Nothing in life is free and that includes blogs. You could start a business blog on Blogger.com, WordPress.com or any of the myriad shared blog websites and begin blogging in about 5 minutes. You don’t have to give them any money, but what does that actually cost you? Much more then you may think!
1. It is harder for you to get links to, subscribers and build exposure with a free blog, because webmasters link to resources that have the most value and everyone knows that those blogs are free.
2. You don’t have any support or people to help you or answer questions
3. You have to do all the promotion and marketing yourself, and you are actually marketing them, not you (that is why it is free)
4. You don’t get a custom domain name and it is not your property, so the blog does not build value independently of your main company website and if you want to eventually move it to your own domain, you’ll lose rankings / value.
5. They don’t allow for the same level of customization including the ability to install extremely valuable widgets and plug-ins that help with search marketing and search engine optimization.
6. It doesn’t look as good to your visitors. It looks like you got a free blog and makes you low-tech looking when you are trying to build a professional presence.
You’ve answered some questions about your site. You’ve thought about features, hosting, content management systems, and we’ve touched a little bit on design. Now we’re going to look at domain names.
If you're still looking for a good team to take your project to the next level, the authors of the 2010 Rothman Guide to Building Successful Websites are available for free, no obligation, creative consultations that you will not forget! Call 1-866-945-1113 or e-mail your contact info to info@socialmediasystems.