Someone told me that it was about time that I got myself a proper domain name for my blog and move away from Blogspot and Blogger. According to him, getting a dot com or dot net or dot whatever for your blog and hosting it somewhere, means that you take blogging seriously, in other words, have taken "the big step forward."
To illustrate his point, he pointed out that all famous Malaysian bloggers including Kenny, Minishorts, Peter Tan, had unique domain names for their blogs.
However, I beg to disagree.
First of all, I do take blogging seriously.
I already own a few domain names and I don't think getting one for my blog is a good idea. You have to pay for the domain names and the hosting, annually, biannually or whatever annually depending on your choice. Unlike some people, I am surving on a paltry government employee salary.
On the other hand, hosting on Blogger is totally free and comes with great features. It is also owned by Google, which I don't think is going to go out of business soon. As Google grows, so will Blogger. For example, we can now add Google adsense ads to our blog straightaway.
I also don't have the time or the patience to mess around with Wordpress or Movable Type or some other blog software. I am not an IT guy and don't like to trouble people to help me with the template codes, blah, blah or deal with some customer service guy in the hosting company who treats you like an idiot because you don't know how the codes work.
I prefer the Blogger templates, ready made, which I can tweak a little from time to time.
If I have any problem, I am sure I can contact any of the guys in Blogger to help me out. It's a proven fact: they helped famous Singapore blogger Wendy put her blog up after it was hacked??? And as you may realise, it is hosted with Blogger too.
Not all famous Malaysian bloggers have a dot com or dot net or dot whatever. Actually, I think Lucia pointed that out sometimes back. I can name several famous Malaysian blogs hosted on Blogger:
Afdlin Shauki, Yasmin Ahmad, Sultan Muzaffar and of course Lim Kiat Siang
And talking about unique domain names, I assure you guys that there is only one blog with the url http://ok-lah.blogspot.com in the Whole World Wide Web.
15 comments:
yeah i want my own domain but i won't use it for my blog :P Tabulas works just lovely for me
You don't need a domain name to be a celebrity. I have a domain name because I want to be found easily in future when my dream expands.
Nobody said you can't make it big without your own domain name. After all, it's the readers that make you popular. :)
Cheers.
been with blogspot for like what 3 years liao.. so loyal.. cheh wah
i whole-heartedly agree with you, adam.
i recently bought 2 domains but no, i'm not going to use it for my blog. blogger is good enough because of all the reasons you listed out. it's free, it's own by GOOGLE!!, it come ready-made with a template... good for non IT person like me too.
some friends had also mentioned to me to move to wordpress but why should i when i feel that blogger is good enough for me... at least for my standard. i don't need too much details and features.
oh yes, your blog's url is unique indeed, adam.
long live blogger!
It depends on what a person (blogger) wants. Flexibility, freedom... of course, the paid-for service is an obvious choice. Some people find the standard features in Blogspot inadequate, they want more freedom. IMHO, I personally find it cool (yes, that's the word) to have a private domain. But at the same time, I'm happy with Blogspot. Of course, I don't know what'll happen in the future. Right now though, it's Blogspot for me :p
Adam
no need to leave blogger, since many blogs are on it and importantly for me it is free, if it was not I would probably have stopped as cant afford to waste money every month when could do it for free
I have a friend who did all the technical part of my web.... Ofcourse you have to pay for the domain name but buy adding 'adsense google' you can make money and eventually I'll get rich (dream on .. lol)
Adam I agree with you there... blogger.com is the best... also commmunication is much more easier in blogger.com than the others...
Whatever engine suits your fancy. What one accomplishes, the other cannot.
I like having my own domain simply because it gives me the flexibity to categorise posts and write PHP scripts if I want to. On the downside, I had to manage a lot of things on my own. And I had to pay for that privilege too.
i agree with you, adam... i totally agree! long live blogger!!!:)
I totally agree with you Adam
cheerz tcz
Same same here... blogger features are just fine... somemore, no need to worry about an additional bill...
Congratulations bro !!! to u and ur wifey. we will see u both next week.
I think Blogger is quite ok looking at the number of bloggers using them. But getting your own domain name will make your URL more easily remembered and shorter - Although my own URL is probably not shorter than yours :D
blogger's good enough for me.
besides, domain names need annual fees right? no pay, they revoke it from u...
with blogger, i know the only charges i'll have to pay will be my internet ISP charges (if blog from office, FREE).
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