Yet Another Reason Why you Shouldn't Use Free Platforms for Your Main Site

I know this is talked about quite often, but every day I see another person who is using free blogging platforms such as Wordpress, Blogger, Squidoo, Hubpages, Ning, etc. to host their main money site.

Personally, I think it's stupid and if you won't pay the $8-$10 for a domain name to run your business on, then don't be surprised when it gets shut down and you lose all your income because you were too cheap to spend $10 and host your site on your own domain.

Anyway, for all of you that might be using Ning to do this, here's something to check out:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/15/nings-bubble-bursts-no-more-free-networks-cuts-40-of-staff/

They are shutting down the free version of their network and if you want to continue using them, you gotta pay for the premium service.

This just goes to show that at any given time, a network can shut you down for any reason. All the hard work you put into building up your blog, lens, hub, or whatever, is wasted.

Simple solution:

Stop being cheap and buy your own domains and hosting.

 

Some people make use of this web 2.0 properties because they don't have the skills to build a site for themselves. The good news is, there are companies like the Plug-In Profit Site who help to create a brand new site for individuals looking to earn money online. All they have to bring is a domain name and hosting.

John

 

I agree if you're trying to use something like Dreamweaver or X Site Pro or one of those programs it can be tough to figure out, but the self-hosted Wordpress blogs are extremely easy to setup.

As far as the actual design of the blogs, self-hosted Wordpress is no different than using the free WP or Blogger or any of the other free blogging platforms. On top of that, you get more features to use so you can make your blog that much better.

 

It's easy for me to tell people "oh it's not that hard" but I get reminded from time to time that some people are absolutely fearful of the techie side of this stuff. The sad thing is that it is absolute crucial that they learn it or find someone that they absolutely trust to handle that side of things.

 

i guess it should be fair to really notify the user so users can back up thier files.

 

Yeah but building a free wordpress.com blog and a self-hosted wordpress.org blog are the exact same thing. The interface is setup the same way in both of them.

All of the other free blogging platforms are very similar too and if you can figure out how to use one of them you can figure out the others.

You're right though, people need to learn how to do this stuff anyway so better to start on it sooner than later.

 

You are correct, but because of the internet, information is widely available. I mean, I didn't even know
how to tie my tie for my first day of work, so I searched it on Youtube! LOL
Just goes to show that you can learn pretty much anything on the internet.

 

I still don't know how to tie a tie haha so it's all good.

But yeah, you can find literally anything online these days especially how to setup a website.

 

Yes, I couldn't agree more with you. The free version is not for you if you are running main site that could generate you some money. Just pay a lousy $10 per year and you can get your own domain name, and that means your own identity. You have full control of your own stuff.
Plus, it is not cool to have something behind like sitename.blogspot.com, specially if you are expecting to receive many viewers. Just a thought!
edy./

 

Completely agree, in my opinion, all those "free" sites are for is merely trying the software, getting a feel for it before actually getting it and hosting it yourself.

A friend of mine came up to me the other day and said "hey man, can you make me a website and put it on the net?" ... I responded with "well, it's not entirely that simple" and went over the whole concept of buying hosting, getting a domain, uploading the software, configuring it and maintaining it; despite this particular friend of mine being reasonable tech savvy, he had no idea what I was on about. I said if he just wanted to play around and make a website for the sake of making a website he should try the free alternatives (like ipbfree, wordpress, etc.) and he seemed to like the idea, but when he said "I want the site to be successful and make me money with lots of ads", I immediately shunned the "free" path.

As I see it, there are really two ways to create a site:

• With Money: Pay someone to design a site for you and set up everything you need to get going, including things like SEO. or;
• With Experience: Use your existing knowledge to get as far as you can, then scour the internet and join DigitalPoint for more help and information.

I always opt for No. 2

Sorry for the rambling, I'm just trying to make my posts of decent length and quality, I don't like writing one-liners... Heck, I try to keep myself away from one-paragraphers

 

Absolutely agree - ive been saying this for a long time but still I get queries what someone can do when their blog has been shut down, after losing all of their online income.... Not only is it more professional looking to have your own domain, but I really dont want to have my chances of making a decent living online hindered because i have to obide by the strict T&C's of using someones hosting service.

I can understand why someone who is starting out might want to test the water so to speak, but as soon as you make $10, it must prove there is money to be made and its time to revinest it.

Blogger/wordpress and all the other free options do serve a purpose; but to anyone that is using them to make any kind of serious money online they really should look to move them all to self hosted solutions.

 

I think it would be just fine if you are using it for sole purpose of developing a personal blog or still in the process of learning the seo basic. But once you are out of that, it's better to get serious and invest in domains.

 

Yeah I agree with that too. If you're just starting out and have no idea that this will even work for you, then go ahead and try it on a free site to get your feet wet. As soon as you make any money and have an idea of what you're doing, you should buy your own domain and hosting right away.

The problem I see though is more experienced marketers are still using these free sites. I'll see an Ezine Article ranked #1 for a good keyword and then in the resource box of his article it directs them to a Squidoo lens or a Blogspot blog. Sure this article is probably making him a good amount of money, but if EZA or Squidoo shut him down for any reason, all that income is lost.

And yeah they definitely do serve a purpose in marketing, I'm not saying don't use free platforms at all. I use all the free blogging and social network sites on a regular basis, but I use them strictly for backlinks to my main site which is on my own domain. That way if one does get shut down, I only lose out on 1 backlink and not my entire business.

Another thing people overlook is the value of the website. If you're sending all your traffic to Squidoo and making like $500 a month off one particular lens, you don't even own the site so you can't sell it. However, if your own site is making you $500 per month, you can get up to like 5k for it if you sold it. That $10 investment into a domain name just made you a huge ROI.

 

I agree with the OP on this. One such platform cost me hundreds in lost revenue a month when they decided after one year the topic was considered a spammers topic and deleted the page. I had to laugh at that because it did contain original content and they had made revenue on it too!

They have deleted 5 other pages out of the hundreds I have created over the years with the same claim. I have since added the content to other sites by grabbing it from search engine cache and have actually benefited from it.

Even though most of my stuff is on paid hosting I did get sidetracked by how well these platforms work ... but just think when you build on them your actually creating content for others. They really do not work that much better than a paid host as far as ranking goes once you know how to get backlinks and work with seo.

This person has learned their lesson. If someone reads this thread and takes no action and has their pages or account deleted I hope they don't come whining to the forum.

 

I blogged first using blogger guess what my paid webhosting crashes more often than them...sux. been 4 years with the latter.

 

Get a new hosting service then.

 

Paid ... Hosting ... Get A New Host. The nice thing about a hosting plan is most control panels have a backup option. Once you free platform deletes the page or ... account what do you have them?