If you’re planning on starting a blog, at some point you’ll have to decide whether to host your blog on your own website or on an offsite blogging platform like WordPress or Blogger. Here are the pros and cons to each decision.

Offsite Blogging: The Benefits

The biggest benefit of offsite blogging is that it’s free. A domain name costs about $9 a year, web hosting costs about $5 to $10 a month.
Another benefit is that it’s easier. You don’t have to go through the process of setting up a WordPress (or other platform) blog. You don’t need to go through the process of buying a domain name, setting up your DNS, buying and setting up web hosting, so on and so forth.
For beginning marketers, the difference between free and $20 could be important. New marketers often start out broke, and sometimes have to go through a handful of failed websites before they start making money. Starting on an offsite blogging platform allows beginning marketers to experience making money without risking their own money.

Offsite Blogging: The Drawbacks

There are many drawbacks to offsite blogging. First, it looks less professional. A blog that’s hosted on blogger.com will always look less professional than a blog that’s hosted on your own domain. A less professional looking blog generally means less publicity and likely lower search engine rankings.
Another drawback is that you’re at the whim of someone else’s company. If blogger or WordPress suddenly changes their policy, they can just turn your site off on a whim. This has happened to many bloggers in the past. Basically you’re not in full control of your business.
An offsite blog is less flexible. You can’t install your own custom plugins or themes. You’re pretty much stuck with the designs that the offsite service provides to you. Although WordPress has many beautiful themes to choose from that have great plugins included.

The Comparison: Offsite VS Onsite

Basically, onsite blogging will allow you to get higher rankings, look more professional and most likely be more successful, get more traffic and earn more money in the long run. Offsite blogging allows you to start with no startup costs at all and allows you to bypass the website setup process and get started right away. One quick note: You can’t ever really move an offsite blog to an onsite blog. You’ll lose many of your visitors and all of your search engine rankings.

Which is the best option for you? If you’re just getting started in internet marketing and want to get your feet wet right away, then offsite blogging is a great way to jump in feet first without a high learning curve. You can start blogging within 15 minutes of choosing a topic.
On the other hand, if you already know how to buy a domain or currently have a website, how to setup hosting, how to direct your DNS, etc, and you don’t mind spending the $40.00-$3000.00 (if using a pre-made theme or making a custom theme) in startup costs, then onsite blogging is most likely a better and more profitable option for you in the long run.
I prefer the latter as it has boosted my own domains search engine status and notability in just 2 years which ultimately increased customer loyalty, trustworthiness and sales; all of which is priceless!

By Peter Marino: Senior Partner and CMO of a search engine marketing web design firm in New York City.
If you want to start a blog but don’t feel comfortable writing for it regularly we can set it up, design it and write for you on just about any topic! We have writers from all over the USA and Canada that can write for you, and you get all the credit! Try our blog writing and marketing and see your website soar up in ranking on Google and Bing.

See more posts by Peter Marino