The Bloggers With The Most To Say
Self-hosting
I just started thinking about maybe going the self-hosting route, but am not at all sure how that works! I'm currently on wordpress.com and I hate all the limitations (eg. no pay per post, how you can only edit CSS after purchasing the upgrade, etc).
For those of you who have a self-hosted blog, how did you go about setting it up? Are there any disadvantages? What hosting companies (? Not sure if that's the correct term) would you recommend? Did you previously have a blog that was at .wordpress.com or .blogspot.com? How did you smooth over the transition?
Has anyone purchased the domain upgrade thing on wordpress.com? How has that worked out?
Ahh, sorry I have so many questions! Thanks in advance for all your help! :)
For those of you who have a self-hosted blog, how did you go about setting it up? Are there any disadvantages? What hosting companies (? Not sure if that's the correct term) would you recommend? Did you previously have a blog that was at .wordpress.com or .blogspot.com? How did you smooth over the transition?
Has anyone purchased the domain upgrade thing on wordpress.com? How has that worked out?
Ahh, sorry I have so many questions! Thanks in advance for all your help! :)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joseph McClellan on -
I am using wordpress on a "self-hosted" blog. It's not literally hosted on my machine, but rather through a hosting company, but I'm pretty sure that's what you mean anyway. I love it. It's great all the control you can have over it. There is a bit of a learning curve to working wordpress and some php and css you need to know, but it's definitely worth it. I'd heartily recommend it.
I can't think of the name of my host for some reason.. If I think of it I'll let you know!
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Permalink Reply by Shadow on -
I'm on a self-hosted WordPress blog as well, and I love it as well. The only disadvantage is the cost, and I don't think you can transfer over your old entries. I'm hosted by Surpass Hosting. I'd recommend them because they're pretty affordable. Like Joseph said, there's a little bit of learning, but you'll catch on pretty quickly.
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Permalink Reply by Edrei on -
I used to be on Blogspot ages ago before I found myself on the stand-alone WordPress on my own server. I love the sheer control of it from the theme design to the plugin implementation. The only problem for me was that I spent a good 3 years moving around webhosts because cheap doesn't always mean good. Thankfully now, I have a whole webhost to myself (well sort off, but it's for free I might add) and it's working out well for me.
Transition from Blogspot to WordPress during the early days (back in version 1.5) was not so smooth but I didn't have any problems with it in the end. You can move your posts from WordPress.com to your standalone WordPress blog without any problems. Both versions give you the option to import and export your posts.
If you're used to just blogging on the go, having a self-hosted blog (doesn't matter whether it's WordPress or Expression Engine or Movable Type), the learning curve can be a little steep. Because of the complete control you have, you have to first know what you want from your blog and what you're going to put in it for it to really work for you. The good thing about WordPress is the large community that it has to help you if you don't know hwta to do. But if you try, you can pick it up really fast. 3 years ago, I didn't know anything to do with WordPress, now I maintain WordPress blogs and help people with basic to intermediate WordPress related issues.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on -
i have my personal blog on wordpress.com and self-host the blog for my non-profit also on wordpress. they only reason i haven't moved my personal blog is that i don't feel the need to pay for it yet.
i love the flexibility i have with the design of my self-hosted blog and that there plugins for everything. so if you have the spare cash it's worth it.
i used some free setup company that i found through wordpress because i had no clue how to do it myself.
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Permalink Reply by cooper on -
I hear you. That is why I finally left blogpost. I do have a blog still on wordpress.com and the limitation s are frustrating.
I did it on a whim and went with siteground. There is a learning curve, like the one commenter said, but if you spend a little time looking around it is not all that huge a learning curve. When you begin you will have the option of an almost limitless selection of themes to upload to your site, and after a time you will start to play with them and change them around yourself even if you have no desire to design or code themes.
I was able to import all my posts from blogspot when I left and that was some time ago. Only a few posts and comments ended up missing - that was a couple of years ago I hear it is rather flawless now.
if you can pay for two years at somewhere like dreamhost - which I've used, or siteground - which I use now, and find easier than dreamhost. it really is not that expensive. Cheaper is often not always better.
Siteground and dreamhost are click of a button installs for wordpress so it is not hard at all. Fantastico is how I installed my firstWP, though since then I've learned to do it manually via ftp with my firefox add on, and I prefer that.
I think you'll love it.
I'm always open to help, if you need it.
There is a lot of help around so if you do it I think yOu would easily be able to get help should you need it.
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