Why and How You Should Start a Stand Alone Blog

There are many advantages to having a stand alone blog. Whether you want a greater degree of customization, or whether you want to have full ownership and security when it comes to your blog writing, having a stand alone blog provides some benefit, no matter what your blog's purpose.

If you are using your blog to make friends or to spread your opinion on a topic, having a stand alone blog allows you to customize your blog in a way that reflects your ideas, values or personality. The layouts and themes of the free blogs don't offer nearly as much in the way of customization. In addition, starting a stand alone blog allows you a vanity name. For example, you could start JohnArnoldSmith.com.

If you use your blog for business or to make money, having a stand alone blog is critical. If your blog relies on a free blogging service, they have the right, at any time, to shut down your blog. This means that you could lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars just because you were too cheap to pay for your own stand alone blog, or because you didn't trust your technical skills at running a stand alone blog.

To start a stand alone blog, there are some specific steps you need to follow:

1. Decide on, and register, your domain name. Unless you've already done this and have your domain name pointing to your free blog, this is where you have to start.

2. Decide on a hosting service. I personally use GoDaddy, but there are literally hundreds of domain hosting services that you can use, many of which charge only a few dollars a month. If possible, you should stick with one of the bigger companies, for reliability purposes if nothing else. In addition, you might want to select a service that provides free blog software installation, like GoDaddy does.

3. Install the stand alone blog software. One of the most popular blog software programs is WordPress, and many hosting services will install the stand alone blog software for free.

4. Set up your blog. Choose your theme, layout, and set up your blogroll.

5. Begin writing content for your blog.

It really isn't much more complicated than that. What are you waiting for? Get out there and start your own stand alone blog today!