Should You Get Your Own Blog?
Posted by azwan on 18 Jul 2007 at 12:37 am | Tagged as: Blogging
Why do you need your own blog, Azwan? Why can’t you just stick to the free ones like blogger.com or wordpress.com?
Everyone has to start somewhere and I believe most people start with a free domain, either with Blogger or Wordpress. After a while, you find blogging is for you, but by that time, most of your friends have their own domain blog already.
“Why didn’t I get my own domain in the first place?”
So, why didn’t you? Most probably it is because that you didn’t know that you’ll get hooked to it. You just wanted to try but ended lovin it. There’s nothing wrong sticking to the free ones but why not get your own. If you are still thinking whether you should or shouldn’t get you own domain, read on. I hope it will help.
It’s yours, you can do whatever you want
It’s yours and you can do whatever you like with it, without restriction. The limitation is you. You have full control over your content, the layout, design etc. Your site can be as what you imagine. Except if you are staying in Malaysia where :
- you will get a free invitation to court if you … you know the story
- you will also need to register you blogs (with the government) in the near future
But hey, if you are writing based on facts, you have nothing to fear. Like the one I did on my erection the election, SPR and my dirty water problem. One thing funny about Malaysia is that it doesn’t block pornographic sites, even sites belonging to Malaysians, but once you talk bad about the government or people running it, you’ll be in trouble. So what if I talk bad about somebody in parliament? I didn’t make that up.
Extremely Cheap
You can register your own domain and hosting for as low as USD17 for the first year. Yes, hosting is cheap in Malaysia and since you are just starting, should you get a 100GB space of storage with unlimited bandwidth? No! Go for the minimum package but make sure the hosting company allow you to upgrade anytime. That is only about USD1.50 per month for full control of your own blog.
Setting up is fairly easy
I’m using Wordpress. Installing Wordpress is easy. Many hosting companies have a “one-click” Wordpress installation available especially the ones that offers CPanel with Fantastico. If your host does not offer the one-click installation, visit wordpress.org and you can find all the details for your own DIY installation and upgrade. Or if you need some help, there is a lot of bloggers who offer installation service. Even if you like Blogger a lot you can still maintain Blogger with your own host and domain.
Monetized
Although you can make money with the free ones, but it is limited. Opportunities are there but they are not as much as when you use your own one. Some companies offers more opportunities to you if you have your own domain.
If you are not careful, even Blogger, which allows Adsense advertisement, can consider you blog as a spam blog. Your site may still be there but you can’t post or edit anything until after their verification. Being a free blog, there’s nothing much you can do or question. You have to wait, wait and wait. Blogger did this to me once to my children’s blog. Luckily they responded quickly to my complaint and lifted the ban.
If you have an Adsense blog that is making passive income monthly and suddenly Google decided to maintain the ban or delete it, all your hard work will go into the drain 
.
By the way, you can even make money from the domain name in the future by selling it, but who would buy my name? 
Self Branding
The blog will be all about you. Like this one … it’s all about me and the things I like. It has my name on it … azwanhadzree.com and not azwanhadzree.blogspot.com or azwanhadzree.wordpress.com. You can’t do this with a free blog because it’s theirs. Not yours. Blogger will always be Google’s. Google owns your content. You have no control over your blog. Ok .. you have .. to certain extend.. but they can take it back. What ever you do their name will be part of yours.
What better way to be famous than promoting yourself on your own blog.. ha .. ha.. and with your own one, logically you will post regularly or at least once a month. You own it and for sure you don’t want it to collect dust.
And if you are monetizing it or even doing a business i.e. selling ebooks, services. Don’t you think that you’ll look cheap with a free one?
I made my decision and I’m Livin IT! I think that will be all for now. I have more reasons but listening to Bon Jovi’s Cross Road made me want to stop and enjoy the music.
If you already have your own, what were your reasons? If you haven’t, what’s holding you?
Popularity: 6% [?]
