To Blog or not To Blog-That is the question?

1. 67

   Aiden Robertsposted 13 years ago

   Hi All
   
   Having been a hubber now for 4 months; with 1 month of sick, I feel that I am starting to understand the basics and am now ready to formulate a workable plan. During all of this initial excitement I have written 31 hubs and started 4 blogs on Blogger.
   
   I am still exstatic at finding Hubpages and honestly believe it is a fantastic way of sharing information and earning a little extra money but my blogs are rubbish at the moment and time consuming, I am considering ditching them in favour of maybe 1 or 2 websites.
   
   I have read a lot about domain names and have been looking at getting free URL's and redirecting them at Blogger, "ryankett hub very useful on this score".
   
   I am just wondering what your opinion is on:
   
   Does URL redirection work?
   
   Time permitting do you prefer a blog or website?
   
   Does Google give more weight to Blogger blogs than start up website's; all things being equal ie SEO, backlinks, content etc.
   
   Any thoughts would be welcomed

   replyreport
   1. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Not sure what you mean.  If you mean using blogger with a domain name, then yes it's a good idea if you can't afford hosting yet. If you stick with a "blogspot" URL, you'll lose all your readers if you decide to upgrade to a self-hosted domain later.  Whereas if you're already using the domain name, the change would be transparent to your readership and the search engines.
      
      
      
      I use Wordpress blogging software to create my sites, but I use it more like a website - I remove all reference to dates on posts, for example.  That suits me better because I'm not a prolific writer - I'd soon run out of material if I had to write a post every day for months or even years.
      
      
      
      My experience is the opposite.  I had a belly dance blog on blogger and it got no visitors.  Whereas when I created a belly dance blog using a .com domain name, it started getting a trickle of visitors immediately, before I'd done any promotion.  I think Google isn't stupid - it may own Blogger, but it knows it's full of amateurs, whereas they assume anyone who's invested in a .com domain name is more likely to be serious.

      replyreport
      1. 67

         Aiden Robertsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Marisa
         
         This is good advice, I just want to get rid of the blogspot url, was looking at free url's but on reflection probably makes sense to buy a .com and add it to my blog.
         
         I understand now that Google probably do see blogspot as amateurs so don't add much cred to blogs.
         
         Thanks again much clearer now.

         replyreport
         1. 67

            Aiden Robertsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Update- I am going to try a free url on one of my blogs, I will let you know if it get's any search engine traffic.

            replyreport
            1. 84

               Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I just checked Ryankett's Hub about how to get a free domain name.
               
               I'd love to see the reaction of someone like Sunforged to the idea of using a free sub-domain instead of buying your own .com.
               
               The thing that bothers me is that in the end, you're dependent on someone else.  There's no guarantee they won't start charging, and as you'll be a captive audience by then, they could charge what they like. 
               
               Considering your own .com would cost you less than $10, I can't see why you wouldn't do it.

               replyreport
               1. 67

                  Aiden Robertsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Marisa
                  
                  You are absolutely right, I should just buy a .com and stop dithering.
                  
                  Thanks

                  replyreport