We talked about getting free blogging accounts, but what if you want to venture out on your own, and set up your own blog on a web host of your choosing?

There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to running a site on your own hosting account, but there is certainly a lot of freedom it gives you.  As we mentioned in the free blogging post, you have a lot of limitations placed on you from the blog hosts in the sense of what themes you can use, how many images you can post, no advertising allowed on some and, worst of all, he inability to have your own domain name.

A hosting account will allow you to do all of these things we mentioned, which definitely belong in the “pros” column, but in the “cons” column comes a lot of self maintenance. When you install something like WordPress, it can usually be installed by the web hosts automatic script installers like Fantastico or SimpleScripts, but you will be responsible for making sure that you keep the software up to date as well as being responsible for your own security.

Personally, I find it a much better to run your own hosting account because it gives you so much more freedom.  Of course, there is then the question of who you should pick as a host, and for that I recommend the article, “How to select a web hosting service” that I wrote another site I no longer work for.  Again, it can be a lot of work, but most serious bloggers will tell you this is the best solution, especially in the long term.