How to Know If Blogging For Free is Right For You

[ad_1]

When you first start out blogging you may decide that you aren’t going to spend any money on the endeavor. This can come back to haunt you but it is possible to create and put together a blog for free.

The first thing you’ll need to get for free is a host. Deciding between a free host and a paid host can determine the direction your blog goes in. You will save money with a free host but you won’t have the control or diversity that you’d have with a paid host. You also won’t be able to transfer traffic and search engine rankings from your subdomain on a free host to a domain name you own if you ever decide to strike out on your own. You might want to look into options for very cheap web hosting before deciding on a free blog. It may just cost you a few dollars month. Look for a deal where you can get a free domain name with the purchase of hosting or free hosting with the purchase of a domain name to ease the pain of paying for a host.

You’ll need to learn basic technical skills to blog for free. This includes being your own webmaster and also your own designer. There are a plethora of free templates out there. If you choose a simple template you won’t have to customize it at all. On the other hand, it won’t speak to your business or content specifically. You can make your own blog header to personalize it.

The other blogging expense that many people encounter is pictures. If you are focused more on SEO then including photos might not be that important to you. You can’t just grab any picture that you see on a search engine and post it on your blog; this violates copyright laws and can get you in big trouble. You can take your own pictures and then make sure that they have a watermark or your company name on them so other people don’t steal them. You can also find Creative Commons photos where you can choose between photos with different licenses for free. You have to include the name of the artist and sometimes the link to the photographer’s website. It’s unlikely that you’ll find photos of celebrities or fashion shows this way so it depends on your niche.

Another way to get free pictures is with affiliate links. You’ll want to use these links sparingly on your blog. You do get a percentage of each sale that is made through your link but you don’t want your blog to look like spam. These links come with pictures of the DVDs, movies, e-books or household items that you are selling. Not only are they free to use they can actually make you money as well.

You will have to do a lot of things yourself if you want to know how to blog for free. You’ll have to spend hours writing your own content. Then you have to take the place of a search engine optimization company and promote your blog and get links to it. You’ll want to make sure that you aren’t actually losing money by spending too much time on something. Figure out what your hourly rate would be if you took on a part time job. If your blogging expenses to hire someone else to do it for you come out to a lot less your hourly wage then maybe free blogging isn’t the right way to go for you.

Blogging for free is a challenge. What you don’t spend in money you’ll spend in an investment of time. You want to make sure that you can afford to expend the time. The upside to this is that you’ll know everything about how to run and design your blog to fit the needs of your site.

[ad_2]

Source by Sara Gilmore