The Go Daddy Tar Baby

A client wrote to me, asking about using Go Daddy's low cost blogging solution.

Here's my answer:

I understand the "low cost" attraction of Go Daddy. However, the client's I've had who used their services have been VERY disappointed in the final product. VERY disappointed as in "would have gladly paid big bucks rather than endure what they had to endure!"
(I STRONGLY recommend that clients NOT EVEN USE Go Daddy for domain name registration for active web sites! Read more at: http://www.virtualimpax.com)

Instead, if there is concern about cost, not to mention"sticking with" blogging, I HIGHLY recommend using http://www.blogger.com

Blogger is free. The advantages of using this free quality services is:

a) you don't have to deal with the whole "sandbox" issue for the new domain name
b) if you "fall off" the blogging wagon, your blog won't be penalized as severely as if you were on your own domain name.

Now the "problems" with using this free service are:

a) the traffic belongs to BLOGGER not you.
b) should you develop a following, it will be difficult to "transition" to a stand alone blog.

I actually encourage clients to establish accounts on blogger. One of the keys to blogging is doing it often. It helps to establish blogs in many different areas.

Here's what the domain name will look like for the blogger.com blog:

http://beyondtheniche.blogspot.com/

I post about once a month to my blogger account and use that as a "breadcrumb trail" leading to my stand alone blog http://www.beyondnichemarketing.com along with my other site which promotes my book (find my niche).

You can see that I can't use the blogger blog to :

a) sell my book directly
b) encourage sign ups to my newsletter

I have to rely on visitors clicking through to my other web sites..... something that reduces book sales and sign ups SIGNIFICANTLY. However, like I said, it's a great way to "experiment" with whether blogging is right for you.

Please, use one of these free services rather than embrace the Tar Baby that is Go Daddy.