The oh-my-god part…
Many feel overwhelmed when they start thinking about creating a blog and start to look at the technical options. After all, you need a platform to publish the great content, that you are writing, on. This platform also need to allow for commercial ads and so forth.
If you are not really used to dealing with programs and all the technical, then you may feel that this is impossible.
Fear not; you are not alone and the people who are expert on all the technical stuff know you need ready-made solutions that everybody can use.
WordPress and others
If you want to have maximum freedom when designing your website, you need to use a program that helps you with that. There are a lot of them available, and all of them have great user manuals and great help files. So you will be able to find answers to whatever you may be wondering about.
Most of these solutions and especially the solutions like WordPress, have a ton of different design templates one can use. Some are free and others you have to pay a small sum to use. In addition, they have a lot of different add-ons that you can use to give it more functionality so it fits your vision and your needs.
Sites with finished designs
There are webpages that focus on promoting blogs and bloggers. They will take a percentage of the profits from the ads on the site and also on your blog. However, for this sum you will get a ready group of advertisers that already are committed to being on the site. The payment is fixed by the company, so you will get paid from one company instead of from many different companies.
As the site is dependent on getting people to advertise on the site itself, the site will promote all of the blogs and the site as a whole. This gives you free advertising.
Does it pay to make your own?
Bloggers and blogging networks are constantly discussing the pros and cons with regards to publishing independently or as part of a group. There is really no easy answer, but here is our breakdown into pros and cons.
The pros
The great advantages of having your blog on a bloggers website include:
• You can cut costs on advertising as the site will do a lot of advertising
• Readers are already attracted to the site so you have a great “start” audience
• The payment procedure is already in place
• Advertisers have a contract with the whole site so you will benefit from other bloggers success as well
• The technical solutions are finished and it is easy to navigate
• There is a dedicated support staff
Not all blog sites will have all the advantages listed above and some blog sites will have less. But this gives you an idea.
The cons
Not all is great with a blog at a blog site, here are some of the cons:
• You will have to share the attention with the other bloggers and they will often have ads also on your blog. So there can be a fierce competition.
• A percentage of the sums from the ads will go to the blog site, thus you will lose a bit of income.
• There are often rules to follow that may limit your freedom to express yourself.
• Some sites have few design choices.
• It can be difficult to stand out from the crowd.