Blog: Host my own or go with Blogger?

I hope this is the right forum for this, since I'm mostly interested in Google spidering/link development.

I'm planning to start a blog with a link to my soon-to-be-live site. I've ran across mentions every now and then that Google favors blogger blogs and crawls them faster/assigns more PR/etc, versus a blog hosted somewhere else. Is any of that true? The main purpose would be to promote the site.

Also, the same question from the statistics standpoint. If I host myself, I get the raw logs and all the statistics I can possibly want. How good are Blogger's statistics? What about other sites (blogspot, etc)? Do you get keywords, referrers, etc?

Thanks.

 

I would go with a non-Blogger blog. When it's not on Blogger you can do a lot of cool optimization things and make it look more like a site, not a random blog, but I am no expert.

Eric

 

I used blogger because I ended up creating several blogs to accompany the various sites that I own. In the end, it was just cheaper than registering a bunch of new domain names. I was not concerned that they looked like just another blog because, well, they are just another blog.

I also figured it would have more SE impact being in the Googlesphere than being outside. Time will tell.

You should be careful to make sure the blog has different material. I try to put content there that isn't quite ready for my websites. This keeps the blog relevant, but different. I also try to keep adding fresh material. Constantly changing content attracts web spiders, which makes my blog seem more important, which should help the sites it links to.

 

I would stay away from blogger. I would hate for you to wake up one day and find that blogger deleted your account. You can get cheap hosting that allow you to host multiple domains. Personally Wordpress is the way to go.

 

I have had some experience with using the ftp feature of blogger to host it on your own domain.

It seems to work very well and you can alter the template to match your site or install a custom js tracker or whatever.

 

I've seen too many third-party providers delete forums and blogs. Is the risk of allowing a third-party to delete your content a small or big risk for you?

 

This is a very complex question. First depends on the amount of money you want to put in. It seam to me that you are fairly new to blogging so paying for hosting is not the best option because more likely than not you’re not going to make a cent from your blog. The second aspect is, People Love blogger because it’s hard and you have to hack. Yes wordpress has this and that but with blogger you get to tweak things manually. In my perspective that’s the reason so many people like to use blogger, things aren’t pre done ”made” you have to learn to do them.

 

What I, Brian said is true and has happened to me (with blogger).

I don't know what Emperor's experience with Wordpress is, but it is very hackable. I hack my WP blogs up all the time. Plus WP has all those plugins available which make SEO a breeze.

In terms of paying for hosting, put it on the same domain your main site is going on. There should be zero extra cost for that.

I've done the Blogger thing and my advice is emphatically- go with hosting.

 

Yes, I have had blogs deleted from blogger also. They were even clean as far as I was using my own original posts.

I guess it comes down to what you are trying to accomplish. Making money does require you to spend money.

 

Over the years, you'll put a lot of time and energy into your blog, and if it's controlled by someone else (like Blogger) and for some reason is removed, you'll have to start over from scratch! That means getting another host, buying a domain name, building links, etc.

If you're making an investment like this, then spend the $10 monthly fee for hosting, get your own domain name and stay in control.

Read the Blogger TOS and you'll see the entire picture

Just MHO.

 

yeah.. blogger also delete my blog once.. i feel terible at that time..

 

I concur.

Writing content for Blogger or any other service pretty much means you are giving it away. At least when you host it yourself, you can control it and choose to take it off, or post it somewhere else.

 

A few of you said that blogger deleted your blogs. What was the reason for this? I’m sure they must have given you an explanation.

 

why you think so Emperor? If Jowan is ready to put work into his blog, and has something to say, he will for sure get muuuuuuuuuuch more then a cent

If I can, he can also

 

I look at it this way, would your rather rent or own your house?

I would definitely go with your own hosting and domain name.

 

No reason given. I had about five blogs with them. One day I went to look at my biggest moneymaker and it was just gone. the others were fine. I never heard anything from them at all.

 

They don't have to - it's a free service with no liabilities. It's actually a very common among third-party providers. Your work and content is not protected against deletion.

 

Using Blogger has no effects on PR or Serps.

 

Just have a look at My Travel News Blog. FTP helped me transfer host to powweb.com . An excellent way to deal with blogger blogs.

 

You all convinced me. I’m seriously thinking about transferring my www.amar-ela.blogspot.com to private hosting. I’m looking to use wordpress but the only thing still keeping me from moving is that revenue from my blogs has decreased drastically and I don’t want to invest my own money.