If this is your first blog then something free like blogspot is not a bad idea. You can learn a lot and you dont have to put any money out. Everything will be pure profit. I was able to make about $1,200 a month from 5 blogs using blogger. Blogging is a hard way to make money, but some people have been very sucessful. I would say the ultimately you need to have your own domain name and host the blog yourself. Its a good starting point for someone who wants to get into internet marketing. You can go from a blog to some larger project down the road.
When deciding what to write about you have to keep two things in mind. First you have to have original and interesting content. You want people to enjoy what they read and come back. It is hard to build traffic if its a one time thing. Write about stuff that actualy interests you and that you have a passion for. Dont write about stuff because you think it will make you money.
Second and less important is keyword selection. I wouldnt worry too much about this, but its something to keep in mind. I have a loan blog that pays over $1 per click. It gets decent traffic from search engines so its a good earner. I have a business blog that pays around 10 cents a click, but it has much higher traffic. I wouldnt worry about this too much, but some topics have low paying adds that are also not interesting. If they pay little and dont get clicked much then you will have problems.
Tips for a beggining blogger
1. Go to
www.blogger.com and make an account.
2. Come up with a concept for you blog and begin making posts. Make them around 3-4 paragraphs. You dont want them to be too long, just make it interesting.
3. Sign up for adsense. You will have to submit your site. If you have at least 3 posts you should get accepted to the program. "There are going to be steps you have to take after this before you can get paid, but they are easy. Just worry about getting it set up for now."
4.Blogger has easy adsense integration. Just follow the directions on the site if you need help just come back to the forum im sure someone will help. I would suggest that you blend the adds and have only text adds. You can play around with the different settings available and see which give you the highest CTR. I like the the 160X600 Wide Skyscraper for blogs. I set it up to run down the right side. It looks more like links than adds and seems to get good CTR.
Now your ready to go. Keep adding content. Try to learn as much as you can about SEO. Mess around with add placement and track wich gives you the highest CTRs. Once you get a good idea of what you would like your blog to be then you can get a domain name and some hosting and use wordpress or something like that to make your blog.
I hope this helps, just get started and continue to learn as much as you can. You may find blogging is the thing for you or it may lead to other things. Good Luck