I continue to use the free blogging software from WordPress.com on my blog Ms. Ileane Speaks. Several bloggers have warned me about the perils of free blog platforms. No control, no domain name, no plugins, and last but not least for Pete's sake no ADS!!
But I've always been somewhat rebellious and then there's that other thing I love about WordPress.com. It's F-R-E-E! 🙂
Automattic details the fundamental differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
Yet, I've been able to unearth a quick list of perks in favor of using WordPress.com that I'd like to share with you.
11 Reasons I Love WordPress.com
- Reliability – I wish a had a dime for every time I heard a self-hosted blogger scream because their host went down
- Speed – Sure there's no plugins but too many plugins can slow down site load time
- Community – Tag Surfer and Blog Surfer provide access to 300,000 blogs and (no RSS reader required)
- Easy – Fewer bells and whistles to answer
- Comments – Track all of your comments on other WordPress.com blogs right from your dashboard
- Training – WordPress.tv serves up the most delightful short instructional videos (great music too)
- Support – the volunteers in the forums can answer most questions and support responds asap
- Guests – Sharing the spotlight with guest bloggers is no different from self-hosted blogs
- Stats – Right on your dashboards – no plugins required!
- Akismet – Probably THE most important plugin on the planet
- Fun – Yeah, that's right blogging is supposed to be fun
Here's a tip for self-hosted bloggers. Use a WordPress.com blog to create back-links for your primary site. Take a look at how Chuck Hines uses the Cybersmart WordPress.com blog to create a portal to the CybersmartWebMarketing site. If you want to eliminate “wordpress” from your URL you can map your domain back to your blog.
I know what you're thinking, “I don't have time for another blog”. My answer to that is – Please see #4 because you missed it the first time. Or what you can do the next time your site goes down (trust me eventually it WILL go down) is sign up for a WordPress.com blog. I'm here waiting to help if you have questions.
Share your thoughts on the subject, don't miss the comment section to the left of this post.
Image courtesy of stock.xchng user rajsun22