There are a few schools of thought about blog hosting. You can host your own blog at your own domain but the disadvantages might be:
- You have to pay for your domain name and the hosting.
But the advantages are:
- Flexibility
- Options of adding more blogs, forums etc.
- The ability to fool around with the server settings and get a co-op ad network running
- If you are blogging for a business with a themed blog etc. your own domain name will look more professional
- Your SEO might benefit from the removal of the word "blogspot"
The type of blog you will be using can make all the differences in whether you need to use blog hosts. If you are a business and you choose the wrong hosting service it can kill your blogging efforts. You need to have all the bells and whistles to achieve your blog's full potential as a viable business endeavor. Some hosting services are free and some charge a nominal licensing fee. The following is a list of hosting services that can get your blog up and running. They are in no particular order and some are free and some are fee-based.
These three are all offered by Six Apart as separate programs and licenses. Six Apart has a strong customer support which can be well worth the cost of any fees.
WordPress is a free service that is a very good and well- known host for blogs. It is a full service system. Two other free sites are t-blog and Blog City. Google owns Blogger, which might not be the best choice for businesses but will work fine for personal blogs. Greymatter is a weblog/journal software program that is open source. Xanga has a free and premium version. The premium can cost you from $4 a month to $100 for a lifetime.