If im trying to make money blogging would you recommend me getting my own hosting and domain... some people say just use blogger free. some say get your own webhosting/domain. your inputs please... this is what my blog looks like now. http://brainwavesandbeats.blogspot.com/
Your blog topic is good and has potential to earn through Affiliate sales and adsense. If you are serious, committed and can persist, go for your own domain with paid hosting. If you need further help, pl PM me.
Two suggestions 1) Put a space between each paragraph. Will make it much easier to read 2) Install a new template instead of using one of the blogspot ones. Lots of free ones out there and easy to install http://www.learntoearn101.net/2009/07/blog-skins-and-blog-templates.html http://www.learntoearn101.net/2009/07/how-to-change-blogger-template-without.html
I find that the best way is to have your own domainname and blog on a self hosted wordpress blog. Also make sure that your domain name is keyword rich. If you want to build more blogs and you don't have too much money to spend on domain names, I would suggest that you buy a generic domainname (like myreviews.com) and build your different blogs as subdomains, using your keywords off course. I don't like to host my content on sites that are in hands of other people so that's why I don't use blogger or wordpress.com (plus with wordpress.com you can't advertise as it's against their TOS.) Leslie
Most people recommend that your buy a domain name with your keywords in it, and set up a wordpress blog. The reality is that very few bloggers will reach the level of popularity and reach that results in a real income. The lucky few will make enough to cut back on their regular work hours, but most will be lucky to earn much more than 2 or 3 times their hosting fees. At one stage, I never thought I'd use anything but wordpress self-hosted, but over the past year I've set up several blogger blogs and in comparison am finding it so much simpler. So here's my two cents' worth: I can manage all my blogs from one site, without mucking around with 5 different files for each seperate blogs' template. There are rarely hassles with blogspot hosting going down (I use bluehost with my wordpress sites, but still have occasional problems) I don't pay for hosting. Originally, I found a lot of my traffic coming from the blogger nav bar, then google took over. With self hosting, you don't have the benefit of the blogger traffic and some believe that Google prefer blogger blogs. (not sure on that, though) Although I was able to use wordpress work-arounds and hacks with html & css quite well, things are a lot less complicated with blogger. I spend much less time mucking around in the back end of my blogs now, which means more regular posting and faster-growing content. No stuffing around with upgrading wordpress every month or so and then having to fiddle with your template or plugins if something gets 'broken' but the upgrade. Last but not least, I bring in about US$30 per month at the moment which isn't an income, but in comparison to my self-hosted blogs is huge. Good luck! Jane
i say set the site up and host it yourself, when you use blogging platforms you are restricted to what you really want to do