• Start by asking yourself some simple questions:
• Do you need to keep a record of traffic data?
• Do you need a unique blog template, or will a generic one do?
• Does your blog need to look professional?
• How much control do you want to have over your blog?
• Are you trying to brand your blog, start a business, vent personal feelings, provide a free service, or etc..? In other words, what are your goals for the blog?
• Do you want to make money from your blog?

Now that you have the answers to these questions in mind, you can decide for yourself the advantages and disadvantages of paid blog services vs. free blog services. Here are some basic advantages and disadvantages for each type of blog service:

Paid blog services are also known as paid hosting, paid domain, web hosting plans, etc..

Disadvantages Of Paid Blog Services:

1. Obviously, you must pay for this service. The price will vary per hosting plan. Some start as cheap as $4.00 dollars a month. If your blog has really high traffic, then you may pay around $150.00 dollars a month. Domain names start around $9.00 dollars, and are renewed each year.
2. Paid blog services are slightly more complicated to set up than free blog services. But, nothing that the average blogger with intermediate computer knowledge can not learn how to do.

Advantages Of Paid Blog Services:

1. You can pick your own domain name. This is vital for SEO purposes and branding. Your domain name can match your blog; this not only gives the blog a professional look, but it is also much easier for visitors to remember. Your domain name will look like- sitename.com.
2. You will have full control over design. You can choose any design template. If you have web design knowledge, you can design your blog from scratch, give it a custom look, and add a flare of uniqueness. Every detail is under your control.
3. There is an abundance of tools that you can choose to add to your site.
4. The paid service blog will generally have an unlimited amount of space.
5. Most paid blog services offer a means to track traffic. You can see how many people are hitting your blog, where they come from, etc..
6. There is not a limit/ ban on money making techniques. You can place as many ads, pop ups, etc.. as you choose. Likewise, there isn’t any ads on your blog that you are not profiting from.
7. Most paid blog services offer expedient 24/7 customer service and guaranteed upkeep.
8. You are the only person that can delete and publish your blogs content- unless you allow someone else that access.

Disadvantages Of Free Blog Services:

1. There is a limited amount of templates. Most free blog services only have a handful of very generic template options. You will not have the ability to personalize your blog.
2. Tools are very limited.
3. You do not own, or lease the blog space. Instead, you are more like a visitor. All of the traffic that the blog generates will mostly benefit the free blog site, not you.
4. The owner of the free blog space can place any number of random ads on your blog without your consent.
5. The owner of the free blog space can accidentally, or purposefully, delete your blog. If the free blog space goes out of business, you will most likely lose all of your work.
6. Most free blog spaces will not even allow you to place an ad on your blog. The few that do allow the blogger to place ads, only allow it in moderation. They can also yank the ad at any time.
7. The free service offer will often mean that there is little, or no, customer support. If you run into a glitch, your blog can be shut down for days or weeks. There may also be downtime if the sites itself has a problem. There isn’t any guarantee that the site will even fix the problem. Then, you have lost your entire blog.
8. There is generally very limited space. You will only have room for two or three pages, before your blog runs out of room.
9. It is difficult to brand and SEO with the free blog domain name. Your domain name will look like- you.freeblogsite.com

Advantages Of Free Blog Services:

1. Obviously, it is free.
2. It only takes a few minutes to sign up and pick a template. You can begin to blog in a matter of 10 minutes.
3. It is easy; even the most novice computer user can set up a free blog.
4. It can be an ideal option for those that are not looking to brand, make money, or use as a business blog.
5. The burden of hosting is placed on the server, not you.

So, there you have the basic paid blog services vs. free blog services facts. Really, what it comes down to is: why you are blogging, what you expect to get out of it, and how much time you are willing to devote to developing the blog? There isn’t a one size fit all option. You are the only person that can evaluate your blog needs, and decide- paid blog service or free blog service?

Paid blogging comes in various disguises and creeps up on you slowly. If you’ve been blogging recently, there’s a good chance you’ve got something to sell yourself, or perhaps it’s just your self you hope to market.

Maybe you’re an artist or inventor and create widgets you hope to market. Or maybe you’re a retail business selling widgets other people make. Or maybe you’re a service provider and you’re forte is fixing widgets or brokering widget opportunities.

