosted or Stand-alone Blog Platform? The Debate

There's an interesting discussion over at ProBlogger about whether bloggers prefer to host their own blogs or use a third-party provider such as Blogger or Typepad. It is worth reading the comments, but I should point out that Darren Rowse's blog is widely read by a tech savvy audience. You would expect them to be big WordPress lovers and they are.

This is a good discussion to read if you are thinking about starting a new blog, or considering changing from, say, Blogger to Typepad or Wordpress. Tech-savvy people have a preference for Wordpress.

Denise and I have worked with many professionals who use Blogger, Wordpress and Typepad, and hear arguments both pro and con. We do recommend Typepad if you don't want to mess with the tech stuff or, even if you like that, want to focus on writing good content and outreach to other blogs to build community. Each of these blogging tasks takes time, so be forewarned and wise.

This follows our discussion the other day about the downside of using free Blogger as a platform, also worthy of reading if you think you might just go with Blogger because it's free and many other people are doing that.

Don't make an important decision like which blogging platform to use based on "it's easy and it's free." I don't recommend following the opinions of bloggers who have tech skills that you might not have. The choice depends on where you want to spend your time: writing content and outreach to other blogs... or managing all the plug-ins and design of your blog?

Here are the questions on the ProBlogger survey:

    * Do you use a hosted or stand alone blog platform? Why?
    * Do you wish you’d made a different choice when you started?
    * What are the Pros and Cons of the two options?
    * What would you recommend to a new blogger?

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Comments

[Stephen Pitts]

Patsi,

This is quite the debate. Personally, I started on Blogger, but as soon as I really got into blogging, I knew that my own domain using something more versatile (I choose WordPress) was the only way to get out and build my reputation. When considering to start blogging, I would recommend that each person lay out what they want to accomplish with their blog and who and/or what will be able to provide for these ends. It can be extremely difficult to switch (I know from experience) and blogging should be a long-term process, not a short-term project.

[Kathy]

I work with a LOT of clients who use blogs to promote their business. I analyze the web site traffic information for many of these clients.

One particularly successful client of mine is using BOTH a blog on her own domain name AND a free "blogger" account. (By the way, there's no rule that says you have to go "either - or". Professional bloggers maintain 15 or more blogs at one time.)

However, what I find FASCINATING is that her blogger blog has YET to drive a single visitor to her online store, while her Word Press blog set up on it's own domain is doing an admirable job of driving traffic to her online store.

I say admirable, because I was surprised... after all, the new blog is still serving time in the Google Sandbox because of how new the blog is. By all accounts, the Blogger blog should be the one doing the driving of customers to her site. As a matter of fact, that's why she's using two blogs.... because I assumed the stand alone blog would be dead in the water until it emerged from the Sandbox. Guess Google's not the only traffic game on the web after all!

[ian]

Thanks for all these ideas it inspired me to go after many of them and use a lot of you suggestions like a blog…

[Barbara]

I am developing a Wordpress site for my business and want to do a blog on alternative healing. Do you guys think it is ok to have my blog as a page on my site or should I do a whole new site for just the blog?

I would love people that are attracted to my blog to check out my site but would people be able to find the blog?

[Denise Wakeman]

Barbara, if you're building your site on Wordpress, then it makes sense to add blog functionality on the site like www.yoursite.com/blog. If your blog is a totally different subject than your site, then I would say do a stand alone blog, otherwise keep it on the same domain.