To Self Host Or Not
Bloggers Have Needs
I started blogging just over a year ago over at What I Gotta Say About It. Let me correct myself. I actually started blogging on wordpress.com. It started out as just a hobby as I was recovering from an accident. At first, the most interaction I had with other bloggers was with those who were participating in the daily prompts, as I was.
Eventually, I ventured out and started reading other blogs. The list of the blogs I followed grew and I was interacting more. I left comments, I liked others’ post, and I even shared their post. There were a couple of blogs that offered good advice on how to make your site more successful, and they gave this advice freely.
I became encouraged to do the same. But, I didn’t know where to begin. Soon after, I encountered many bloggers who needed help with the basics of running a site. Then, one day, one of the blogs I follow posted this question “Are you on WordPress.org?”
Free Platform Or Self-Hosted?
That question was followed with an explanation of why he was asking. He was asking because he was considering leaving wordpress.com and Self-Hosting his site. It was followed by a couple of other questions and concerns. Likewise, the comments from others included their concerns and questions. This prompted me to write this post.
So, here’s the skinny.
When I first decided to start blogging I had looked at all my options. After my research, I decided WordPress was my best option. Little did I know, there were two options. This was the subject of one of my first post. You can read about it here.
I ended up starting a blog-site on the WordPress.com platform. My decision was made simply because I was impatient and didn’t want to wait until I figured out how to implement a Self-Hosted WordPress site. Unfortunately, I didn’t fully understand the benefits of the Self-Hosted option.
Benefits Of A Self-Hosted WordPress Site
Since then, I’ve learned a lot about Self-Hosting a WordPress blog. I’ve discovered there is a lot more freedom involved in a Self-Hosted Site.
Here are some of the benefits I have discovered:
- You can install whatever plugin you desire.
- You can customize the themes more freely. For instance, you can alter a theme by making it a child theme, giving you complete creative freedom.
- You can implement AdSense on your site. AdSense is a free, simple way to earn money by placing ads on your website.
- You can take advantage of Adwords and get paid when people click to visit your website.
- You can generate revenue from your site with personalized, unobtrusive native ads, affiliate links, and more by using Shareaholic.
- You can potentially earn up to 10% in advertising fees by becoming an Amazon Associate.
- You can form your own list of your subscribers to take to whatever platform you choose and create your own newsletters, e-blast, e-zines with MailChimp.
These are only some of the things I’ve found. However, I bet the possibilities are endless. But, it’s not all gravy.
Disadvantages Of A Self-Hosted WordPress Site
Unfortunately, there are some disadvantages of a Self-Hosted Wordpress Site versus one hosted at WordPress.com.
Here are some of the disadvantages:
- You do not have the advantage of the “reader function” that WordPress.com has to offer.
- You do not have the advantage of the “reblog function” that WordPress.com has to offer.
- You do not have the “follow button” that WordPress.com has to offer.
- You lose all of your followers from WordPress.com
Sounds bad huh?
I know, it sound frightening and confusing, but don’t fret.
Here are some solutions:
- To get the “reader function” install the Jetpack plugin on your Self-Hosted Site and link it to your WordPress.com account.
- To replace the “reblog function” use the Press This bookmarklet.
- To add a “follow button” use the WordPress.com Follow Button generator.
- To retain all of the followers from WordPress.com use the Subscription migration tool.
Web Hosting And Domain Name
Take your time before you make your decision and consider your options.
Practice First
If you decide to go with a Self-Hosted Site I suggest you use an Apache distribution like XAMPP to practice on your local host before taking it to a web host environment. Here’s a nice tutorial.
Domain Name
You will have to buy a domain name if you don’t already have one. Please be mindful, even if you did buy a domain name from WordPress.com you will still have to transfer it over to a Domain Name Registrar.
Web Hosting
I did a lot of research and found I Gandi.net. I bought my domain name from them and took advantage of their Simple Hosting Plan.
My Simple Hosting Plan
My Instance is a 10 gig Apache Server with PHP and MySQL. It’s able to handle an estimate of 60 GB of traffic a month. For a new blog site, that’s plenty! And, since there is no contract, (you can cancel at any time and they will reimburse you for your unused months) I can upscale as needed, should my traffic increase.
I currently have three blogs running out of this one server. All for a mere $60 bucks a year. But, it gets better! when you register a domain name with them, you first year is 50% off! That’s why I chose Gandi.net as my Domain Name Registrar as well.
Here are some more benefits of choosing Gandi.net:
- Full Domain Management. You can control any aspect of your domain through the administration page.
- You get a free one-page website, with many templates to choose from.
- You get a free blog-site connected to the main address of your domain or a secondary address, even if your DNS servers are not Gandi’s. With as many writers as you want, 1 gig of disk space for your multimedia files, and 10 gigs per month of data transfer (that’s several tens of thousand visitors)
- A Standard SSL certificate for free the first year.
- Independent hosting. You are free to use the hosting provider of your choice while managing your domain name with Gandi.
- 5 Free Email boxes for your domain.
- Private Domain Registration.
I hope this helped.
Good luck with whatever you choose. Just make sure you have fun!!