If you want to blog for free, believe me it is more than possible. Blogging for free is very easy. All you need to do is get signed up and registered at one of the many, many free blogging services on the web. Blogger or Blogspot and WordPress are two of the most popular, but also available at no cost aka $0 are LiveJournal.com, Blog.com, ZooLoo.com, TypePad.com, JustBlogMe.com, BlogRox.com, Blogster.com, Vox.com, ZoomShare.com, Tumblr.com, and hundreds more free blogging platforms.
Decide What You Are Going To Be Writing About
After you get your el cheapo blog, it’s time to get your creative on. There are many different things to write about and you should gravitate towards something that you will have fun writing about (if you want to write a true blog and not just use the blog as a means to an end such as promotion or pure money making).
Do A Search on Free Blog Providers
Once you have an idea of what you want to write about, start doing a search on the different services you can use for your blog. I have listed about 10 above but it’s a good idea to look for blog services that have good search engine optimization and can be customized to some degree to a blog design or theme that you want.
You may wish to have a unique web address (or URL or domain name) that you will use for your blog. This will cost you a yearly fee, but it is only about $10 or maybe less for a .com blog name. This is truly worth it. It just sounds better and more professional but going without your own blog URL will not preclude you from success. Spreading your blogs name through word of mouth will definitely be harder though. If you want to minimize the money you spend on your blog or are limited to a tight budget on blogging, try combining your own blog domain with free webhosting on one of these blogger. (BTW, the option or ability to buy and use your own domain name is something you should strongly factor in).
Start Writing
Once you have everything figured out with your free blog, you will simply need to just start writing your content. You can plan out several blog posts in order to get content for several days if you plan on taking a day or two off or you just want some posts ready to go. Some free blog hosts like Blogger (which is owned by Google and subdomains out to blogspot.com) allow you so much customization that you can place your own advertising on them or implement some custom designing. Other free blogs will not allow you to alter or add in such code. Again, keep this in mind if you think you even have a 1% chance of trying to do more with your blog than just writing.
I can’t stress this last point enough. When considering the pros and cons of getting a free blog, remember that one disadvantage is later on down the road, if you want to add more to your website and then realize you’re limited by the blogging provider’s rules. Blogs get more valuable as they grow with content and age so it would suck to start over completely fresh. Many people who do make the transfer from free to professional or shared hosting will alert their readers and provide a link to the new site but it’s always better if you start pro from the beginning.
Take your time with your blog so you are getting what you want out of the blog you are building and you are happy with it. Consider these advantages and disadvantages of free blogs and decide if not paying anything for a blog is right for you. If you think there’s even a chance of expanding your blog down the road, then I would pay the $10 for a domain name and $4-5 a month for webhosting. Yes, it is up front cost but if you grow your blog into something big, believe me, it is well worth it. You can start a professional blog with 2 years worth of webhosting for about $100 up front costs if you buy the right webhosting plan.
