This is not about what is more expensive but which choice is better to start up a new blog with no traffic using wordpress software. When choosing wordpress.com for hosting you get the free marketing where wordpress users might find your blog browsing the wordpress.com blog topics. Users won't have the hassle to sign up in order to leave a comment. When self hosting you won't get that free marketing traffic from wordpress.com or am I wrong?
Agreed. Self hosting is like a vote of confidence. If you believe in what you're doing, get your own domain and do what you want.
I already bought my domain name which I am going to use on the self hosted option or on the wordpress.com option. But I was just wondering if it would make sense to start off with the premium hosting on wordpress.com until reputation starts to grow being initiated by the free wordpress.com traffic. Later on I could switch to self hosting my site. Switching would be no problem since I already do self hosting on other projects.
Well it is up to you... but as said above, I would also suggest self-hosting (paid) - if not for work things mentioned above, do it for a future possibility of selling your site.
You're right about this. YOu can go either way with it but If you want your blog to be a business and make real money from it, then you need to go self hosted. There's just so much more you can do with self hosted.
Definitely self-hosted, if you went through WordPress services you would later have to deal with the hassle and transition period of moving your site to being self-hosted later on.