I have been blogging for a very, very long time, actually I don’t think it was even called blogging when I started. (If it was being called blogging, it had just gotten that name.) And I will admit I used a free site called Diaryland to do my journal. But now I use WordPress and I would never go back.
WordPress is one of the largest self-hosted blogging systems out there. One of the best things about WordPress is the ability to personalize it. You can create a beautiful site with little HTML, CSS, and/or PHP knowledge. And if you have a little skill with these coding languages you can make an amazing site.
It’s amazing how many people think that it is hard or expensive to have a self-hosted wordpress blog. I had one person that said they didn’t want to get into the expense of paying for a host yet they already had a domain name they had purchased and were just redirecting to a blog site. (Domain names usually cost around $5-10/yr to give you an idea of overall cost.)
Hosting
Hosting doesn’t cost very much the company I use, ComfortHost, only charges $32 a year for a blogging account. I use them because I knew the lady who started the business, I know they are reliable, and they treat me well. I know that there is a current small company, VoNetwork, that is only charging $12 a year for a blogging account. Only $12!!!
Loading WordPress
But then you may say you don’t know how to load wordpress onto the server or how to do any coding. What you may not realize is that a lot of places you may purchase your hosting have these amazing things that just load the code for you and you are ready to get started. It’s usually just a press of the button and fill in your name, email, and name of your blog and you are set. (I will let you know you can upload and install wp in 5 minutes with there step by step instructions also.)
Making WordPress Beautiful
Making your wordpress your own is not that hard. It is all setup for you to just log in and be able to load and change your themes (templates) straight from the control panel. You don’t need to know anything about coding or ftp. You just go into themes and browse till you find what you want tell it you want to install the theme and it does it for you. (You do need to know your ft log in information which you can ask your host to help you are just email me and I can give you pretty easy step by step instructions.)
I have actually worked with both wordpress.com and blogger and I will tell you self-hosted wordpress is so much easier you would be amazed and probably fall in love with it.
Making WordPress Work for You
One of the other benefits of WordPress is two special items they have. Widgets and Plugins. Both of these can help you personalize your wordpress and make it do the most spectacular things.
Widgets are used to setup your sidebar. They have a widget for recent posts, categories, archives, pages, your own text, etc. You just drag and drop them into the places you want them on your sidebar and then customize them filling in a few fields to make them perfect just for you and your blog.
Plugins make wordpress work so hard for you you would be shocked at the things it can do. There are plugins for ads, comments, stats, images, new widgets, slideshows, spam, and so much more. Some of the plugins can make your wordpress work as a photolog, can make it work as a shopping cart, or even a vlog.
You can upload Plugins just like you do themes into your wordpress with just a click of a button and your ftp log in.
Why should I change?
You may be doing great with your blog on blogger, wordpress.com or blogspot or any of these, but I will let you know that you are loosing visitors by being on a non-self-hosted website. You have people who may be interested in what you would have to say but you have to remember that people will make an opinion about your blog within the first few seconds. And you will have people see that you are on blogger, wordpress.org, etc (even if you have your own domain it is obvious) and just leave.
I will admit half the time I just leave a blogger site because it is so annoying to leave a comment and try to link to my site it’s not worth my time to read the blog. And if you have it set up so that I can’t enter my name and URL then you will probably never see me again no matter how much I love your blog.
What if I run into a problem?
There are so many resources out there for wordpress blogs! Just google “help wordpress” and see how many hits you get (I got 196,000,000 when I did the search). If you run into a problem or are wanting wordpress to do something special for you just google wordpress _____ and you will most likely get a few tutorials on how to do it and/or a few articles on the subject.
Or if you need even more help you can visit wordpress’ forums and ask for help. The wordpress community is all about helping each other out and they love to help newbies. Plus you can just search the forums and find your answer most likely.
Or if you want more one on one help email me, I’m always happy to help someone out. I enjoy meeting new people and being a help to them so don’t be afraid to ask. And if you need some major help or are just afraid to get started or if you want a personalized design contact me. I try to make my prices reasonable and if you are in real need you can just let me know what you can spare and I will work with you. I always am happy to offer help and/or a discount to a fellow mommy blogger.
WordPress is What Works for Me, what do you think of WordPress now?
Visiting from WFMW. I have just started out with a blog using wordpress. I am curious, how is it obvious that somone is using a non-self-hosted website?
In context with wordpress.com it is usually pretty obvious because they limit you on the templates you can use and so usually when I see the cookie cutter blog that is using 1 out of a few templates you can just tell.
I know they offer a good many templates, but for some reason they just all have the same look. I don’t know if this is because people who tend to have a host start to get into the code more or if it’s just because they people who create the templates for wordpress.com are using the same basic style
I do believe that wordpress.com also limit you on the plugins you can use. Which means less personalization.
And of course they write their name on your blog. There is a difference between the wordpress link that is on there because the blogger is a wordpress fan and are proud to be using wordpress and the person who is using wordpress.com and are required to post a link.
I hope this helps. 🙂
okay, this may be the most basic question ever, but what excatly does it mean to self host? I have a current blog on blogger. I just got (like 10 minutes ago) my own domain name, and I just signed up for wordpress.com. And then I read your post.
So do you mean that I should have paid the extra and signed up with wordpress.org? Or is it something else entirely?
And once I get a self hosted blog, how do I get my new name to be recognized? Does that make sense?
thanks
Staci
Self-hosting means that you purchase space on a server yourself and you own that space vs. using wordpress’ servers. You go to a company like http://www.vonetwork.net/ who is called a host. You purchase one of their plans and they give you so much space on their servers and you own that space. They also give you so much bandwidth (bandwidth is a used each time someone visits your site). Hope that makes since.
So you purchase your hosting plan and then they give you access to a control panel. And in most control panels they have a program that will let you install a script or program, like wordpress. WordPress is actually a script(program) that you are using on wordpress.com they just already have it all setup for you.
But wordpress even has a five minute installation tutorial on their website. For this you would have to learn a little more, but they have worked on it being super easy to install. And if you have a program in your control panel (fantastico is a very common one) it’s even easier to install.
To get your domain to point to your host is a little work, but about as much as I would figure pointing it to anywhere else would be. You get a dns address when you purchase your hosting. You go into your domain’s control panel and enter in that address. It does take up to 24 hours for them to get your domain to point to the right place, but this would be the same as with pointing it to wordpress.com.
HTH 🙂 Feel free and email me if you have more questions.
WP FTW!!
I will NEVER use blogger. People who do should suffer greatly in teh wirey depths of the internet never to have their blogs seen again! MWAHAHAHA
I’m kidding but still, blogger SUCKS!!