 |
Free Blog Hosts Reviewed |
Blogs have become the just next thing to own on net after colossal sized email accounts equipped with loads of features. Blogs provide netizens a platform to present their views and opinions and hence unplug their anonymity. They make them visible. For many they are still a sort of journal or personal diary where they can post their personal day to day endeavors for their friends and family to see. But on a large, most blogs are maintained by indivisuals who present their thoughts, notions, ideas or share scientific and technical information…
There is literally no definition of how a blog should be. You can write about anything you feel like in this very world of yours. Check out more over blogs on wikipedia.
I bet, with the growing popularity of web blogs, soon the Oxford Dictionary will have to consider including ‘to blog’ as a verb as it has included ‘to google’ ;). So if the idea of having a blog has really enthrilled you… follow this article to find out on how can you have your own blog.
I googled a little bit to find out some popular blogging hosts around and reviewed them. The one’s I considered were:
1] www.blogger.com
2] www.wordpress.com
3] www.livejournal.com
4] www.blogeasy.com
Some are big names that are being popularly used for quite some time now. So let’s be sure to find our Blog host amongst these…
This is undoubtedly one of the most popular blogging service around. Blogger.com or Blogspot.com both are owned by Google.com - So be sure your blog will be definitely alive untill the world comes to an end. Installed with their own blogging software, it continuously is updated with features like photo blogging, permanent links for each blog post, new blog templates/blog skins, user profiles, etc. It supports unlimited number of blogs and does also have a paid version to give those blogging maniacs an edge. As you would like they do not post huge banners or ads to ruin the design and look of your blog. Just a decent looking bar on the top. You can also start making money with their adsense tool also. :)
Your Blog Url: username.blogger.com
[+] Points:
- Quick Sign-up process. In a few clicks you are ready to blog! No need to login to your email account also. Its too simple and fast to be true.
- Many templates to choose from (31 templates at the time of review).
- You can use your own hosting provider also with it!
- Can be integrated with Google softwares like Picassa and others. Which makes blogging much more easier and fun.
[-] Points:
- No link to directly add you into Technorati database.
This is my personal favourite. Unconditionally, wordpress blogging software is one of the best around. Easy to use, clean admin interface and there’s lot that you can tweak around with in the software. What comes as the cherry on the cake is that Wordpress hosting is also equally good. Absolutely no server downtimes and issues, wordpress.com is definitely the way to go for all u here.
Your Blog Url: username.wordpress.org
[+] Points:
- Automatic inclusion in technorati database and visibility in google search engine.
- Many templates with really cool and neat designs (39 themes at the time of review).
- No advertisements.
[-] Points:
- Nothing actually. Only if you don’t like wordpress.com as an extension for your blog. ;)
Very easy to register, live journal is more for the informal blogger. For those who want to host their personal diaries. Have cool mood icons, music to their blogs, and network with other blog friends, probably this is a decent choice. You can equip your blog with calendar, To-Do list, personal profile and all the funky things that will ad fun and flavour to your blog probably only to loose the professional look.
Your Blog Url: username.livejournal.com
[+] Points:
- Community Touch to your blog. Has a rich Community of bloggers already.
- Built in aggregator.
[-] Points:
- Administration interface is not user-friendly.
- Blog does not give the professional touch.
- No good themes and styles.
Heck! No discussion really over this. I chose this only because it ranked high in Google for ‘free blog hosts’ and thought it would be worth a check out only to prove myself wrong. With so many blogging hosts available you really don’t need blogeasy.com. It almost started sucking after sign-up :x and I just thought I should give up! But finally I included it here to let you guys know what definitely not to choose from!
Your Blog Url: username.blogeasy.com
[+] Points:
- Joke! No Pros at all. You will end up wasting your time here.
[-] Points (Loads of them – don’t really want to go in mentioning all):
- No themes
- Huge adsense ads on your blog that you would really not like to have, until you don’t make money yourself out of them.
- Only basic functions. :|
VERDICT: After a couple of hours of few sign-ups and blog try outs I probably would recommend www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com as the present generation blogs that you may like to choose from. You really don’t need to go elsewhere. Its only about choosing the better from the best. As I said, I am a fan of wordpress, and would suggest you to seriously go for a wordpress blog… The software wins it for wordpress.com. They have an active support community that will guide you through if you happen to run into problems. Wordpress looks to be the obvious choice :!:
End of the analysis I do feel that it is more worthwhile to go in for your own hosting account. With domain and hosting prices dropping down faster, may be there won’t be many who would be using these free blog hosts after some years. Till then let them make all the money!
With any of the above blog hosts, you usually get limited or no photo uploading space. So the best option would be to go for www.imageshack.us which is a leading free photo upload service or for some decent new one’s like www.iup.in – Started by one of my friends.
Well Best Of Luck! Hope to see you guys soon in my Blog Roll!
Lol!
Nice article.. very informative for newbies.
Well Wordpress has one -ve point. You can’t use extensions in WP and therefore you can’t show adsense ads in WP…
thanks mann….i guess u had this idea of posting a help after my question…neways than ks…iv yet to add sum stuff on mine…will put it up on orkut once its done…