Every blogger has to begin somewhere. For many of us bloggers, to get our feet wet means we start with a blog on a free domain such as Blogger. Then the unthinkable happens! We suddenly find ourselves hooked on blogging, and then we wish we had established our blog on our own domain. If that’s where you are at, and you would like to migrate away from the free domain, to a fabulous blog on your own domain, then this post is the one for you to read!

I currently have two blogs on Blogger, which is how I got my feet wet. As time has gone on I’ve grown tired of the downsides of not having the blogs on my own domain, but I learned a great deal from the experience. My plan this year is to relocate those two blogs to two domains of my own, and hopefully very soon. For some time now I’ve already had my strategy planned for doing so, and I’ll share that strategy with you.

Before I get into the details for migrating your blogs and posts, lets first go over some of the pros and cons of using a free domain for your blogging platform, vs owning your domain. Well, let’s quickly clarify that technically you “lease” a domain since you must renew it each year. This will make up part one of this article, and then you will want to return for part two for the strategy on the actual relocation of your blogs.

  • Ownership

If your blogs are currently located on a service where your domain is provided free, you don’t have true ownership or full control over your blog! Owning the domain also gives you the ability to resell the domain in the future if you wish, which could prove to be quite fruitful in the long run.

  • Publishing & Advertising Rights

Are you serious about monetizing your blogs? If your plans are to use a free domain for monetization, you have already implemented an income limitation on your blogs! Some free domain blogging platforms either prohibit any type of commercial advertising entirely, or if they do allow it they may consider your blog advertisements to be spam. Under most tos for free domains, you could even have the plug pulled on your blog entirely.

Another challenge is working as a publisher for programs such as PayPerPost, and others like their service. Many of those services are either no longer accepting blogs on free domains, or limiting the opportunities to those on free domains. You won’t be faced with that challenge on your own domain.

  • SEO aka Search Engine Optimization

Getting traffic to any new web site is a task, no matter where the domain is located, free or not. However, in the long run the search engines tend to favor domain ownership rather than the sites on free domains. This was one of the key reasons I quickly became disappointed with the use of a free domain. Just one example is to take a look at how your domain appears on Alexa! As an example, if you are on a Blogger domain all the fame and glory in Alexa goes to their site, not yours! On a free domain you are really contributing to their success far more than yours. Of course that is the trade off for not having the blog on your own domain to begin with.

I think the time in which a free domain really makes sense is if the blog will only be serving as ones personal journal or family blog. Otherwise, if you plan to capitalize on the possible monetization of your blogs you really need the benefits of developing good seo for your own domain.

  • Greater Enthusiasm to Prosper Your Blogs

If you are enthusiastic about your blogs on a free domain, you will be amazed at how your enthusiasm will become even greater when your blog is on your own domain! You will have much more desire to take on the necessary tasks to prosper your blogs!

There are of course many other benefits of publishing a blog on your own domain, but those should be enough for now to provide you with new enthusiasm for the future of your blogs once they are moved.

Be sure to stop back in for Part Two in the next several days! At that time I’ll share my strategy for how you can migrate your blogs to your own domain, and not lose the traffic you have built on your current blogs. :D