Using blogspot

[Sebastian Penn]

Ed made it clear in the latest Challenge Tv video that a big part of being successful is not being afraid to fail and to test, test, test. Not having much spare cash laying around to buy assorted domains ( just in case the first project I do following the Challenge does not net me a cool millon) I am wondering about using blogspot to test a niche. Is it wasted time/energy to run a free domain and blogspot blog for a few months to test a market and then move over to a wordpress blog if it looks viable?

[lisahartwell]

Two issues with using Blogspot:

1. Not the same seo power as self-hosted wordpress blogs with the right domain name
2. You don't own it - so you can put all that time and effort in and yet it still isn't yours

You shouldn't need to spend on assorted domains. I would do the training and buy one domain name (less than $10) and a month or two's hosting ($10-$15) rather than resorting to a blogspot blog (which we may use in the challenge but only for backlink purposes). At least if things don't work out on that domain you'll have something to sell to make your money back.

Lisa

[Sebastian Penn]

Okay. Thanks Lisa.

[Caro :-)]

HI Sebastian,

I know it's really hard to not jump ahead. In my first year in 2005, I was always asking questions about what was to come - and it became a joke between Ed & I as it seemed like I asked the question that was what the next days Training was going to be about.

The best thing you can do for yourself, is to surrender to the process. Let go of preconceived ideas, and also solutions to problems you do not know are in fact problems. And be open to giving it a go the way we teach.

Sometimes if we have a money mentality of we can't afford something, which may be true in that moment in your mind, it's actually keeping you in that state.

I can say now - doing The Challenge itself, will not net you millions during the course of The Challenge experience - it WILL set you up with the skills and education to know how to work towards building a business that could earn you that much, for sure.

We are not about magick pills and big promises. We are about education, and helping people get themselves in a position where they can make online marketing a reality for themselves - and it takes hard work.

So it is advisable that you suspend your own judgments and ideas even of how to approach it - give it a go with the method that is taught as it is taught - and then layer your own ideas etc onto that.

And please believe that it IS possible to make money from this, rather than millions, that you can begin to learn how to build an online business that you can grow. And that any money spent is an investment into that.

This post is just not singling you out - this sort of question and thinking expressed comes up every year - so it's a global response specific to your post.

Best

Caro

[CyberSorcerer]

Hello Sebastian,

A short and direct answer to your question is yes, you can make money on blogspot. Probably not in the way that 'The Challenge' is going to teach because you are a little limited with Blogspot. I have done well when I was starting out using it and I know friends that are still on it and getting 10-15k hits a month and making money just from banner ad placements and Adsense.

The thing for all the beginners to understand that are following 'The Challenge' is to learn what Ed and the others are teaching. This is your beginning, your stepping stone, into Internet Marketing. Before you're able to make other unrelated avenues work you have to have an understanding of how IM works, the best approaches for affiliate marketing, etc.

When building a castle you first need a solid foundation. If your foundation isn't solid then your castle will not be standing for long.

Sorry just wanted to add that this goes for freehost too. But again not something for someone just starting out or learning internet marketing. I have a bunch of test cases on the internet for both blogspot and free host but I've been doing this for some years now. Not sure if this is allowed but no link used. Do a search on Google for "independent security researcher" including the parentheses, which makes it a phrase match and my example site is 4th in the results. That is because there was ABSOLUTELY no competition in the phrase so I placed there within about 2 weeks.

Shows the importance of knowing how competitive your keywords are before you start investing time into it.

[Chris Ellis]

Hello,
if U can't spend the money on your domain and hosting, Then I wood go with blogger or wordpress dot com. It will take a bit longer to get rankings on google. but you will get their with time.

[Caro :-)]

Hi Chris,

Please take the time to write in proper English. Please use 'you' rather than 'u' and 'I' rather than 'i' and so forth. And 'But' rather than 'but' - so a capital letter at the start of a sentence. This is not a text environment. And you most certainly will have to write articles with correct grammar and spelling for The Challenge (it's 'would' not 'wood' and 'there' not 'their').

Thanks in advance for modifying your approach it is important to make an effort with your writing - as there will be writing for you to do as part of The Challenge.

Caro :-)

[DaveMarkel]

The reason you don't want to use blogspot is that from time to time blogger will cancel accounts. I am not sure the process they use or their criteria but I have had 3 complete white hat blogs closed down by blogger. Don't trust your efforts and time to a service the MAY just turn your blog off.

You should be able to register a domain for about $8 and you are in charge of it. Not the service that provides it.

[CyberSorcerer]

Yes Dave, you are correct. But that is because Blogspot is owned by Google and we all know Google is very rule driven and any deviation from their rules will result in a suspension.

In today's economy I believe if you're going to help people get started in IM then you also need to be supportive of getting started on a shoestring budget and with little money as possible. Granted it might not be the best, or most effective, way to start but remember the old saying 'You get out of someone what you put into it.' That something could be money but it also could be hard work. So if going the cheap route and you don't put in enough time then your results are not going to be enough either.

[mmeadwolfe]

So putting no money in means you get no money back out?

I think in the long run its worth it to save $8 a month and get a hosting site and look in the couch for the $0.89 for a .info website. Will you get the same results? Maybe. If you get great results will you have you secured your assets? Yes.

You could even get a few friends together and share one hosting account. Most $10/mo plans will allow you unlimited domains, so your individual cost could be $10/yr for a dot com and $2.50/mo with 3 other friends!

The biggest gamble with using a blog service is that if (and I mean IF) you hit a great topic, you WILL lose in the end. Your limited to what the service allows, and if you break that you risk the consequences. The worst part is you can't just transfer the site to your own name after the fact because you lose your PR and your backlinks. Its like starting over from the beginning.

So the answer: Can you use a blog service? Yes. Will this hinder your profitability? Yes. Will you lose freedoms of ownership? Yes.

Think long and hard before deciding the free route is better than the cheap route.