Blogger Compared to Hub Pages

This comes up in the forums a fair bit which is better Blogger (aka blogspot) or Hubpages?

So here is my take on the answer; but I am assuming you want to get into the online business for a bit of cash on the side. So which will be better for your online business; Blogger or Hub Pages?

Blogger

Blogger is a free blogging platform, now owned by Google. To get started with blogger you need a Google login - otherwise known as your gmail login: yes they own gmail too. With Blogger you can make money by including Adsense and affiliate links in your blog. Its particularly easy to add Adense to your blogger blog, but as you can add HTML code you can add affiliate offers as well.

Advantages of Blogger

• posts on blogger appear to get indexed quickly
• its easy to surf from 1 blog to another: notice the next blog at the very top of your blog; therefore you get a bit of traffic from other bloggers.
• its free
• its easy enough to use and to do limited customisation with layout and add placement.
• some people make $1000's using blogger blogs and Adsense

• Blogger owned by Google: its their site they may vary the TOS at any time or even take it down: that's highly unlikely

• your domain name will always have "blogspot.com" in it.
• for an online business you want to each blog to be focused on a limited number of keywords. General blogs do very poorly for those trying to develop an online business.

HubPages compared to Blogger

Blogger is a blogging platform HubPages is closer to an article directory: with multimedia. Each hub page should be a distinct article in its own right: This is a huge advantage as it means you can write a single article about a topic and if its focussed on the right keywords and it will probably make you money.

With Blogger you keep all your revenue: HubPages is a 60/40 split: 40% of the revenue from your Hubs go to HubPage Inc.

Blogger allows you to control your add placement: HubPages does not. This is probably an advantage unless you are an advanced SEO expert: which most writers at Hub Pages are not.

Both Blogger and HubPages allow comments but in general I find it easier to get comments on my hubs than my blog posts: maybe that's just me?

Which is Best for Your Online Business

Well to me the answer is : both ! One of the important thing with an online business is diversification of income sources and platform: don't build a business solely around Adsense or HubPages or Blogger: make sure a mixture of sources are paying you.

Both HubPages and Blogger have the same great advantage: they are free and the same disadvantage - you are only renting the space: you don't have total control of the sites - be wary of this and make sure you consider running your own hosted sites too.