If you've ever wondered what the best route to take when setting up a new blog, and you don't have much experience with the different options available for hosting the blog, it can be quite confusing. Let me see if I can help. While I'm no "guru" by any stretch of the imagination, I've worked with this stuff both inside and outside of the information technology field.
Hosted by Blogspot.com (Blogger), WordPress.com and Others
This is an option that a lot of people choose when they the first start blogging because everything except personal choices are handled by the hosting service. There's no need to know anything about the backend or how it all works. This is also the perfect choice if your goal is nothing more than to be socially popular or even just to use it as an online diary.
There are few monetization options, but the options do exist and if you know how to do it, you can still make a lot of money while using one of these services. Grizzly at How to Make Money Online for Beginners is the "go to" guy if you're looking to monetize a Blogger blog.
Self-Hosted (Using your own domain name with a hosting service)
While both blogspot.com and wordpress.com allow you to point your own domain name at blogs you've set up on their services, you're still limited by their backend in the things you're allowed to do. This is not the definition of self-hosted. Self-hosted means you control the whole ball of wax. You're the person that keeps the software up-to-date, changes and edits themes, adds code blocks, etc. It can be a daunting task for a beginner.
Being self-hosted gives you the greatest flexibility in monetization options. You're not restricted by any hosting service and you're limited only by your own imagination and the options available.
Domains, Subdomains and Add-On Domains
Knowing the difference between domains, subdomains and add-on domains is an important facet that many people overlook. It's actually quite simple when you understand how it works.
You start with a top-level domain (TLD) like ".com" and then anything to the left of it (other than a period) is considered the domain name, like "untwistedvortex.com". Add another section in front (separated by a period) and you have a subdomain, like "www.untwistedvortex.com". Go even further with it and you have a sub-subdomain (for lack of a better term). It always irks me when someone uses "www.something.blogspot.com" instead of "something.blogspot.com" because the "www" part is a sub-subdomain and if anything starts acting funky in the DNS, the sub-subdomains are the first to quit working. Since it merely points to the subdomain without the "www", I don't think it's a good idea to use it and I won't use it when linking to someone.
Some hosting services, like HostNine allow you to add additional domains to your hosting plan, hence the term "add-on domain". What it really is, is a subdomain that has a domain name, as well as the subdomain name, pointing to it. If you do something like this, it's a good idea to use a redirect to make sure it's only accessed with the domain name. That's a topic in itself, so I won't go into it right now.
Top Level Domains
It's arguable that the ".com" TLD is the one to go after. It is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to get a good domain name established due to the proliferation of domain names over time. I believe you can do just as well with most TLDs that have 3 letters or more. There was a time when, if you just entered the domain name into a browser address bar without the TLD, that it would automatically start looking for ".com" as the first choice. I think that's no longer true. At least, I can't make it work that way with Internet Explorer or Firefox anymore.
Many familiar websites use TLDs other than ".com". Examples: php.net, last.fm, del.icio.us
What Do I Recommend?
Ah, that's the clincher. I can't recommend anything over anything else, because I'm no expert on the subject. I've used all of them at one time or another. Since "www.untwistedvortex.com" is a subdomain that points to the domain of "untwistedvortex.com", it's obvious that using a subdomain won't hurt your blog in anyway. In this case, it was a matter of preference. There's nothing to stop me from creating a "sillyname.untwistedvortex.com" or something and have it completely separate, or even pointing to the same domain. The choices are not limited in any way.
The question boils down to the image you want to present and how professional you want or need to be. It's quite obvious that strict domain names appear to be more professional.
Your Thoughts?
I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject. Since I'm no expert, I could be completely wrong about everything and I love a good argument. Please, give it your best shot.
