I would have thought an actual domain is better for SEO, but because my budget is limited it may be easier to have just a sub domain, but all my traffic will be coming from search engines, what do you guys think? www.healthyliving.mysite.com (free) or www.healthylivingmysite.com ($15) whats best for SEO?
Without a doubt, you are always better to go with the sperate domain name. However, you can still make the site successful from a sub domain if you work hard and use the same SEO tatics. For example look at this forum. It is a sub domain and is a huge success.
I suggest you go with a domain. However, you can get the same results with a subdomain too. Things that are improtant are the backlinks, content etc
Subdomains are generally for the same site that denote a seperate section. So if your main site is about healthy living then you could do a subdomain and perhaps get away with it. If your site is about cars and you are putting information about healthy living in the subdomain you'll put more than $10 worth of effort to get it ranking good.
Is the cost of hosting or cost or domain purchase keeping you back? You can buy a domain for like $7 from GoDaddy if you hunt out some coupons online. At $7 to $10 a year, I'd almost say you can't afford not to get your own domain.
subdomains are good in my oppinion they can be highly sucessful all you need is reliable blog hosting */ enter self promotion here ----------------- http://choseit.com is great for seo, traffic building and gives you a free no ads no charges blog /* end self promotion some directories dont take you seriously if your a subdomain but thats only one type of promotion