Can’t Decide Between Free Wordpress Blog Or Self-Hosted Wordpress Blog? This Is A Must-Read For You
This is a very common question amongst those wanting to start their own blog.
Should I use a free Wordpress Blog? Or should I host my own Wordpress Blog?
The free Wordpress blog you would get by signing up for an account at Wordpress.com. Your username would become your blog name, so for example if I got a user name “howdoyoustartablog” my URL would be howdoyoustartablog.wordpress.com
A self-hosted Wordpress blog is your own blog on your own domain with your own hosting or paid hosting account upon which you install the Wordpress software. Wordpress becomes the software to manage your site and your blog. You can download the software for free from Wordpress.org. However, many hosting companies today have a push button installation available via Fantastico Deluxe or Simple Scripts. Check out my free video which walks you through an example Simple Scripts installation with hostmonster.
So the question is: which one is for you?
FREE WORDPRESS BLOG PLUSSES AND MINUSES
PLUS setup is free
PLUS installation is easy (done by Wordpress the company)
PLUS maintenance is free (setup, upgrades, spam, security, backups are all done by Wordpress)
PLUS server reliability (servers hosting site are actual Wordpress.com servers)
PLUS with a blog as part of the Wordpress community there may be an additional traffic boost from the Wordpress community
MINUS cannot update/upload your own theme. Must use Wordpress.com themes
MINUS cannot edit any of the php code (useful for adding additional features from third parties)
MINUS cannot upload plugins to extend functionality. The Wordpress plugin community is huge.
MINUS no ad placements allowed. In fact, Wordpress will place their own ads on your blog
MINUS Site will be a Wordpress brand
MINUS no true content ownership. Site is still a Wordpress site.
SELF HOSTED WORDPRESS BLOG PLUSSES AND MINUSES
PLUS can change theme to a non-Wordpress third party custom theme. You can upload a custom one or choose form one of thousands of third party themes out there to dress up your website.
PLUS can change php code if desired
PLUS can add plugins! The Wordpress and PHP development community is huge and you can get a plugin for just about anything including security, backups, marketing, and traffic generation
PLUS your own ads allowed, better control of monetization
PLUS since this is hosted by your paid hosting account, this allows you to choose your own domain name instead of having “Wordpress.com” as the domain
PLUS you can have ftp access to your site which allows you to be able to load separate landing pages and downloads outside of your Wordpress site.
MINUS you need to set up yourself (though most hosting providers provide push button installation through “Fantastico Deluxe” or “Simple Scripts”. Plus my free video walks you through this process.
MINUS cost to setup. Domain name and hosting fees can be $5 to $15 a month total.
MINUS site maintenance such as spam control, security, and backups, are all done by you. So you will need to spend some time getting familiar with Wordpress and how to back up and restore an installation
MINUS make sure and find reliable servers. You don’t want slowness or crashes to bother your site. Most hosting companies these days to stay competitive offer some pretty good server reliability
In summary, the Wordpress free blog is appropriate for some people. I wouldn’t suggest the paid hosted solution if you don’t need it. I would say a free Wordpress blog is good for the purpose of straight blogging like it used to be. However, these days many people are looking to also make money online. If that’s the case, there are ways to do this still with a free Wordpress blog, but the hosted Wordpress installation provides you with a lot more you can do from a functionality standpoint which includes the various ways to monetize your site.
In most cases, I recommend a self-hosted paid blog.
I hope this has been helpful. And please do contact me if you have any questions or post them here on the blog. And if you are thinking about starting a blog, check out my free video which walks you through the simple setup of a hosted blog in about 10 minutes with a hostmonster account.
Want more info on how to start a blog with Wordpress? Then visit Emil Yau’s site How Do You Start A Blog and watch his FREE step-by-step videos today!
