If you are serious about making money through blogging, it will be better for you to get your own domain and web hosting. Although you can start off with a free blogging service, it’s always best to go for the paid option instead. Not only do your blog sounded more professional with its own domain name, having your own domain name also give you more credibility and trust in the niche you are in.

Branding is also another area that newbies do not understand. If you are in for the long haul, branding is very important and crucial in the later stages. Besides that, you will also have better access to paid posting opportunities as most advertisers prefer to advertise on blogs with their own domain names. Having your blog on a free hosting service will only diminish the number of paid posting opportunities you will get. And not to mention that the major ads networks all prefer to work with those who have their own domains and having your own domain means that you will get your blog approve much faster.

Some people suggest going for the free options first but I will advise you otherwise unless you really can’t fork out the initial startup capital.

Why? Your preferred domain name may be available now but later it may not be available. Imagine building a blog named nichemarketing in blogger but some months down the road when you think you are ready to move to a new domain, you find nichemarketing.com already taken up and now you have to choose another name to rebrand yourself. Imagine the time and effort waste in building up the initial site.

Also, think about the hassles of informing and redirecting your loyal readers to your new domain and if you are already monetizing your blogger site through paid posting opportunities, then you will need to add your new domain and start from scratch in building up your new blog Page Rank and Alexa ranking. All these time and effort spent can be put into better use.

These are just some of the reasons why you should always go for your own domain and hosting in the first place if you can afford them. Weigh your options first and if you can afford the initial capital, please go and get your own domain and web hosting.

For a list of good and reliable domain registrars and web hosting companies, check out my “Recommended Resources” section.