From a marketing/traffic standpoint, what are the advantages or disadvantages of having your blog set up on a blog service, rather than having it on your own server? I notice there are some large, popular blogs that are with a blog service... These people are surely capable of having it set up on their own hosting account, so I wonder why they have chosen to have it hosted for them...
Free Hosted Blog Pros. - Free = No pay for domain and hosting - You can start your own blog without spend a penny. - Ready set of templates. - Create as many as you wanted Cons. - You cannot customization template as you wanted, you have to use their offered ready templates only. - Some free hosted blog, especially wordpress, not allowed you to place textual advertising (ie. adsense) but except blogger. - Your blog can get rid anytime, all your contents hosted by them and nothing under your control at all. Self-hosted blog Pros. - You can do anything as you wanted. Cons. - Cost you for domain name and web hosting.
If you aren't sure about market, niche...and you can't or don't want invest in a project probably won't buy a domain and hosting service. A free blog is simple, free and you start immediatly...no payment...no setup time...you have only to blog. Sometimes who start for curiosity or with no convinsion or not knowledge create a good and succesful products...but he has to remain on the free service! Some blog service doesn't allow adsense or other affiliation programs. You have hands blocked! On your space...you are the king! Thery is more flexibility about template and plugins. Having a owned domain and hosting service is more professional...it is also a good factor for users. You can also expand your business...a blog could be not enough! On your space you can add a forum, a niche directory, an article directory, a press release minisite...or other site on third level domains. You can also sell your site...because is your. A blog on wordpress.com or blogger isn't your... PS freeblog service is a very good service...and I use for building a network for free...many free links! But for a good project or ideas...no way...
Nothing ever worth having in this world is free. If you truly want to have success and gain in some way or forum you should create your blog hosted by you.
It depends on the project. The only advantage I see in using a service like blogger is the fact that I don't have to worry about bandwidth, but most importantly, blog down for too much traffic is a thing of the past.
service hosted: -Your blog is at the mercy of the service. If they decide for whatever reason that your blog is a spam blog, kiss it goodbye (this happened to me before) -On the other hand, if you're a beginner, or not too serious on blogging, service hosting might help self-hosted is what I do. It's great because it easily allows me to add content on my main site, which is good for SEO.
Personally I like to host everything myself, cuz I'm free to modify anything of the website. Every coin has two sites. If you are in a hurry, order a "to go" pizza from Pizzahut or whatever you want. If what you want is a nice experience of dinner, then, cook by yourself.