Earlier this week, my sister’s friend asked her why he would want to move from Blogspot (Google’s free blog hosting service) to a WordPress-powered blog (paid hosting).
Since then, I’ve been thinking about reasons why someone should move out of free blog hosting. Surely there must be quite a number of good reasons out there because many developed Blogspot blogs actually moved out eventually. Not that I have anything against free stuff, but if someone wanted to move but would like to hear a few valid ‘pros’ then here are a few:
1. It Is Unprofessional.
Let’s face it: nobody wants somebody’s signature or stamp anywhere on their blog. Default templates have pesky e-stamps: the ‘Powered by Google’ link at the footer of their templates, and all blogs have that Blogspot browser-toolbar right above the blogs. If you are serious about your website and want to leave a good first impression on your visitors, you don’t want something screaming “FREE BLOG” as soon as the page loads. Presentation is everything. Besides, Google is rich enough, why would you want to promote them any more? (I love Google, I’m just coming up with reasons here so cut me some slack!).
*There are a few code-hacks to remove them though.
2. Development Flexibility.
If you are hosting on Blogspot, your domain name points to their servers. So you are limited to their software. If they tell you that you can’t upload a specific file format of a certain file size then there’s nothing you can do about it. If you have all kinds of special plans for your wonderful new website with a pretty little URL then you will have to leave Blogspot. For example, if you need to install all kinds of additional features through WordPress thousands of free plug-ins e.g. social buttons, feedback form, contact form, classifieds ads, PDF converter, ecommerce or shopping cart, forum, community site, etc. or if you want to create additional directories, e.g. www.yoursite.com/downloads or www.yoursite.com/photography, etc. you will not be able to perform these upgrades if you keep your blog on Blogspot. This is because it is a simple blog hosting service and that’s it. If a blog is all you need, then Blogspot should suffice.
3. Official Email.
Please note that domain registrars (that handle your URLs) is different from your web host (that handles your storage and content). If you have your own URL and would like an official email, you will have to forward it to your personal email (e.g. gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.). Then reply through that, because registrars can only support email forwards. Paid hosting on the other hand allows you to create email addresses and host your emails (incl. attachments). It also supports multiple users. So there are more email options available for paid hosting.
4. Search Engine Optimization.
WordPress open source software is incredibly SEO-friendly. Without much effort, you can set it up in a way, that when you publish a post it will be visible on the search engines within minutes. This is great for news-related sites, because if there’s breaking news and you’ve got the story then people searching for related keywords will land on your blog. Search engine optimization is key to online success.
5. Worthless Backlinks Means Limited Advertising.
When you own a website or a blog, you are a potential advert publisher. This means, you might be open to advertisers wanting to pay you for ad space on your website. As a publisher, it is not that important to know search engine optimization. But it might be interesting to know that if you are on Blogspot, advertisers who are experts in the field (and therefore have enough money to spend) will not choose your blog. By default, Blogspot blog links are set to no-follow. This means, only people who visit your website will see your ads. There is no trace of it online, and on the search engines. So no matter how many pages you have, nobody would want to pay for ad space on your site because it won’t help their site’s performance on the search engines.
These are just 5 reasons. If you can think of a few more feel free to comment! 
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WYSIWYG! I'm a simple person trying to live the simplest life possible - it seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve! I'm an internet enthusiast and I've been a webmaster since early 2007. I like: blogging, developing sites using open source software, social media, computer games, '80s music, comedy & horror, animals, crunching on M&Ms peanut and Smarties!
Of course! some blogging sites offers limited, very limited space for you to move. or they will just give you little authority of the blog i mean having to design, post, and link is just one thing. the other thing is having the authority over the coding. Having a stamp of blogspot in ur blog is still adversting right? its like making something and is being branded by others.
Yup. Blog users need to weigh out the advantages and disadvantages and figure out if moving out of Blogspot is what they need for their blog or brand.