Blogging Web 2.0

Hosting Your Own Blog

Posted on September 30, 2007
Filed Under Blogging | 2 Comments

Blogging is a rewarding hobby that can turn into a profitable occupation when certain conditions are right. One of these is being able to host your own blog.

Now, that’s not saying you can’t have a profitable business from purely free hosted blogs, because you can. Many people make money hand over fist using only free blogs.

It’s just that those blogs using free hosting can be switched off anytime the host chooses and for however long they want should they decide to… and you have no say in it.

Why?

Because you’re not paying for the server, they are.

The other problem is bandwidth. What happens when the blog you’re hosting for free becomes so popular that so many people come and visit that you exceed your allocated bandwidth for the month in only the first two weeks? Do you think the host will not turn off your blog until the start of the next month? Do you think they will care if you suddenly lose half your readership overnight and a dramatic fall in revenue?

I doubt it.

That’s why hosting your own blog is such an important part of running a successful and professional looking online business. With your own hosting, you call the shots because you are paying for it. Most good professional hosting companies guarantee you up to 99.9% uptime.

The company this blog is hosted with, Hostgator, gives that guarantee. They also allocate an absolute ton of bandwidth (currently 1 terrabyte or 1,000 gigabytes per month) that can be increased should things get really good. To cause us to upgrade would mean some serious traffic!

The other plus to hosting your own blog is that you get a huge choice of templates from Wordpress and the almost limitless ability to customise them to your own taste. You really can have a unique and professional looking blog when you host it yourself.

If these aren’t enough positive points, another real benefit is you also get to choose what kind of ads you display.

Currently, free hosted Wordpress blogs are severely restricted in what they can display. Other free blog hosts do allow most ads. Blogger, being owned by Google make things very easy if you use adsense. But they all have the power to withdraw that benefit at a moment’s notice if it suits them and you’ll have no say in the matter.

So there are many positive benefits to hosting your own blog, like you get to choose your own domain name - yourname.com looks a whole lot more professional than yourname.blogspot.com!

You also have a huge storage allocation, so if you want to upload a ton of big files to your blog, you can. Great if you’re a musician and want to sell your own MP3 compilations.

Try uploading a few gigabytes of MP3 to a free hosted blog and see what happens!

We have plenty of storage - 1 terrabyte to be exact! We haven’t even scratched the surface of that yet!

So if you are thinking about moving up to hosting your own blog, do it sooner rather than later. You’ll want your domain name to become well known as your self branding awareness improves with time and your own promotional efforts. Add to that the benefits you gain for a small monthly outlay and you’ll have to agree it’s the sensible way to go!

Terry Didcott
Author and Creator of Blogging Web 2.0