Curious about how to make money out of your passion for blogging? Well, you’ve come to the right article. In this post, I will be discussing the hot questions:
- How To Make Money Blogging For Free, Is It Worth It?
- Is It Really Possible to Make Money Blogging?
- Can You Earn From Free Blogs?
Practically, these are questions everyone who wants to start a blog asks. Newcomers often don’t know whether to start on a free blogging platform or choose a self-hosted blog.
Many of them don’t know much about blogging and aren’t sure they’ll make money, so they prefer to spend nothing until they earn something online.
In this post, we cover the differences between free blogging platforms and self-hosted blogs, along with their pros and cons.
Free Blogging Platform vs. Self-Hosted (Paid One) Blog — The Real Difference
Can you build a blog on a free platform and make serious money? Many new bloggers ask this because they want to spend nothing until they actually earn something.
Before we talk the differences, let us first define those platforms so you understand the clear limits and set realistic expectations for those.
1) What Is a Free Blogging Platform?
- You don’t have to pay for anything, literally zero upfront cost.
- Easy setup. You just need to signed up for a free account and you can get started.
- Quick publishing and easy to manage, especially on Blogger.com.
- Easy to manage especially on Blogger.com.
Cons of a Free Blog
- Ownership issues. You don’t truly own the blog, but the platform does. They can change rules, suspend your blog, or shut it down without much warning.
- When you set up your free blog, your blog’s link will look something like this ”www.yourblogsname.coom.blogspot.com.”
- You don’t have full control over your blog as you can’t add plugins like you can in a self-hosted one.
- Free blogs often have limited SEO settings and no plugin support, making it much harder to rank on search engines.
- Limited amount of memory space and bandwidth.
- Free blogs don’t look very professional.
- Â It’s harder to make money with free blogs as your advertising options are limited.
Who Should Go For a Free Blogging Platform?
Personally, I think free blogs are for those people that just want to share their best memories and life adventures with their friends, or for those that just want to blog for fun and not interested in starting a home-based business.
It might be also a good option for people that want to use it for their studies, for instance, Â I know a teacher that has a blog where his students find summaries and studies notes in the series of his articles.
Reality Check: Can You Earn With Free Blogs?
With free blogs, you can technically earn money, but it takes a lot of effort. It’s really either your content is that impressive, and you manage to attract thousands of audience, or it could also be through affiliate marketing.
Because of these limitations, many bloggers use free blogs mainly as a writing practice, and then when they think they are good enough, they migrate to a self-hosted blog later. So, basically, making money is possible, but it’s limited and unpredictable.
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2) What Is a Self-Hosted Blog?
A self-hosted blog is one that you create in your own server. Here, you have your own domain and hosting service.
To understand this better, think of 2 separate things: the blogging software (usually WordPress), and the host. People pay the third party companies to host their blogs. For example, this article you are reading right now is hosted on Wealthy Affiliate. Another good example is HostGator.
You would still be needing WordPress so you can write your own blogs and control all articles you own. But, everything you publish lives on the host domain, not on WordPress servers.
A self-hosted blog uses WordPress.org, which is free software you install on a hosting account you own. The host (for example, HostGator, Bluehost, etc.) provides the server space. Your domain name (like yourblog.com) is connected to that server.
Once WordPress is installed on your hosting account, everything you publish lives on your own domain, which you pay to own, not on WordPress’s servers.
Pros of a Self-hosted Blog
- Full control over your blog as you can customize as you want, in addition to the total control of the search engine optimization, monetization options and more.
- You own your site and content.
- Branded domain boosts credibility and traffic potential.
- You can install custom themes
- No platform-owned ads limiting your revenue.
Cons of a Self Hosted Blog
- It requires some investment as you are paying for hosting and domain.
- It might be intimidating to newbies. There’s a slight learning curve.
Who Should Use a Self Hosted Blog?
Basically, a self-hosted blog is for people who want more than just a place to write. It’s definitely the right choice for making money through blogging. A self-hosted blogs look more professional, and you have the freedom over how you want to monetize your content.
If you’re planning to build a long-term brand, start an online business, or turn your blog into a reliable income source, then self-hosted blogs is for you.
So What is The Difference Between Them?
Well, the difference between a free blogging platform and the other one is simply that by getting a free blog you can’t expect to make money seriously. If you need to start a serious home business then you should definitely get your own hosting and domain name, so you can make money as a full-time blogger.
A Free Blog Is Best If:
- You want to blog purely for fun or personal expression.
- You’re not focused on building traffic or earning money.
- You just want a simple place to write with no financial commitment.
A Self-Hosted Blog Is Best If:
- You want to build a real online business or make money blogging.
- You need full control over SEO, design, and traffic growth.
- You plan to scale your blog into ads, affiliate income, products, services, or courses.
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Conclusion: Best Way To Make Money Blogging
Free blogs are fine for practice and personal use. If you want to grow, rank, build a brand, and actually make serious money, your best bet is a self-hosted blog. Free just isn’t built for long-term business goals.
Are you new to blogging? did you start your blog yet? if yes what platform did you pick up? You know if you have any question feel free to drop a comment I will be more than happy to reply!
Your Friend,
Anis
Anis, thanks for providing a clear reason for choosing which way to go for my blog. I am interested in doing this for a business and definitely will pursue the self-hosted blog rather than the free-blogging platform. You’ve identified the major free sites and by viewing them I can tell that you know these pretty well. The pros and cons are helpful. Thanks again.
A free blog is bad for business a self hosted one is way better, but the SiteRubix free website is a good option if you want to start a free website and earn money
I had a free blog for a while and tried to make money off of it but it never worked. Makes sense that if it is free that it looks more unprofessional than a paid one. What site do you suggest for buying a domain on for hosting a paid blog?
Hostgator, Godday are the best
Thanks for the informative post. For newbie bloggers it can be confusing. You’ve set out the pros and cons very nicely. Personally I feel that if you want to monetize your blog you should approach it like a business. Understand that a business will need an investment. Be professional from the start.Invest some money into your blog and do it right from the beginning.
You are right Celeste and glad you like my post, thanks for stopping by 😀
Hi Anis,
I see that your site is a new one. You do address what I look for first in a Money Making website – Sites & Apps to make money online – I will try your suggestions 🙂
I would suggest categorising your posts, in order for users to find content they are interested in easily.
Keep up the good work!
I will surely do that, thanks for your feedback Marios! 😀
To tell you the truth, having a free platform was nice. It kinda warmed me into the whole idea of starting my online business. It was like a preview to the real thing. That’s why I decided to get my own domain. i didn’t just want a preview, I wanted the real thing and the real thing is so much better! There are so many things that I am able to do and I really see it taking me to a successful online business.
Yeah that a good idea to start on a free plaform once you get the hang of it you get your own domain!
Thanks for stopping by
I have to agree with your post that if your into blogging to make money then it is better to spend a little bit of money to have a self hosted one.
The fact that you own your blog and can do whatever you want, are 2 key factors as to why I think this is a better choice. Also the cost does not seem to high either.
I feel you only need a free blogging platform if all you want to do is write about things you enjoy, and are not in it for the money.
You are right Michael, if you want to start a home based business, you can’t do it on a free blogging platform, thanks for stopping by!