Comments on: Start A Blog: Free or Paid? WordPress or Blogger?

By: John Hoff

John Hoff — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:09:42 +0000

Hi Kathy, good questions.

To host your own WordPress blog, you’d need two things:

1. Domain name (which you already have)
2. A web hosting account you purchase (like from our company). You can choose whichever plan you want, I typically suggest using the Deluxe Hosting Plan because for the money, it has a few more options over the Economy Hosting.

What a hosting plan basically is, is disk space you’re renting which you can create and upload files to and make them visible online. This basically will be all the files for your website. You domain name “points” to your hosting account and that’s what makes your website visible to everyone.

So no worries about hosting anything on your home computer.

Our hosting also includes a WordPress install wizard which installs WordPress for you on your account. You can see a video I did on how to do that right here. Of course if you had any issues, can could either call support or email me and we’ll help you get it set up.

The transfer process isn’t too difficult. If you want to transfer things over, you’d need to first purchase a hosting account and then message me and I’ll point you to someone who can assist you for a reasonable fee to move everything over.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:40:20 +0000

Hi,
I’m currently with TypePad (paid account) and only went to TypePad because I didn’t quite understand how you would upgrade to a paid wordpress account. when i read the instructions, i got the impression that i would have to host everything on my home computer?

i used to have a free wp acct and loved the themes, easy configuration etc but only went with typepad because getting a paid wp account seemed complicated as i only have a regular imac machine and not heavy-duty hardware or storage to support any hosting. maybe i misunderstood?

can you please explain the process in layman’s terms? if i went with a paid wp account, how would that work regarding storage of content/pictures etc?

i have already purchased a domain and mapped it to my typepad site. how easy would it be to transfer my content to a paid wp site?

many thanks,
kathy

By: buddy

buddy — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:20:38 +0000

reading this article just put’s out my doubts about Paid Web Hosting for blogging , I’ll think I give it a shot ,Tq for this article.
buddy´s last blog ..A simple guide line for Quitting Smoking

By: John Hoff

John Hoff — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:26:09 +0000

Very cool sanjeeta… glad I could help you figure it out some. Let me know if you need anything. Our hosting services have everything you’d need.

By: sanjeeta kk

sanjeeta kk — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:03:01 +0000

Your article re-inforced my thinking on the benefits of paid hosting. I was a bit shaky in trying out the paid hosting as a beginner, but now the confidence level has gone one point up!

By: John Hoff

John Hoff — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:16:34 +0000

Hi K L, I couldn’t agree with you more. WordPress has made it easy in many areas for web developers because of its open source. It also simplifies many of the things we do for websites thanks to plugins – like creating a sitemap.

Non techies can use this to their advantage. The ease and flexibility to extent WordPress alone makes it more desirable than Blogger.

By: K L Jonasson

K L Jonasson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:45:28 +0000

Hi John,

Great article here!
I liked the fact that you have pointed out that WordPress is a very versatile program that can be used not only for blogging, but also a CMS for a full website.

I’m a web designer and I love to work with WordPress on most of my projects, and your article is a great explanation for anyone looking for a place to start with a well known and well structured platform.

By: John Hoff

John Hoff — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:04:46 +0000

Samar, not to highlight your experience, but you’re the perfect real life example of what this article is all about. I hope newbies are listening – and thanks for the comment

By: Samar

Samar — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:39:15 +0000

I made the mistake of starting my blog on Blogger when I started freelancing. I always knew I'd migrate to self hosted wordpress eventually. What I didn't realize was that I'd lose my page rank, links and whatever traffic I had. I moved to my own .com a few months ago and couldn't be happier - even with no page rank, low traffic and fewer link backs. If you make your living online, having a self hosted blog is essential. Samar’s last blog post..Learning on the job

By: John Hoff

John Hoff — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:26:44 +0000

Hi Matt. Oh how dare you mention that other company! LOL. I like to think we are able to help bloggers get online and learn the ropes better than most other hosts, but then again I might be a little biased

You’re right though, most web hosts have easy installations of WordPress, however, Fantastico is a packaged bundle of software (commercial script library) which some hosts use, but not all. Some hosts use other packages, like the Elefante Scripts.

For our company, WP Blog Host, we also have a set of bundled easy installed software (WordPress included) which come free with all our hosting accounts – and I personally think is better than Fantastico.

Also, WordPress is compatible on a Windows server, however Linux is the preferred OS do to the fact it’s easier to work with when using WordPress and there’s a TON more help out there when you need it for those who are running WordPress in the Linux hosting environment.