After making the decision to create a business blog, the next decision is usually the blogging platform that will work best for your business. There are many hosting options for these. They all however, fall into two main categories:
Of the two, self-hosted blogs are the best for business owners who want to use blogging as a communication channel for their businesses. Below are benefits you will get from a self-hosted blog.
1. Control
Using a third-party blog host means that you will have limited control in what you can do. You will be stuck with using a sub-domain which will make it difficult for you to switch domains in future. Self-hosted blogs however have no such restriction and you also keep the traffic you have built over time even after switching hosts.
2. Customization
Using third-party blog hosts gives you limited templates for use on your blog. Self-hosted blogs allow you to use a much wider range of templates and themes that can also be customized to suit your needs. You can also use plugins on your self-hosted website to give you additional functionality and features.
3. Branding
Creating a blog with a top level domain that you own makes your business look very professional. Additionally, using a relevant domain name will help in legitimizing your business. You can also receive email from an address tied to your domain name for increased brand credibility.
4. Revenue
On a third-party blog, ad revenue from advertisements placed on your blog goes to the hosting company. With a self-hosted blog, you can take advantage of its potential as a source of revenue and you will be entitled to all proceeds from advertising that you choose to place on your website. Additionally, you can take part in the now common practice of creating a blog and then selling it later for profit. For this however, you would need a top level domain since this greatly increases the market value of your blog.
5. Space and Bandwidth
Third-party hosts usually provide very limited storage space and bandwidth that is in many cases, not sufficient for a blog that has images, videos, and graphics. This is not the case with a self-hosted blog. The size and bandwidth you get depends on the hosting package you select and you can therefore choose one that you are sure will provide enough resources for your blog.
6. Rankings
Because blog content changes often, it is appealing to both readers and search engines. Self-managing your blog also gives you the power to edit your post's URLs to make your Search Engine Optimization efforts more successful. All these things go a long way in boosting your ranking in Search Engine Result Pages.
7. Support
For your blogging efforts to bear fruits, you will need a blog that is up and running 24/7 to make it available to visitors and search engines all the time. A reliable web host will provide you 24/7 support to help you address any problem you may face and more than 99% uptime guarantee to ensure your blog is always available.
The domain name and hosting you will have to buy for your self-hosted blog is only a small price to pay for the advantages and returns you are bound to receive. If you are considering creating a blog for your business, consider these advantages as you are making the decision between a third-party hosted blog and a self-hosted blog.
