I recently bought a .com domain without realizing there is a free blogspot domain (sub) with the same name. Since blogspot is hosted by Google, will the search engine penalize me. I was foolish for not checking first, and I would never deliberately do this to another site. I didn't notice until my site was up and running and I wanted to see where it stood in the SERPs. Some pages are ranking, but the domain is well back. With Bing, it's on top, so it's a little suspicious. Should I change the domain, or am I concerned over nothing?
Dot com domain is your only and best choice, you don't have to worry. Well those blogpost are not useful for search engine ranking, they still subdomains and not top domains like dot com, so focusing your work creating good content and Google or any other search engine will reward you with good traffic later. Good Luck
I totally agree with FAT238, I wouldn't worry about being penalized just because your .com domain is the same as a blogspot sub domain. Just make sure it doesn't infringe on anyone's copyright before doing all the hard work. You're far more likely to be penalized for something else like poor quality backlinks or ad placement with Google!
Thanks to you both for your responses. Since posting this, my site has moved up in the SERPs and all is as it should be. The name is now on top ahead of the free blogspot sub. I think I ought to get the .net though, asap. LOL