better to go for your own domain... will give you security and more future options. because blogs can go anytime and i have this experiance in past... so better stay on a saffer side.
keep both. xyx.blogspot.com is costing you nothing. so u can keep that for free and investing in a domain name and some hositng cost will give you good returns later. its better to have both of them now seed them and age them so once you are ready and have a plan you have an aged domain name. my 2 cents.
Okay, scenario, You've built a succesful blog on Blogspot, SEO'd it, spent time and money building links to it. You're getting around $3-4k per month and feeling pretty happy with yourself. Then Blogspot announce they're closing or been bought by someone else, the existing blogs will be shut down from the end of the month. A pretty extreme example maybe, but would your really put your buiness in someone elses hands for the sake of a $6 registration fee per year?
Lol matt don't scare that guy hehe... but yeah buddy you need to take care.. its cheap go for netfirms $4.95/Year get a free hosting from me if you need buddy n build ur own site ..dont rely on others.. it'll benefit you in future ( if you are looking for long term earnings)
Even though I agree with you on having to have a domain, I don't think it offers greater security. Here is a sad story to prove my point: The other day I was doing a search for expired domains and I found a domain with backlinks that was right along my alley (photography). After checking out the google cache I found that this guy was actually from New Orleans and that his domain expired right after the Hurricane hit. He probably had much more important things to do and maybe no internet access at this time. I didn't buy the domain, but my point is, bad things can also happen to you if you own a domain. His blogspot domain would still have been there and maybe even earned him some income while he was out hanging on for his live to some roof. Maybe this is a bit of an extreme example, but your case is not that likely either. I didn't buy the domain anyways, but someone might have and some domain company made money of this guys misfortune. Since my domains are set to be renewed and charge to my credit card, I think I may be able to avoid these kind of problems
That's whay I have all mine as you on autorenew Glad to hear it, many people would have signed it and then tried to sell it back to him
Me too, but even that fails sometimes. I have recently gotten a new credit card due to a fraud report I made. I have my domains hosted with yahoo and tried desperately to switch them over to the new cc, but their online tool failed on me and it wasn't possible to do this over the phone. Here is the full story: http://www.aguntherphotography.com/node/1696 Anyways, if you are in a situation like this guy and forget to pay your credit card, or you go over the limit just trying to survive, your automatic renewal may just fail putting you in the same situation again.
Have a own domain is better and good hosting then you can have the full control and you can install programs and you can see the logs of the clicks.
I agree, and more over most of the time they are right. If i were you i would get myself an unique domain name and threat it as investment rather then a spend.