The blog theme is one of the most important aspects of your site. Now, I am not saying I know exactly how a blog should look like, but if your site is unattractive, readers will usually read the article that they came for and leave. There are hundreds of thousands of free themes out there, but is it worth it to purchase one from a coder who knows what they are doing and can customize it to your liking?

There are obviously quite a few benefits to purchasing your own theme. The first being you will be the only blog out there with that exact layout (not the case with me). You will be able to customize everything about it down to the smallest placement. You can optimize certain parts of your site, make your banner ads seemingly invisible to your readers, yet still have them there to sell them, and many other possibilities. Buying a theme will make your blog way more unique and personal than the average blog, and it is almost always the determining factor in whether or not your blog will succeed. Sometimes, it will be worth it.

Unfortunately, there is always a flip side to the coin. Sometimes, you should not purchase a theme specifically for your blog. If you don’t think you can earn the money back easily, then don’t buy one. It is as simple as that; there are so many free themes out there that you could easily pick one to your liking. With thousands of them readily accessible, one of them is bound to be your new favorite theme. If you plan on running a small niche blog that you only hope to pick up loose change with Adsense or other advertising programs, then you will not need a specialized layout. You can simply use a free theme, and you’re well on your way.

I sincerely believe in purchasing your own theme to make your site flawless. However, when it came time to pick out a theme, I went with a free one. The reason is that I really don’t have the funds to get a quality theme coded at the current time. If I were to get one coded, it wouldn’t have all the cool features I wanted. So I decided that I will use a free one until I have earned enough money for a layout for my blog. Hopefully, in a couple of months.

Thanks for reading!

-Aud

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Yes, starting a free blog is obviously the first step any blogger (unless you are willing to spend money) should take. There are many different reasons why one would start a free blog. There are also many different places you can set up your free blog, each with its own benefits and downfalls. Personally, I use Blogger, but that does not necessarily mean I dislike other blogging platforms. Again, each of them have their own strengths and weaknesses.

The two major blogging platforms that I will go over are Google’s Blogger and WordPress. Each service will allow you a few different services that may or may not suit some bloggers, and each offer different blogs in general. The following advice will be based on my previous experiences with each of these services. Having used both extensively for free blogs, you can trust that I know what you are looking for.

Just a tidbit of history; WordPress has been around for about five years now. It was developed by a team of coders, and now it is owned by its creator. It has not been sold to any large industry like Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft. It has more freedom because it’s creation was purely for bloggers, versus the various Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft blogging services who were only looking for financial gains. With this comes many features that can help you create an award winning blog.

There are several features I like about this blog. The Autopost has got to be the biggest. I can schedule a post to automatically be posted at whatever time, day, month, and year of my choosing. That way I won’t have to worry about upsetting my audience while out of town. I can simply write some posts ahead of time and enjoy my vacation. They have a stats system implemented into your blog so you can discover how many people view your blog each day; what posts get the most views, what the most popular search engine terms used to find your blog are, what links they clicked on your blog, and much more. This is similar to Google Analytics, which I will discuss later on.

Then there would be the top dog Google’s blogging service called Blogger. Blogger contains a few things that you may like especially for a free blogging service. You can find certain themes online that are made with CSS to update your blog. They allow you to change the layout without paying monthly fees. Their widget system is a lot better. Not only do they have more and better widgets, but customizing them into the layout is much easier as you can get a visual while doing it. The last big point is that you can sell advertisements on your blog. They are Google Adsense capable, and will also allow things like Entrecard, Yahoo Ads, Project Wonderful ads, and any other ad service you can find out there. You can also sell 125×125 ads on the side. :)

So which one should you consider? It all comes down to what you want your blog to do. Both blogging services are great, however I personally have a favorite. Remember, this is based on my opinion, you are always entitled to your own.

WordPress Users:

1. Interested in the Autopost feature
   
2. Dislike Google Analytics updating stats daily, WordPress does every new visit
3. Wish to move their blog to their own domain eventually (you would want to use WordPress for your own domain instead of Blogger for many reasons)
4. You have no interest in putting up ads
5. Your only way of monetizing is with affiliate links in your posts; but you can also secretly sell links in Blogroll

Blogger Users:

1. Want their free blog to be able to make a lot of money (not guaranteed, you need EFFORT)
   
2. Interested in ad services like Entrecard for both traffic and advertising
3. Have no plans of moving to their own domain in the future
4. Willing to use Google Analytics

So this is what I have listed. The big differences between the blogging services as well as which free blogging service you should use when starting your blog. I hope this has helped you at least somewhat, and if you need additional information, feel free to ask or comment on this post.

-Aud

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Hey everyone,

First off, welcome to my blog! :) My name is Aud. I have decided to make a business blog because business is what I intend to major in as well as become well associated with. My blog will usually include some tidbits about my life, but usually just online marketing tools and advice. If I find something worthwhile, I will post it here and try to help out everyone! I will also provide some beginner blogging tips for some of those who need it. I am fairly experienced in blogging; I have previously used Wordpress, Squidoo, Blogspot, etc. Each and every one of them focuses on a major topic. This one will mainly focus on Business/Marketing/Blogging. If my blog helps, please show your support by subscribing to my RSS feed. I know this might not be the best blog in the world, but hey, I'm trying! :)

I am a college student intending to major in business. I enjoy helping others with blogging as well as marketing. Outside of using the computer, I like to draw, play the piano, and play badminton.

See you guys tomorrow!

-Aud

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