Interesting post. I think where you host your blog has alot to do with the purpose of the blog.
For example if you want to brand yourself then I would say a hosted domain is best. But if you just want to test out a market or try a short term project then free is great.
Free isn’t all that bad. There are some great blogs hosted on free blogger or wordpress sites that get a good bit of traffic. if you check the sitemeter stats there is a free typepad blog in their top 100 for traffic.
BeachBum
[Reply]
Akula reply on July 18, 2007 7:15 am:
Hmmmm, bro. Thats a thought definately.
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 18, 2007 12:19 pm:
So, u decided to visit this blog instead of the other one huh? This one is ’straight’ and no nonsense for the time being.
[Reply]
Akula reply on July 18, 2007 8:48 pm:
I prefer `straight’ of course, if you get what I mean. Heheh
azwan reply on July 18, 2007 10:45 pm:
Actually, gays can be fun too .. ha..ha… but I promise that i wont touch your hand if we ever meet and talk
wooo! out of topic again.
So are you planning to get your own?
Akula reply on July 19, 2007 8:23 pm:
Hahaha. I have to learn how to make money with blog first.
azwan reply on July 18, 2007 12:18 pm:
BeachBum,
I’m not against the free ones as I still maintain my blogger blog just that when you can own it why not. Even having your own have risks. What if the hosting company goes bankrupt and gone just like that? It will be difficult.
It’s up to the individual
[Reply]
Because of that i bought my very own domain and hosting..the different is I can do anything whatever I like and of course you domain name specially if there were your own name like mine http://bentdaniel.com or http://azwanhadzree.com this is a branding!
[Reply]
Good post indeed. Setting up is easy, maintaining it…. different story unless we’re ‘blessed’ with that blogging obsession…. like azwan ha ha ha… just kidding
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 18, 2007 12:23 pm:
Zul,
Thanks for the link from your earlier post, I have something related to work and will link back … soon. Anyway, I am not ‘blessed’ ha..ha.. … just that the situation I’m in right now … working away from my family … so I took up blogging as a hobby.
Bent,
As long as you don’t blog bad things about me, I’m fine :p
[Reply]
If you have your own domain, You can also have CMS portal, e-commerce, dating service, e-learning, directory, organiser, games, image gallery, ads management and etc.. If you interested having those. Contact me. Some with little fees.
* I also have a few blogs but I hide it from everyone…why? maybe have no time to manage those blogs, coz now I’m concentrating on 3D things.
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 18, 2007 6:48 pm:
Wooo! promotion on my site. It’s ok, as long as I get 10% of whatever you make
[Reply]
This is a great post actually, I’m a fan of Wordpress. I’ve used Wordpress.com and Blogger.com, I admit that both of them have limitations but for anyone who wants more control over their blog, they should get their own domain and own blog hosting.
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 18, 2007 11:17 pm:
Syafrizal, thanks. It will be better if you could add more to the reasons i gave above.
[Reply]
emm.. just 10% hah , but I thought the more the merrier.. kakaka (learn to laugh like ‘kucau’).
[Reply]
Referring to your query on my blog regarding hosting with blogger with your own domain, here’s my post url: http://www.adamok.net/2007/05/hosting-with-blogger.html
[Reply]
whatever is illegal offline is illegal online. free or not.
domain name is cheap, and you can share the hosting too if you’re cheap hehe.
[Reply]
cruzertech | Web Templates reply on July 21, 2007 10:18 am:
I don’t do such thing! I’m talking about ‘open source project’ and I only charge for the services I made. Its not against GPL version 1 or 2 terms.
[Reply]
“One thing funny about Malaysia is that it doesn’t block pornographic sites, even sites belonging to Malaysians, but once you talk bad about the government or people running it, you’ll be in trouble.”
agreed!! ops… no SB here rite?
