webdoctor - 4:10 pm on Feb 14, 2008 (gmt 0)

I've designed a mockup of my own theme in PS and it looks great

Bought a .com domain name for 2 years ($9.99 * 2) Bought 6 months of hosting ($5.95 per month)

I realise this may not be very helpful, but were any of those three things essential?

Do you really need a domain name? my_fantastic_blog.blogspot.com (or similar) is good enough for some fairly big-time bloggers (?)

How about hosting your blog for free (e.g. blogspot...) and save hosting bills (?)

Do you really need to spend time working on a custom template? Plenty of serious bloggers use totally b(l)og-standard templates... stop spending your time in PS and start spending time on content (?)