Using blogspot

[Sebastian Penn]

Much food for thought! I guess my thnking was that if I find three or four possible niches then I would pay for the domain and host for the one I think is best and then test the others via blogspot. As usual I am over-analysing myself into a knot. I think I'll follow Caro's advice and hold fire till the Challenge actually starts. Hey, can't blame me for being keen to get started.

[Felixcat]

Hi Sebastian,

very good advice there, esp from mmeadwolfe about the problems involved in trying to transfer your site from a freebie blogger to your own domain space later.

You're about to invest a lot of your own personal time and energy into your Challenge project. Your project is worth a small amount of money to ensure it has a solid and secure foundation. You don't want to give anyone a chance to come along and sabotage it. I don't mean maliciously, but just through their applying the rules that they work by.

Trying to get by on freebie blogspace is false economy. They are fine for hobby interests but they just aren't suitable for a serious e-commerce project.

[SoLo]

REASON FOR EDIT : Misread OP's experience level and assumed they had done the TDC prior and were familiar with the kw selection process due to my error.

Removed post to avoid confusion.

[bkinblk186]

Hi, mmeadwolfe - I agree with you on this one. I think it is better to have a separate site and domain for this type of project or business. It is a real pain to start over because you've decided to transfer to a registered site rather than continue with a blog page/site. It is crucial for flexibility, customization, and profitability. Have you ever used a CMS to integrate a blog page via wrap or iframe?

[mmeadwolfe]

I've never set up a CMS to integrate a blog, but I'm familiar with the concept. Its more my style to find a platform that will give me the extendability that fits the websites goals.

[Jim Sewell]

Another hindrance of using Blogspot or even Wordpress-hosted is that you are not free to do as much with the themes and plugins as you are in the stand alone product.

I love Ed's comment "Go eBay some gear"... that's about it - the costs are not that much and if we truly can't afford a grand total of $20 to learn how to successfully market in the Internet world then the problems are bigger than hosting.

I like the idea mmeadwolfe has of sharing hosting among friends or within your group if you are in a group for The Challenge. I'd be afraid someone else would see my great niche idea but that's the cost of being cheap I guess.

Name one other business you can get into for $20.

[mmeadwolfe]

Name one other business you can get into for $20.

I got this one: Lemoned Stand! And with the Sugar plug-in you get twice the customers.

[lisahartwell]

And then there's the one that involves a free street corner and..... oh, maybe not - there are kids around

Absolutely agree with Jim quoting Ed - one of the best ways to raise a little cash is to put some stuff on eBay. Certainly you could raise $20 that way.

Lisa

[DCDuggan]

I agree the above. I had a large blog on Blogger. I spent around 6 month making it and driving traffic to it. The Big G deleted it, I made a mistake with some links.
Result all my work gone.
I would never build a money making site on a free service again.

[CyberSorcerer]

You have to take things in perspective when you're an internet marketer and think outside the box a lot of time. When I mentioned, in a previous post on this topic, about what I accomplished with the search term "Independent Security Consultant" on a free host, I in no way was stating that you should, or could, have your money site on a free host or blogspot for that matter.

But in terms of researching, A/B testing certain things, experimenting, etc these sites are perfect for that. For instance, a lot has been said, both good and bad, about the competition in you're keywords and how bad it is for you, etc. So when I read statements like that I say to myself

I wonder if that is actually true or if anyone has REALLY tested that theory?

So I go out and test that theory and see for myself. But at the same time I don't want to waste any money on something like this because it doesn't directly involve me marketing a product or service, it's just a test of a theory.

So a free host, blogspot, wordpress.com, etc would work nicely for such a thing because if everything is done right Google will still index them and rank your page, as was shown above. So my philosophy is not think badly about something but to figure out a way I can use it to my benefit or to accomplish a goal of mine.