Any blogger who has been blogging long enough will tell you that self-hosting your blog is the way to go if you’re serious about upping your blog ante. It shows a higher level of professionalism and you’re free to do what you want with it without having to adhere to the restrictions that free blogs impose. However as with anything, there are a few pitfalls to self-hosting that you should be aware of before taking the plunge.
1. You have to be somewhat tech-savvy
There are two options when you move to self-hosting: you either trial and error your way into learning how to set up your blog design and layout or you pay someone to do so for you. Paying someone to design your website can end up costing you a nice chunk of change and learning the ropes on your own can be time-consuming and frustrating to say the least. That’s not to say it isn’t possible – people do it every day – but to create a professional looking blog it will take some tech know-how.
2. Money, money, money
The decision to self-host is a decision to spend money. You’re going to have purchase your domain name if you haven’t already done so and then you’re going to have to buy a hosting package that you’ll pay either monthly, bi-annually, or annually. The type of hosting package you go with will determine how much you’re spending.
3. Manual updates
Because you own your website you forfeit the automatic site updates that come with free blogs, so you’ll have to go in and manually update any new plugins, website versions, etc. This isn’t a huge issue in the grand scheme of things, but it is something to be aware of because it’s different from having a free site.
4. Navigational ease
In general, free blog sites are set up to be very easy to use and navigate – it’s essentially blogging for dummies (in the nicest of ways!). Everything is laid out nicely for you and nothing is really hard to find. On the other hand, having a self-hosted website is a little more complicated and it will take a little longer to learn the ins and outs of the blogging process.
While self-hosting offers you significantly more options and freedom than a free blog ever will, it always helps to know what you’re getting into before making the transition. These downfalls to self-hosting are things that are easily overcome with a little bit of time spent learning the ropes, and the benefits of self-hosting your blog far outweigh the disadvantages.
There are two options when you move to self-hosting: you either trial and error your way into learning how to set up your blog design and layout or you pay someone to do so for you. Paying someone to design your website can end up costing you a nice chunk of change and learning the ropes on your own can be time-consuming and frustrating to say the least. That’s not to say it isn’t possible – people do it every day – but to create a professional looking blog it will take some tech know-how.
2. Money, money, money
The decision to self-host is a decision to spend money. You’re going to have purchase your domain name if you haven’t already done so and then you’re going to have to buy a hosting package that you’ll pay either monthly, bi-annually, or annually. The type of hosting package you go with will determine how much you’re spending.
3. Manual updates
Because you own your website you forfeit the automatic site updates that come with free blogs, so you’ll have to go in and manually update any new plugins, website versions, etc. This isn’t a huge issue in the grand scheme of things, but it is something to be aware of because it’s different from having a free site.
4. Navigational ease
In general, free blog sites are set up to be very easy to use and navigate – it’s essentially blogging for dummies (in the nicest of ways!). Everything is laid out nicely for you and nothing is really hard to find. On the other hand, having a self-hosted website is a little more complicated and it will take a little longer to learn the ins and outs of the blogging process.
While self-hosting offers you significantly more options and freedom than a free blog ever will, it always helps to know what you’re getting into before making the transition. These downfalls to self-hosting are things that are easily overcome with a little bit of time spent learning the ropes, and the benefits of self-hosting your blog far outweigh the disadvantages.
