Curious as to whether you should host your own blog, or choose a free blog provider like BlogSpot? This is a question more and more people are asking themselves after witnessing just how far their blog has come.

Although there are advantages and disadvantages to both, having your own web hosting server is always better at the end of the day. Here are to simple (and extremely valid) reasons why you should avoid using a free blog provider:

Reason #1: Limited Resources

Posting content through a remotely hosted blog requires that you relinquish a tremendous amount of control over how messages look and work. This is mainly because a remotely hosted blog by design is built to accommodate hundreds of thousands of bloggers.

For such a big volume of activity, it can only afford to offer the very least. A blog that offers an extensive amount of features to a large number of people consumes much more resources than what its own servers can provide — ultimately running the risk of major crashes.

Even something as simple as a low-graphic poll can consume an insurmountable amount of bandwidth if over 100,000 bloggers decide to offer one to their visitors. A popular blog already consumes more bandwidth than you can imagine.

Resources simply aren’t an issue with a self-hosted WordPress blog these days. With your blog web hosting, you can deck out your blog with as many plugins and widgets as your heart desires without having to fear server crashes or time outs.

In fact, you shouldn’t consume any more bandwidth with your own hosted blog than you would consume with your own hosted website.

Reason #2: Limited Monetizing Opportunities

We couldn’t count the number of people who want to monetize their blogs if we wanted to. The simple fact is that everyone and his “mom” wants to monetize their blog but the ugly reality is that many (free) remotely hosted blogs don’t allow it.

If you host a blog at WordPress.com for example, you’re prohibited from using any form of direct advertising like Google AdSense or affiliate links. (more…)