Tech News Beats

There are tons of free blog host service providers these days but what should be our criteria for selecting one. Just do not go by if it is free, as if your blog becomes popular - it can open many earning oppurtunity. The criterias should be:

Webspace - How much webspace is provided - unlimited the better.

Uptime - The site should be 99.99% time online.

Bandwidth - How much bandwidth is provided? If you gain huge traffic at a latter stage will it be able to handle it? Unlimited bandwidth always better.

Features - what all features apart from the basic ones?

Monetization - Does it allow you to run your own ads? or it has some sharing income policy.

Keeping the above criterias in mind, I will give you a list of free blog hosts.

1. www.blogger.com - Unlimited webspace and unlimited bandwidth. Lots of features and allows monetization.

2. www.wordpress.com - Unlimited space and bandwidth, features, no monetization.

3. www.livejournal.com - It another popular blog host and has one of the largest number hosted blogs.

4. www.greatestjournal.com - offers podcast, free blogs, 1 gb photo uploads etc

5. www.freevlog.org - It is very good video blog host. The best thing about this host is, it allows you to customize your blog with your own domain.

6. www.busythumbs.com - It is moblog or mobile blog host and allows users to upload stuffs via GPRS enabled mobile phone or via website.

My idea is not to give you a big list of free blog hosts but to give reference of a few well maintained competent blog host which do the work for you. The above six I have mentioned should take care of all your blogging needs. If anyone is new to blogging, it is advisable to start with a free blog from blogger or wordpress to get a taste of it. Later when you gain experience and if you are serious about blogging then you can move your blog to your own domain for more control. You can use Wordpress publishing platform as it is very easy.

If you have news website and would like to show some other form of news, you can do so simply by republishing the feed for such a news website using FeedDigest. No extra working, just use FeedDigest to republish the data on your site. FeedDigest simply takes the feed it received from that site and republishes on your site. Now if you are wondering what is Feed then feed or a web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Also, we may say it is a shortened version of a Web page that has been created for syndication. Feeds usually end in .xml or .rss.

To start with visit www.feeddigest.com

1. Enter the feed URL of a site like http://www.cricketnext.com/xml/cricketnext.xml that uses feeds and click on the green “Click here” button below.

2. On this page enter all the required info and create your account. You even get to select your digest layout and template.

3. Once you are done you will be given various forms of code like php, Java, HTML etc Select the one which best suits you and paste it on your site where you would like the digest to be shown.

4. You can mix and blend multiple feeds and can add upto 6 feeds. Moreover, the service is free.

Thats it! You are done. Check like I have done in one of my other blog under National News. You can do this with any site or blog, not only news which allows feed.

For free feed icons visit:

1. www.feedicons.com

2. www.freeiconsweb.com

If you have a blog and would like to increase the reach of the site. Now you have one more way to mobilize your blog with Plusmo. This way visitors can check your website through their mobile phone by subscribing to your site. Now lets see how to do it:

1. Visit the site: www.plusmo.com  and click on the “”Blogger” link or “Plusmo” button under “Mobilize your blog”. On the next page click on the “Get Started” button on top right hand side.

2. Select a standard “Plusmo” button or a customized phone button. Also, add a picture that represents your blog like your logo. However, this is optional. Click on the “Generate Button” and click on “Next”.

3. Give the URL or Web address of your blog like http://www.bangalorebeats.com/bangaloreblog and click on the “Generate” button. Fill in or edit the name, description and tags and click on “Next”.

4. Now you will be given a widget, that is codes of HTML which you will need to copy and paste it on your blog.

Thats it! You are done. Following this the widget will show on your blog like as the image on my other blog. Clicking on the they will be taken to a link, where they can enter their email address and password and sign-up for your site to view on their internet enabled mobile phones.

From my personal experience, I can say that it is very easy to use.  Also, plusmo provides free statistics like visitors, page views etc. It also lt you monetize your mobile visitors which can help you earn more revenue. Moreover, the service is free and they will support 24/7 through email.