In today’s new media world, there are many options that you have to consider if you are interested in blogging. Whether the blog will be used as a corporate platform or simply to recap little Johnny’s baseball games, decisions need to be made.  What will be the theme of your blog? Which software are you going to use? How often will you post?

One of the biggest decisions you need to make right out of the gate is the manner in which your blog will be hosted. Should you throw on your IT hat and setup a self-hosted site or simply use one of the many blog services that are available?

In my opinion, it depends on the time you want to invest.

Ultimately nothing is more powerful than running your own hosted application, I don't think there's any doubt about that. You are able to:
- Point the blog at any domain or URL you want
- Use any blog software you want, or potentially change
- Have access to your own data in your own database
- Install any plug-ins or extensions to your blog software you wish
- Have whatever visual design you want.
- Import and export your blog data into whatever format you need
- Easier integration with the rest of your website

However, hosted applications have their advantages too:
- Quickest start time: You can usually have a blog within five minutes using hosted services.
- Price: most of the hosted services are free and provide free hosting
- No administration overhead: You don't have to install or keep any software updated.

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