Before reading further, I suggest you read this article first — Why Do You Want To Blog — this is my way of ensuring that you get your head straight. Blogging may be easy and fun but it burns a lot of time. Make sure that you don’t waste yours by thinking about the questions posed in this article.
Ok, assuming that you already have all your ducks in a row, the first and very important thing that you need to tackle is this.
Should you get a .Com or not?
There are many arguments surrounding this question. But most of the time the counter-argument is always THE COST. Why would I shell out money for something that I will be doing for fun and only in my free time? Why indeed?
I believe a little background is in order.
There are two very powerful blogging platforms in the internet today– Blogger, and Wordpress. Sure there are others like Xanga and Typepad and if you’re Pinoy, there’s I.ph. And all of these blogging platforms are free. Before I get ahead of myself, blogging platforms are the sites/technology that allow you to do your blogging. So if these are free, then why the need to go the .Com way?
For one, it’s for aesthetic purposes. These platforms will allow you to use their services for free and will assign a sub-domain for you. Example; if you use blogger, your blog site’s name will be http://your-blog.blogspot.com; for wordpress it will be http://your-blog.wordpress.com and so with other blogging platforms. You see how many characters you need to put in the browser window to get to your site? Whereas if you get your own .com or your own domain, your blog will be http://your-blog.com. It’s like getting a free rent (using free blogging platforms) and owning your own real estate (with your own .Com). See the difference?
Another counter-argument for having your own .Com is that you need to host it. By hosting it means that you need to have some place or a ‘host’ that will allow you to store your articles, pictures, videos. And yes, you have to pay for that too. An exception to this is Blogger. Blogger allows you to host your articles, pictures, videos in their servers even if you want to have your own domain name or .Com.
Cost Considerations
Oh yeah, costs money versus free. Actually a no-brainer right? But let’s have a clear mind about this and examine how much all this will cost you, assuming that you are curious about having your own internet real estate.
First is the domain name. The running rate now is around $6 - $10 USD/year. If you take advantage of Yahoo!’s offer, you can get a domain name for $1.99 for the first year and then regular pricing for the second year.
Next is the hosting company. You can get a hosting plan for as low as $14 a year. I even got a hosting plan a couple of months ago for only $7/year.
So in terms of economic comparison, there’s the free ==>$0 versus your own home for around $25/year. How does this feel for you now?
Now What?
My suggestion is you keep a cool head about this one. Nobody is rushing you. You have all the time in the world to make this decision later (but not so later). I say, get your hands dirty first with blogging. Sign up for one of those free blogging platforms first and then see if you can hack it for a period of time writing stuff that interests you. I’m saying this because with blogging it’s easy enough to get hooked. Once you get to interact with other bloggers, see people visiting your site, there’s a surreal thrill that comes along with this very popular media.
[Here's a little article I made comparing the merits of Blogger and Wordpress which I hope will guide you when you choose your blogging platform. You don't want to be thinking about other platforms at this point.]
But, as I said, you need to go back to thinking about getting your .Com after a few weeks or a couple of months(not more than 2 please). The reason for this is because, after your free blog is in existence for some time and you have felt the rush in doing this thing, the powers that be, in this case Google and Technorati and Alexa, will start rating your site. Trust me, when that time comes when you’re getting serious and you have all these nice looking Ranks and Authorities, you’d wish you got your .Com from the very start because when you allow a lot of time to elapse before getting your own domain, you will have to let go of all these beautiful Ranks and Authorities and start from scratch.
Don’t let these things bother you at this time though, I will be talking more about this one as we go along this series. The important thing right now is immersing yourself in this blogging experience. Go out there and write your fingers off. Have fun.
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I got alarmed by the sudden turn out of things. It was two months ago when I got here in Cebu. Like any blogger who runs a personal blog, all I want is to write about my personal experiences. Thus, I published my first week in Cebu experience. Going back two days ago, I didn’t realize that a lot of people got alarmed with what I wrote. Somebody must have dug my archives and found that post. It was then also that I realized that a lot of people are unhappy with what I wrote.
As it is, there are only two places in Davao City who sell the local Dark Lager: that’s at MTS and this place called “Some place else” at Rizal. I’m really puzzled why not too many people have heard of it when it’s actually San Miguel’s best brew out there. Hola Espana, your bar’s competitor at Damosa, sells Guinness Stout and Murphy’s but they eat through people’s pockets. I seriously hope that people here would open up to the world of great tasting beer. Cerveza’s like a poor man’s alternative haha.
