Visit the forums and you will find that the debate rages on. Is it better to use a free blog service, or pay for your own domain and hosting? In my opinion the answer is both!

The biggest advantage to having a self hosted blog is that you have the most control over your blog. You can post the ads you want and the content you want.And when you you use a provider such as Hostgator or GoDaddy you can rest assured you will have reliable hosting without too much downtime.

But there are advantages to using a free host. The number one advantage is that it is free! Free blogs are a great way to test the water of blogging. Try it out and get some experience before you actually pay money to blog. Free hosts are also a useful source of backlinks to your regular blogs.

There are some downsides to free hosts. Some will place ads on your sites. Some will not allow you to place your own ads on your site. Read the terms of service carefully and make sure that the host you choose will meet your needs.

Following is a list of free host sites. My favorite, just because it is small and I know the owner is Blogging4Life. My blog there is Katalina Online. Have fun creating your free blogs!

Blogging4life.com
Freeblogs.org
FreeBlogIt.com
Blog.com
MyBlogSite.com
informationjunkie.net
blogsome.com
weebly.com
wordpress.com
blogger.com
livejournal.com
theblogs.net
thoughts.com
webnode.com
blog.co.uk
freeblog.org.uk
bravenet.com
yola.com
webs.com
bloguni.com
sosblog.com
wix.com
doodlekit.com
vox.com
tumblr.com
blogskinny.com
blogeasy.com
blogr.com

Website Magazine

I know you probably prefer to get most of your information from the web, but every once in awhile you need to leave the computer and read something printed on paper. Website Magazine is all about running a website. Each issue is filled with practical advice and insights into the business of running a website, written by some of the top talent in the industry. All this and the magazine subscription is free, as in no cost to you, as in what do you have to lose. All you need is a website and you qualify for the free subscription. Get Your Free Subscription to Website Magazine

One of my favorite things, is when I get comments on my blog. Apparently I am not alone! Commentors tell you that someone has actually taken the time to read your post, and leave a comment. It is a good boost to the ego. I think it is also good for your blog to have a dialogue going on. Your readers can add insight and different points of views to your posts, making them more interesting for everyone.

So recently I have decided to do everything I can to reward my commentators. This was easily accomplished by adding three plugins to my wordpress blogs.

One plugin that is very popular, that I really like to see on other blogs, is Comment Luv.
With Comment Luv, when your visitor enters their URL, the plugin finds their last blog post and inserts a link to it at the end of their comment.

What goes along quite nicely with Comment Luv is Keyword Luv Many commentators like to use their keywords in place of their name. But that can make their whole comment look spammy, and it can be awkward to reply to “Make money online with Adsense”. With keyord luv, your commentators are prompted to enter their name as Kat@ Blogging tips for Webmasters. The plugin separates the name from the keywords. So your name will look like Kat from Blogging Tips for Webmasters. Pretty nifty!

And then, to add the icing to the cake, to make Comment Luv and Keyword Luv truly show Luv to your commentators, make your blog no follow free with theNo Follow Free Plugin. By default, most WordPress blogs will add the no follow tag to commentator’s links. No follow free removes those tags, and lets some link juice flow through to your commentators.

Now do know, that when you add these three WordPress plugins to your blog, you will get a certain number of spammers just wanting the free links. You will need to actively moderate your comments and delete the ones that do not add value to your blog. I know that some people may be coming to my blog and commenting just for the do follow link, but I expect them to give me something of value in return, in a well thought out comment that encourages discussion.

To see how all the plug ins work, leave a comment on any post. But make sure it is a good comment, or it will be deleted!