If you set up a blog on these platforms, you have a quick way of “testing” the waters whether you have the patience, acumen, and creativity to blog. Now I am not stating that you have to be professional publisher to start and keep up a blog.

Make note, though, that when you set up blogs on these free platforms, you run the risk of having no control of it because the blog host can delete your blog for any reason they see fit. Although I can’t state a specific instance of how your blog on these platsforms can get deleted, the most common one is if you violate the “terms of service” of the way you use the blog. Some free blog platforms do not allow you to sell products or services from the blog. Other platforms do not allow you to slander or libel other bloggers, people or organizations.

I can’t stress enough the value of being able to “test drive” the blogging process if you do set up blogs there. I would suggest that you blog, for a while on the free platform when starting out, just to get experience if you want to learn on your own. Then, when you get fairly comfortable, you can set up a “paid for” blog and take it seriously into the future.

What is a “paid for” blog system? Simply, it is a way where you buy your own domain name, “rent” webhosting, and download the blog software to the webhost. Domain names nornally cost about $10 and monthly webhosting costs as low as $5 per month. But the benefits are huge. You can sell products or services, and you can just about do anything you want on your own blogging platform that is legal and moral.

Since you control both the domain name and webhosting, there is little chance of being “shut down” from outside sources.

We often hear of too many “horror” stories about a website “going down” for and unspecified time. What can that mean to you your potential profits? You certainly cannot afford to be down even for one minute!

Let’s look at what makes a great webhost company.

First, make sure the web host company has a great record of customer support. They should be available round the clock 7 days a week. They should either have live chat or telephone access.  And when they do respond to your support request, they must resolve your problem within 20 minutes. I use that as my rule of thumb as a reasonable time frame to make my “problem” go away.

Second, the speed and reliability is another important factor. Make sure you know the “uptime” of their servers. If they can prove they have 99.5% or better uptime, you are good to go. You also need to check on the bandwidth per month you are allowed. Depending on how much you do uploads or downloads, this can be a factor.

Third, make sure you know that the web host company has “redundent” servers. In other words, they must have several levels of back up computers that pick up from each other in case one computer goes “down.” Typically, there are at least one back up computer server for every server they have. If anything ever happens to one server, the back up goes “live” immediately and you never notice the drop.

Most likely you are going to have “shared” hosting unless you want to pay extra for your own server space. By shared, we mean that, your account with the agreed space and speed are going to be paired up with many other users on the same server. It is normally not a bad thing….the company just wants to maximize every inch of space and “pack” all their customers in neat packages next to each other on the hard drives of the servers. The only drawback in this situation is that, if you have one “bad apple” of a shared customer who spams or over uses their bandwidth or space inappropriately, they can affect performance on your website.

Lastly, make sure you are paying a reasonable monthly price for your service. Stay away from “free” services. They are usually unreliable and do not have the speed capability to handle your site. Support for free web hosts are usually nil. Average monthly pricing usually goes from $18 per month to as high as $50 per month.

When you plan on making your blog give you the return on investment, don’t skimp on the webhost. Make sure they are reputable and check out their performance record and find out if they had any lawsuits against them or bad reports with the online BBB.