So you've decided to blog, but aren't sure whether you should host the blog yourself or sign up for a free service like blogger.com. It's a dilemma that many bloggers face. There are pros and cons to both, which makes the decision difficult for many. Neither is perfect, and neither is for everyone. Fortunately, you should be able to make the best decision for you if you are armed with adequate knowledge of both. In this newsletter, we'll go over services like blogger.com, and others, plus software that allows you to host your own blog. We'll also go over the pros and cons of each. After reading this, you will know which is best for you.

Who offers free blog hosting?

Many sites offer free blog hosting. Among them are Forumer, Blogger, BlogEasy, Aeonity, BlogThing, and Blogates. A quick search for free blog on Google reveals many possibilities.

What software can I use to host my own blog?

Like free blog hosting, there are many possibilities for software that makes hosting your own blog easy. Most of them are free to use. These include:

WordPress(the most popular software), Apache, Roller, Blosxom, Geeklog, Textpattern, LifeType.

There is also blog software which you can purchase for use on your site. These include:

Community, Server, Movable, Type, Radio, UserLand.

One negative about using software and hosting your own blog is that the process can often times be complicated. You have to download the software and install it to your server, which doesn't always go easily. It's particularly hard for those who don't have a lot of experience installing things on servers.

Why should I remotely host my blog at a place like Blogger?

Places like Blogger allow you to host your blog there. It's a good option for many people.

The Pros

It's easy to set up and maintain a blog. You don't have to go through the trouble of installing software and configuring it to work on your server. All you have to do is sign up for an account and start posting. It's friendly for beginning bloggers. Sites that host blogs offer good tutorials on how to make your blog postings, so that even someone who is completely new to the concept of blogging can do it easily. Most blog hosting sites are completely free to use. There is no need to pay for things like a domain name and hosting. Monetizing your blog is easy. Rather than having to manually put HTML/Javascript codes on your blog to manually set up things like AdSense and Pay Per Click advertising, you can select an option on most blog hosting sites that does much of the work for you.

The Cons

You don't have as many options to customize your blog. Remotely hosted blogs are admittedly somewhat limited in terms of what you can actually do on them. You have to stick with what is provided to you in terms of look and features. The URL you get is always yourname.BLOGSITE.com. You don't get to have a custom domain name like YOURNAME.com. This can possibly hurt traffic to your blog. Blogs hosted on free blog sites don't look as professional as self hosted blogs.

Why should I self-host my blog?

The Pros

You have more options and more flexibility. You are able to tweak the blog to your liking. Your URL is your address for your blog. Rather than having go to where your blog is hosted to read it, they can read it right from your site. The ability to make your blog look professional. Blogs that are hosted on sites of their own tend to look a lot better than those hosted on free sites. More space for your blog. Free blog sites usually place a restriction on how much space you have for things like photos and music. By hosting your own blog, you are able to use as much space as you need. The Cons

There are sometimes problems with setting up blog software to run on your site and server. If you aren't experienced when it comes to working with mySQL, the process will be hard. Updates aren't as easy to post. You have to manually set up programs to monetize your blog. However, if you are good with HTML/Javascript, this shouldn't be too hard. You have to pay for your own hosting and domain

As you can see, there are pros and cons to both. Which should you choose? Well, it depends on who you are and what you intend to use your blog for. If you intend to use it for business, then a self-hosted blog is the best idea. If it's a personal blog, then a free hosted blog will probably be fine for you.