Starting Your Own Blog – Can You Really Do It All For Free?

Thinking about starting a blog?

Do you feel like you have loads of great stuff to say, and a blog would be the perfect way to say it? Whether you love writing, or you want to share photos or video with the world, blogging is a completely accessible way to do it. With your own blog, you decide what is great content, and you get to engage with the people who see it. It can be hugely rewarding, both as a hobby and, if you go into it seriously, as a way to make money.

Your Very Own Place On the Web

The first thing you need, is of course an idea. Do you have a specific niche you want to write about? Are you especially passionate or knowledgeable about a topic? Bear in mind that the niche can be as broad or as narrow as you like. If you love fashion, sport or celebrities, you can blog about a vast topic like that, or, if you are the number one fan of a band, video game or TV show, or have a niche profession you are a true expert in, you can pick that as a more narrow subject.

Once you have decided what your blog will be about, the next step is of course creating it. This is the point many would be bloggers get hung up on. Partly because they are not sure what skills they will need, and partly because they are worried it will cost money they don't have. So, can you really start a blog for free?

Yes, But Use Caution

You certainly can get through the whole process of creating your blog and making it live, running it, adding content and promoting your new site without spending any money at all. You can use a platform like WordPress or Blogger to both create and host your site, and work hard on Twitter, Facebook to gain views, as well as mastering SEO and making sure the content you write is well optimised so people can find you in searches.  However, this may not be the best way to approach things.

By Spending a Small Amount You Can Get a Lot More Success

While setting up your site using WordPress and one of their free themes is just fine (and what many non commercial blogs do), hosting it on the WordPress or Blogger platforms is generally a bad idea for all but the smallest, most personal blogs. The good news is, getting your own domain and web hosting is really quite cheap – you can click here for more information. As well as hosting and a domain, another small expense that can be well worth it as you grow your blog is some Facebook or Google advertising, to really target the people you want seeing your content.

Starting your own blog can be free, but often the financial savings are not worth the amount of work you have to put in on promotion, and the fact you'll be left with an amateurish looking site location. By spending a small amount, you can have a site that looks credible, and can capture the attention of the right people!