As a counter-part to my recent hub, 5 Reasons Hubbing is Better than Blogging, here is the flip-side to the equation. I told you there are pros and cons to both hubbing and blogging. I write on HubPages, but I also have several blogs, and am a professional blogger at another site. You might wonder if I ever sleep!

Luckily, I enjoy writing immensely. Its been great to experience the positive sides of blogging to make up for a few "shortcomings" of hubbing at HubPages. In the end, I use both HubPages and my blogs for different reasons. You might consider the same. If you've used both formats for publishing, I'd love to read your comments below.

What could possibly be improved on the format here? Well, if you are a more seasoned online writer, you may want to expand your horizons a bit and set up your own blog. That is because there are 5 reasons Blogging is better than Hubbing.

1. If you own your blog, any advertisements you allow on the site will be yours 100%. At HubPages, the AdSense split is 60-40% (which is quite generous). But if you really want to make it as a professional writer, you'll want to take home all the ad revenue that you generate. Each click can pay you $1-5. You can get to the $100 AdSense payout faster, as well.

Just keep in mind that you need to have a solid readership and generally will have to post frequently in order to keep a consistent stream of reliable advertisements and customers who are interested (and clicking on) the ads.

A blog is definitely more work, but with a bigger potential for payout.

2. You can build a great blog, and then sell it in the future. Also known as "flipping" a blog, if you create a wonderful site with a great URL and bring in lots of readers so that you have Google Page Rank and impressive Alexa ranking, people may be interested in paying you cash for the rights to your blog. You will be able to advertise your blog for sale, or even get unsolicited offers for the rights to your blog (as I did last year).

NOTE that you will have to purchase a domain name (one that is available), and then set up hosting, etc. for your blog. You cannot use a free platform like Blogger.

At HubPages, you have the right to take down all or any of your hubs. However, the URL is always connected to HubPages, and you cannot sell a body of work created on HubPages without setting up a separate blog, or publishing your articles as an eBook or in print media. In short, additional steps are required for you to make money with your Hubs, other than through advertising.

3. Blogging allows for greater flexibility in writing. If you want to talk about your kids, your home search, your health or your home, blogging is a better format than HubPages. At HubPages, articles are meant to be informative, with evergreen content. The platform is explicitly NOT a blog where readers bring in personal life stories.

In addition, while you are certainly welcome to write a hub about current news events, the downside is that - once the issue fades from the public eye, your hub will sink in ranking and traffic. With a blog, on the other hand, readers are arriving daily (or even more often) to see what is new. Its always fun to debate and discuss the "gossip" of the day, which makes for an interesting blog.

Really great hubbers publish on topics that will consistently bring in readers, which can over time, allow you to make money on HubPages. These are tried and true articles. If you want to go a little more wild with your writing, then you should test the waters with a blog, instead.

You can also put up short and sweet blog posts, consisting of only a few sentences if you wish. For example, perhaps you've found a great video on YouTube that you want to share and make some comments. A blog is perfect. Not HubPages.

Finally, another consideration is the fact that you may not promote your own products with more than 2 outbound links at HubPages. If you have a business, or are trying to build one, a professional blog is a better vehicle for publishing information to push sales.

4. With a blog, you can set up and choose your own design or template to customize your layout. Like pink? Perhaps that would be a great idea for breast cancer survivor blog. Perhaps you want to make your blog look "newsy" or highlight your artistic qualities. Your blog theme can communicate almost as much as about you as the content therein.  Feel free to change it when or how you wish, as well.

With HubPages, you get minimal choices on layout - for good reason. HubPages is the site to which people arrive. It must look consistent throughout.

5. Along the lines of the flexibility offered with blogs as far as design and layout, you can also use any number of plug-ins for customization. With a WordPress blog, you can search for "plug-ins" and find ways to fire up comments, monetise, install free non-copyright protected photos, track visitors and easily direct your readers to subscribe to a feed. The sky is almost the limit - Wordpress developers have made it relatively easy for your blog to contain many cool features.

As with my prior hub, this is not a "how to blog" hub. It simply helps to set forth the pros and cons of the two different online writing formats: blogs and hubs. I am using them both, and enjoying the benefits across the board.

I have one account on HubPages, two blogs about solar power, one "Green" blog, a recipe blog, and I write as a professional blogger at Build Baby Build. I am benefiting in different ways, from just plain enjoying the writing (as one of these blogs is not monetised), to connecting with my audience with a different voice and/or viewpoint. Since my blogs are so specialized, I love coming back to HubPages to write on whatever strikes my fancy.

What do you love best about blogging or hubbing? Let's keep the discussion going!