Blogger vs Self Hosting which one to go for?

If you are an armature blogger with high aspirations you might want to take the right decision as to which blogging platform to go for at the start itself?


This article will clear the air if you are in confusion to go for a self hosting blog or service like blogger which hosts your blog on their servers. I am going to list down advantages and disadvantages of going for Blogger like services or self hosting.

Blogger

Advantages of going with Blogger:

1. Free: Yes it can store unlimited content which you publish and you do not have to worry about anything. All you have to worry about is to publish good content.
2. No Down Time: Very rarely it so happens that blogger service is down across the globe. I have never experienced such a thing since the last 1.5 years I have been seriously associated with blogger.
3. No Viruses: Well this is another key advantage of going with the blogger service. You do not really have to worry about any viruses on your server.
4. Templates: There are tons of templates available which can help you create very professional looking blogger blogs. The latest advance editing options offered by blogger lets you create very attractive blogger UI also Dynamic Views also adds a new user experience.
5. Google Indexing: There is an Internal indexing bot in Blogger which immediately indexes your content no sooner it is published to Google. This lets you get Organic traffic instantly.

Now that we have seen pros of blogger lets look at cons of using Blogger service.

1. Blogger is King: Blogger has the right to remove your content irrespective of your knowledge based on their privacy policy.
2. Cannot Sell Blogger Blogs: You cannot think of selling your blogger blog under any circumstances. At max you can sell the domain you have linked to blogger blog. In case you happen to sell your blog you have to migrate to self hosted site and then sell it.
3. Less SEO Friendly: Even though its a service by Google it is always said that Blogger is very less SEO friendly, while creating content you are not able to add custom permalinks, auto anchored tags etc which really matter to get good relevant organic traffic.
4. Content: You are not allowed to use blogger to publish pornographic, provocative etc content. You will be kicked out as soon you are found by blogger. Please read this content policy from blogger for exact details.
5. Ad Integration: The sweetest spots for setting up your Ads are not very easy to integrate, for that one has to modify the Blogger Template which can be tricky sometimes.

Self Hosting

Advantages of Self Hosting:

1. You are the King: You can publish as much content you want and no one can remove the content from your website. Yes if its really objectionable then Search Engines will ban you from indexing but you can continue to get direct dedicated traffic.
2. Easy to Sell: Since you are in complete control you can sell your blog to anyone and you do not have to bother about migrating your content anywhere else.
3. Best for Professionals: It is highly recommended that if you want to be full time blogger then go for self hosting, as you will have more control over your content and do whatever you want to with it.
4. Professional UI: Its again controversial but yes if you self host your blog and use word press and spend some extra cash you can end up creating most pleasant UI and user experiences for your blog readers.
5. SEO Friendly: Since you are in complete control you can design your content in such a way that its more and more SEO friendly.
6. AdSense and Ads Integration: Its very easy to blend your Ads with the content in your blog.

Cons of Self Hosting:

1. Its not free: You have to pay from your own pocket for hosting the blog.
2. Virus Threats: I have seen many blogs go down due to virus problems on self hosted blogs.
3. Server Crash: Yes the servers on which you host may crash for any reason and you might end up losing all your content, its always good to take constant backup of your data to restore it back sooner.
4. Not Easy to Use: With blogger you create an account and start blogging, where as Self hosted blogs are not that easy to setup, you have to create infrastructure such as web server, then publishing software(wordpress) etc to get started.

Summary.

Blogger: Go for blogger if you are not a professional blogger and just intend to publish your content with no headache of managing the infrastructure and stuff like that. Just sign in and start publishing. This is ideal for part time or time pass bloggers. People who just want to communicate their thoughts and make descent money.

Self Hosting: This is for the professionals and in case you think you are going to be a pro at some point of time simply go for it. Spend some extra money and own your content. Its better to get things right in the first place rather than doing when its going to be too late. If money earning is all what you want to do with blogging just go for self hosted blogs. You will learn and earn more with this approach.