What about an advertiser who reviews and ranks widgets for consumers, based on quality, durability, appeal, effectiveness, and so forth? Could be your aim is to give advice on how to make a given widget business more successful. Or maybe you write entertaining blogs about widget advisors, makers, fixers, consultative resources, and consumer satisfaction.

So long as your own blog is generating dollars in return in one way or another, and you’re the one behind the blog, then paid blogging is, for you, already a part time job, not necessarily one “of the future.” And if it isn’t generating dollars, there’s a good chance that it could or ought to be.

In today’s net-savvy world, the possibilities are limitless for linking blogs to other blogs; and there are websites that will pay to show up on your website—especially if you’ve managed to produce text your readers find compelling with a sufficient quantity of keywords to move your blog into the notice of a broader audience. If your blog’s successful, folks can and will pay to have you review their widget, widget-making, or widget-related resource or resourcefulness.

Who Needs Paid Blogging?

So, you’re out there blogging about yourself and your widget interests every day. Soon, it begins to dawn on you that this part time job of the future intrudes already upon your widget-related efforts. Now, it’s time to hire that other guy—the one who does paid blogging—that part time job of the future

that’s been distracting you from widgeting.

Because the possibilities for connecting with the marketplace are limitless, the complexities of those possibilities add layers of opportunity for paid blogging to every specialty that exists. It’s not a stretch to imagine countless ways in which paid blogging is a viable undertaking and to realize that paid blogging is inevitable, lest your widget-oriented business objectives suffer from the split focus of your energies to connect in an infinity of ways with your target audience.

Not everyone with a website is inclined to be that writer who explores this complicated network and actually has the capacity to exhaust its impact and potential. But it doesn’t take much thought to realize that someone better pay attention to a means of generating internet attention in a marketplace competition that expands exponentially each hour of the day. If you’re minding your own “store,” you must pay someone to mind the vehicle with which your store gains notice in the marketplace.

How To Make Paid Blogging Work

The key to successful paid blogging is that the blog outcome must be more compelling than the one next door. When that widget guy or gal comes looking for a blogger, he’s probably spent at least several hours, if not days and weeks, reading other people’s blogs, as you probably have done yourself. Blog readers surely notice elements that pique their interest and others that leave them bleary-eyed, annoyed, angry, or asleep.

The widget-maker/blogger-reader seeking someone to do paid blogging knows at least the difference between blogs that are unreadable and those that catch a corner of his mind and stick there. Naturally, he wants the one that sticks.

• He probably also wants his own great blog to do a lot of other work. Things like …
• Including link-related language he can use to connect with other websites;
• Providing elements that lend significance to his own widget-related persona;
• Using keywords and phrases that’ll improve his chances of being noticed through the major search engines;
• The infusion of some soundbites that’ll identify his blog as uniquely his.

These are things the widgeteer will want and need; and there’s a good chance he can’t accomplish what he’s set out to do without a good-sized dose of paid blogging added to the mix.

Pitfalls of Paid Blogging

There are many ways to tell a story on the internet and even more ways not to. Here’re some do’s and don’t’s to consider for paid blogging.

DO NOT imagine that a careless word thrown in here and there is going to go unnoticed on a blog of any kind. Just because attention span on the internet is rumored to be limited doesn’t mean the blog reader isn’t going to hone in on an error, and/or leave off scratching his head and wondering what the heck you’re trying to say. Accuracy is important for any blogger, but the paid blogger especially must be rigorous about it.

DO expect to work within parameters that impact on the words you use. The inclusion of certain words or phrases may be crucial to elevating a blog from obscurity to notice on the internet.

DO NOT confuse your paid blogging with blogging of your own that brings you blogging business. It’s not your persona that’s on display but that of the widget-related blog. Indeed, you may discover that you don’t want your own persona to show up in the mix at all.

DO use some imagination in your paid blogging. Be creative where you can to add vitality to the blog.

DO NOT expect paid blogging, part time or otherwise, to be simple. It’s not just the widgeteer whose vision you have to satisfy, and certainly not your own. It’s the widgeteer’s audience that must be considered, tapped, and sparked to action.

DO pay attention to new technologies and trends within the blogosphere. Paid blogging—the part time job of the future—will unfold from blogging as it exists here on today’s internet. Indeed the future’s come already.

Whether you’re the widgeteer or widget blogger, make paid blogging work for you.