Thanks to all who entered my Q & A Twitter design giveaway a few weeks ago. You all gave me some great material, and helped me learn what people really want to know when it comes to blogging.

The first question comes from Liz at Goddess In Progress (who has a fabulous blog about raising twins!). Liz asked:

What do you think are the pros and cons to using a photo hosting service like Flickr or Photobucket, versus just uploading them to your hosting provider, be it your own domain or something like Blogger?

Well Liz, that’s a great question and I had to do some Googling because my first thought would be to say there’s no difference. Let me share with you what I found out.

There are several good options for free photo hosting services. PhotoBucket, Flickr, Webshots, SnapFish and ShutterFly are just a few of the many options on the web today. There are several advantages to using a photo sharing service.

1. They’re free. This may be a mute point, because if you have a blog, you already have free hosting or paid hosting. However, if for some reason you had a limited amount of space and a lot of photos, it might be helpful to host them elsewhere.

2. Editing features. A lot of people don’t own the latest, costly, version of PhotoShop. One great feature of these services is the photo editing capabilities that come with them. You are able to make some simple changes to your photos after uploading…for free! You can crop, change contrast/brightness, etc. This is a great option for bloggers.

3. Extra exposure. If your photos are a big part of your blogging practices, its probably beneficial to have them on a photo sharing service that will increase your exposure and traffic. You can add tags to your photos and gain that much more visible for yourself and your blog.

4. Sharing. This is somewhat related to the above point, but its handy to have your photos already hosted on a sharing/hosting site so you can share them with family, order prints or design photo gifts. I’ve used SnapFish for years for this very reason.

Now, two Cons…that aren’t really cons. I initially was going to caution you about the fact that most services are open to anyone and your photos can be copied and used without your permission. But as any blogger knows, you take on this risk the minute you add your first photo to a post. The best bet for protecting yourself and your photos is to add a personal watermark. A great example of this is what Beth at I Should be Folding Laundry does with hers. She has a photography business and obviously doesn’t want her beautiful pictures used without her permission. She adds a tasteful watermark to her photos in a non-distracting way.

Lastly, one may think that there is risk of a photo hosting server going down and your photos not being available when needed. But again, its a mute point. Servers are servers and they all have the potential to go down at some point.

Liz, hope that somewhat answers your question…in a long winded sort of way!

So what are your thought on photo hosting services? Have a favorite? Something to add?