Blog- paid hosting providers vs self-hosting providers
Hello!
I would like to start my own blog and I wanted to ask you which one is better: having a paid hosting provider or use a self-hosting one? Please give me as much info as you can, I am still new to the topic!
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It depends on what you are using the blog for; something professional, or just a personal blog?
I think that Wordpress has a good combination of both free and paid software, so based off of what little you've said, I would recommend looking into Wordpress. You can start with a free blog and upgrade to a paid blog/website if you want to use extra features and if you like what they offer.
Yeah, so my idea is to start from a personal one and then upgrade to a professional and commercialize it, if I get the chance, and have a lot of readers. However, I don't get what the difference between hosting on your own and having a free blogging service is. Do you mind explaining more? I mean, do you have limited options when using a free blogging provider? Honestly, I would prefer paying, but having my options in front of me, instead of having locked themes, options, etc. And also does Wordpress give you the option to make your own hosting service or no?
If you host your own blog, then you control everything about it, but with that control also comes a lot of complexity, and if something goes wrong, it's up to you to figure out what. If you're a beginner, it may be easier to get it on a hosted platform, but if they're free, they're probably going to want to run their own ads on your content and keep the money.
I would recommend starting out with a free blog, even if you just use it for testing, and see what it's like. That way, you can see how easy it is to configure, and if it's good enough for you, and if you don't mind if your readers are subjected to scam Bitcoin ads. If you just make a few silly posts, you can always delete them later when you want to post something more substantial. (Don't make them too silly, because the Internet never forgets, but if they're just obvious test posts, no one will care.)
Makes sense! Since I am new to the field and will find it difficult to manage the whole thing I guess it will be easier for me to start with a free- hosting service provider. However, according to this article: https://1and1.com/digitalguide/hosting/blogs/self-host-your-blog-or-use-a-hosting-provider/ if there is a future plan for including paid ads into your blog, it will be more useful to use the one that's self-hosted, and basically the blog-hosting one is "just for fun and not for business practices". This is not the direction I would like to be headed.
Of course, there is no doubt that in the beginning, it will be easier for me to use a service provider which will take care of the technical stuff for me, but I would like to evolve over time and have the opportunity to earn some money from it.
And what about Wordpress, do you collect the revenue you've earned or they do it for you?
Have a look at https://wordpress.com/pricing/ .
You don't get any revenue from hosting a free blog there. As I said, they'll run ads and keep the money for themselves. Your reward is just not having to pay hosting fees. Of course, you could post your own ads separate from theirs, but that would be your responsibility.
For $4/month, you can get rid of their annoying ads and get a better level of support. You can also get a domain name that doesn't end in wordpress.com.
For $8/month, you can actually have them put in ads that you get paid something for, but that something likely won't add up to $8/month. If you get so many visitors that the ad impressions pay more than that, you'll probably want to switch to self-hosting with an ad network and get paid better.
They say per month but bill yearly. So you could start with the free version just to see if you like it, and decide if those other features are worth paying for.