Blogger.com – A Basic Training Camp for Aspiring Pro Bloggers

Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 2:00 pm

While there are some Blogger blogs that are earning a nice chunk of change, I have to say from personal experience, Blogger provided me with a platform on which to learn – not earn. So if you’re blogging on Blogger and not earning, it’s most likely not the writer, but the platform.

Blogger blogs are a great place to learn how to play with code, place ads, gain an audience of readers and explore the world of blogging as a whole. There does come a time when you have to just move on up or move on out.

Once you’ve played around with blogging on a free platform for a few months, you’ll be able to tell if it’s right for you or not.

Moving some of my Blogspot blogs over to WordPress and my own hosting was the wisest decision I ever made. I noticed the change from being just another writer to becoming a writer that’s taken seriously almost immediately.

There are several reasons I believe that paying for hosting and using a dot com instead of a free platform blog are key to earning money online. The top reasons for me are: Name Branding – Accountability and Earning Potential.

One of the biggest reasons for me choosing a dot com is branding. I didn’t want to brand my name or my blog to have a dot blogspot dot com extension – I wanted to be able to share my blog address with people and be proud. Having your own dot com address gives you that sense of pride and a twinge of authority.

When you remain on Blogger, you’re choosing to look like everyone else.

I truly believe when you are paying for hosting and you’ll want to recover that expense – so therein lies the sense of accountability. If you don’t write and work your blog, you might as well just flush that money. When you’re paying for the hosting, you’re more likely to actually write rather than come up with excuses not to – you’ll find ways of turning that bad day into a blog post – or that sick day into a work of art. Everything becomes about blogging and regaining that investment.

Lastly, the earning potential. Let’s think about this for a minute. If you’re an investor and your looking for ways to market your product, are you going to go for the handcrafted cardboard sign or are you going to go for the more professional looking billboard that has the bells and whistles to draw attention to your ad? Please don’t think I’m comparing all blogger blogs to cardboard signs, because I’m not. There are some blogger blogs out there that have real value and merit, but because of all the ones that are not, it’s more difficult to spot the ones who aren’t. Thereby causing the real issue here.

Investors want convenience. They don’t want to have to read 100 posts on a blogger blog to determine it’s credibility. They want to see the professionalism at first glance. That’s why your image and your brand are most important when you’re blogging for more than a hobby.

If you MUST remain on Blogger or any other free blog service, at least get your own domain name and invest in a unique template. Set yourself apart. Sure you’re writing may be incredible, but you’ve got three seconds to catch a persons eye and draw them in to even explore what you have to say!

Personally, I buy my domain names from GoDaddy and I have blogs hosted on BlueHost and Host Gator. They’re names and services I trust and find to be most user friendly.

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