You might find this useful

http://blog.inturl.com/2008/02/15/free-hosted-blog-vs-self-hosted-blog/

Self-hosted blogs are better any day any time. Control is the key thing for me.

You're right niyyie, but some still fill Free Hosted Blogs are better just because it cost you nothing. It's actually risky for self hosted blogger who has lots of traffic and can't afford to buy more than 1 or 2GB traffic bandwidth a month on the hosting server. Apart from the control issues, monetising your blog really matters. It's just about putting in money where you getting from, unless you just want to affect life by motivational words. I currently have 4 blogs with 3 monetizing while one is to motivated people spiritually.

I agree that self-hosted blogs are better any day, but beginners that dont have money to host the blog can still enjoy blogging with free hosting services

yeah,

I would say that it depends. If you are not technical and just want to share your views with the world, then a free hosted version will do. However, if you are a developer/someone who wants to go beyond typing characters, then the self-hosted is the way to go. At the end of the day, at least to me, nothing beats control. That is why I would rather code in notepad than in dreamweaver (but I digress ).

As always, my 2 cents.

Free hosted blogs are okay for the everyday blogger. But for those who have serious blogging in mind, a self-hosted blog is the key.

my2cents:

However, if you are a developer/someone who wants to go beyond typing characters, then the self-hosted is the way to go. At the end of the day, at least to me, nothing beats control. That is why I would rather code in notepad than in dreamweaver (but I digress ).

There are tones of plugins for self hosted wordpress that will work for you on a click without u knowing html or ftp in details.

ITBeings,

That's good to know and I thank you for sharing. But, how many non-IT people would be willing to go above and beyond (hence my statement above)? I don't have the stats, but I would be willing to bet that a majority of the bloggers will most likely probably just want to blog and probably are a little intimidated with respect to what FTP and/or plugins.

Personally, when I hear or read words like, "on a click", I panic because for the most part, from my experience anyways, nothing is as simple as it seems. There's always a catch somewhere, that one thing that if you ignore, might just well come back and bite you in the you know what

I just installed Joomla 1.5 on my system. The book pretty much says it can be installed, "on a click", yet it took me an hour at least to get it working right because I overlooked a couple of things. If I, with my experience (and I know, as stupid as I can be sometimes ) could encounter such, how much more Funmi the average blogger?

Blogger.com is a really good service.

my2cents,

Installation is different from configuration. Theses guyz( opensource developers) are really trying creating a quick install web apps. You actually installed by clicking unlike in the old day of php3 where u wiill have to write some extra code and stuffs just to do an installation. Nowadays you hardly spend time installing but you do spend time configuring. This is because you want more aside the default setting. Do you know u can install WP on your server remotely? By just uploading a single php(provided by WP) on you server you should be able to install it remotely.

Anyway you are right about "some average , " but I kindda wonder why some will want to be an average in what ever they are into. Taking time to learn is some peoples problem. Well i don't have to say much about that , still Self host is the best.

Installation is different from configuration.

You won't get an argument from me there. That being said, you have to admit that to some people, it is the same difference in terms of it probably being an overwhelming experience. It's just like friends and family asking me every time to fix their computer just because I am in IT. I have to keep reminding them that I am into software, not hardware. But again, to them, it's the same difference.

I kindda wonder why some will want to be an average

It's human nature. Just like there will always be lazy pple, there will always be average people. As long as our fingers are not the same length, life will never be the same for everyone. Besides, if there weren't average people, the world would be one boring place