HOW TO CHOOSE BETWEEN SELF-HOSTED AND FREE BLOGGING PLATFORMS
I had the honor and pleasure of speaking at the Thrive Creative Conference for Bloggers last week in Austin, Texas all about how bloggers can grow their influence and how to monetize their blogs. After my talk on search engine optimization, I had quite a few bloggers come up to me and ask me a variation of this question:
I’m on Blogger/SquareSpace/Wix/Weebly/WordPress.com – do I need to move to self-hosted WordPress?
I’m so confused… What is self-hosted WordPress? It sounds expensive and intimidating. I really just want to blog, I don’t want to be a web developer.
I hear this question a lot, so in this blog post I’m going to break it all down for you and then tell you who I think should be on self-hosted WordPress, and who can get away with using a free or subscription-based platform.
SO WHAT IS SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS?
I like to think about the difference between self-hosted WordPress and free blogging platforms as the difference between owning and renting a home.
When you’re renting, you get to pick a floor plan, move your furniture in, and decorate to an extent, but you can’t paint or remodel. You probably have an assigned parking space and shared areas, like a pool and fitness center. Maybe you can pay extra for a pet, or maybe they aren’t allowed.
You don’t have to mow, do yard work, or fix the faucet when it starts leaking – you’ve got a landlord for that. But, the owner can decide to change anything at any time. Suddenly you get a notice that the complex no longer allows dogs over 40lbs, and you either have to move or your big fat lab is about to be homeless.
Maybe you get a notice that the complex is under new management and your rent is going up. Or they decide that you violated terms of your lease and give you two weeks to move out (um, yeah, that happened to me in college – stupid roommates and their dumb parties).
WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR BLOG ON BLOGGER, SQUARESPACE, WIX, WEEBLY, OR WORDPRESS.COM, YOU’RE RENTING.
You get to pick your theme and customize it to an extent, you get to put your words and images on the page, but they dictate to you what functionality is available and what you can and can’t do on their platform. They take care of maintenance, but in order to keep maintenance manageable, they limit features. Because everyone is sharing resources, you have to play by their rules.
WHEN YOU HAVE A SELF-HOSTED BLOG, IT’S LIKE OWNING YOUR OWN HOME.
When you’re buying a home, you have thousands of floorplans to choose from, you have total autonomy to remodel to fit your personal style, and no one can tell you how big your dog can be or where to park. There are no lease agreements for you to violate.
Yes, you’re also responsible for maintaining your home – but it’s not like you have to know how to be a plumber! You just have to know how to call one, explain the problem, and then pay for the repairs.
And if you wanted to, you could literally pick up that whole entire house, put it on a truck, and move it somewhere else. Ever seen Haulin’ House, anyone?? You can’t do that if you’re renting!
HOW TO DECIDE BETWEEN A FREE BLOGGING PLATFORM AND SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS
If you never intend to make money from your blog and it’s simply a hobby or a place for creative expression, then a free blogging platform like Blogger or WordPress.com is totally fine.
And even if you have no plans to monetize right now, but you will in the future, start with self-hosted WordPress*.
Eventually, you will outgrow the other platforms that I mentioned, just like you’ll outgrow that apartment and want the freedom, flexibility, and the unlimited possibilities that come with ownership – and moving sucks.
Wanna know how I know? Because about half of my one-on-one web design clients come to me because they’ve outgrown their free/cheap blogging platforms, and it’s a lot of extra work (and expense) to move over all that old content while preserving links and social shares so they don’t lose all their hard-won page views. It’s possible, but it ain’t cheap.
HOW TO START A SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS SITE
Shannon, a self-hosted site sounds like a lot of work. I’m not techie, and I don’t know how to host my own blog. I don’t know if I’m capable of doing this.
I hear that a lot too, BFF! And I’m here for you.
First, I don’t really like the term self-hosted, because it’s totally misleading. You actually pay a hosting company to host your blog for you, and the good ones have a one-click WordPress installation built in so that you don’t have to do anything more technical than point and click.
I use and recommend Bluehost* to set up your self-hosted WordPress site. I am an affiliate partner, which means that I earn a commission at no additional cost to you when you use my link to purchase hosting – but I also have negotiated a special hosting price just for my audience that breaks down to just $2.95 a month when you lock in three years (that’s $106 for hosting, you guys, for three whole years!)
Second, I walk you through EV-ERY-THING, step by step.
On this page, I show you how to quickly get your hosting set up with Bluehost.
I also have a free step-by-step video training called the 5 Day Website Challenge that not only shows you how to set up Bluehost but also how to actually use WordPress and set up the rest of your blog. I’m talking everything from branding to email opt-in to search engine optimization – all in a way that normal, non-techie people can understand!
You can sign up for that free training here.
So if you’re ready to set up your blog the right way, your first step is to get your hosting and install WordPress, and you can click here to get started with Bluehost.
And I’ll be there every step of the way to help you get your blog set up the right way!
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