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 20, 2007 12:35 am:
No, there’s no one from Special Branch here. All of them are busy with the Altantuya case (I hope I got the spelling right). It’s another funfair at the court. Oops, will I go to court for this … ISA? Anyway, thanks for stopping by Pakdi.
@Adam, I’ll link you up from my post. Planning to post it today buy I forgot to replicate it to my notebook just now. Will be busy tomorrow, maybe this weekend.
@Shutterspeaks, whatever you do illegally online, other people cannot see.
@Cruzertech, ok make that 70% of whatever you make.
@Akula, i thought you already did
.. and people, while writing this
.. Firefox has just released version 2.0.05
.. I am still listening to Bon Jovi’s Cross Road
.. I am downloading SKALI Lagi from http://www.skalilagi.net/
.. I am reading Chapter One
.. so Good Night!
[Reply]
glup!!!
[Reply]
The only reason that I can think about this is, like you said just now, personal branding, need to buy my own domain quickly before ‘kena sapu’..haha..
Wondering if anyone would buy my infomalaya after this..huhu..Just kidding, nobody want it right? haha
Btw, good post Azwan..
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 21, 2007 11:15 pm:
Well Bat, currently yours is PR4, if you can get it to PR7 plus lots of traffic, it will be worth a lot.
[Reply]
Azwan,
Very interesting issue you highlighted. Just about what I’m thinking now.
My technical career blog http://chem-eng.blogspot.com seems to be expanding and I think it have great potential to grow further. The google and yahoo search engine has been very friendly to my blog. Part of my traffics are from them.
My blog is 1 year old already today. I have 175 subscribers now and growing… I have my own followers….I’ve thought about having the blog in wordpress and have its own domain name. However, if i do that, I lost my search engine popularity for the blog…I’m also having considerably good earnings from the ads inside the blog especially adsense.
What should I do? What is your comment/idea? I welcome others to help me decide on something here.
I consulted Mael few weeks back and he say just remain on my blogspot platform because of the search engine factor.
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 21, 2007 11:43 pm:
This is a dilemma especially for those who started with a free blog. You need to consult an expert on this.
That’s a PR 5 blog and would be a waste to loose it just like that, including all of the organic traffic.
If you really want to move, do more research on redirects 301.
For the existing readers, 175 of them, that will not be a problem. Just make the announcement and they will know where to go.
[Reply]
zaki reply on July 22, 2007 12:20 am:
Hmmm….Thanks for the info. At least I know there’s a technique on this….
And that’s something new that i learn today…
[Reply]
something to consider…for a non IT peeps like sound so susah yo…
maybe can translate into laymen language….hehh..hehh
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 21, 2007 11:46 pm:
It will be a bit difficult at first, but after that it will be just like blogging with blogger ………. until the upgrading part.
If u r interested, check out Adam’s link above. You can do it with blogger also.
[Reply]
Sigh.. I got my own dot com site also cannot do the above things.. cannot post sponsored post, cannot alter my template! Stupid la the wordpress!!! >.
[Reply]
azwan reply on July 23, 2007 11:15 pm:
Princess, since you have paid, I think it’s better for you to contact
(1) wordpress.com
(2) the hosting company
to clear all the issues that u are facing.
[Reply]
[…] if you are thinking : Should you get your own Wordpress blog? Why not. There are many ways to do this but the example given here is for a DIY Wordpress […]
I would definitely recommend to newbies that setting up your own domain is worth it. As well as using wordpress over blogger. I started with blogger, but using it only limits you in what you can do.
[Reply]
azwan reply on August 16, 2007 12:49 pm:
I was from blogger too. but i think using blogger only limits you to what it can do. and it cant do much
[Reply]
Ebooks,games PC,Movies download,Movies online,Software,Vidéos Humour
[Reply]
most of the blogger nowadays starts with blogger@blogspot… that is a very good platform for beginner. I hope that I have my own domain one day…not just be a sub domain… hohohoohoh one day….
[Reply]
[…] What can I say? Since Google is providing it for free, they can take it back when they want it. […]