Paying to ‘host’ your blog or website?

August 19, 2013

           

One of the most attractive aspects of blogging for income is that the overhead is minimal, if not zero.

By Marcela De Vivo

The main resource that you need to put into a blog is your own time, while the only thing required of your pocket book is a domain name, which is about US$10 a year. Paying a fee is optional as that will remove the “.wordpress” or “.blogger” extension that the two free blogging platforms provide you.

Other costs might include graphic design, templates or other forms of consulting, depending on your needs, but hosting your site doesn’t have to be part of that expense.

It’s optional, and there are pros and cons to both the free and paid options.

Essentially, if you set up your blog with a site like WordPress or Blogger, your blog is hosted for free and you are provided with a predefined set of customization options. When you buy a domain name, you simply forward your blog’s current address to the new domain and that becomes your URL.

The other side of the coin is that you pay a hosting company to host your blog. People who go with this route typically use something like Joomla (to create their blog) and then pay a hosting company, which is a monthly fee.

There’s pros and cons to both, so lets take a look.

Pros and cons of free hosting
The obvious attraction of free hosting is that it’s free and it is often easier to setup and maintain. Since everything is already there for you, you can start blogging quickly and avoid a lot of the work of getting setup with a hosting company and getting things squared away with Joomla.

You’ll also have a lot of templates to choose from, both within the sites themselves and from third party sites who provide thousands of different templates to choose from. These are all quite simple to install.

The downside is that you’re somewhat limited in terms of your features and customization options. Sure, you can customize your template, but you’re still at the mercy of the WordPress or Blogger features.

For some people, this makes them feel like their blog isn’t their own, and in a way, that’s true.

Pros and cons of paid hosting
Paid hosting, on the other hand, gives you complete and thorough control over how your blog is run and even though you do need to pay, hosting costs are usually pretty affordable. This option is typically more attractive to developers and people who want to create their own blog, so they can tune it exactly how they want to.

The downside here is that you do need to have more technical proficiency to go this route and it’s not always a straightforward process. If the cost bothers you, then that too will be a deterrent, but the main headache here is the technical hoops that you will need to jump through in order to get your site live.

Even if it all goes well, it can still be a lengthy process.

Things to consider when choosing
You need to consider the following questions when deciding whether to pay for a hosting service or use one of the free ones that are available:

Am I a casual or serious blogger? — If you’re just blogging for fun, it’s a no-brainer to go with the free option. That’s not to say that serious bloggers can’t use them, but they’re particularly friendly to the blogging newcomer.

Do I intend for my blog to make money? — If you don’t plan to make an income with your blog, paying a monthly fee to host it probably won’t be an attractive option.

Am I technically proficient? — The more technically inclined you are, the more likely you’ll be able to take advantage of the flexibilities afforded by paid hosting. Otherwise, you’d be fine to just go with one of the free options.

Take these all into account when you’re making your decision. You can even start out on a simple hosting site, like Blogger or WordPress, and eventually move them to a different hosting platform. If you blog for awhile and find that it’s not your thing, then you haven’t lost anything.

By the same token, if your blogging career seems to be taking off and you want to kick things up a notch, you can take the plunge and pay for your hosting.

It’s a win-win for everybody.
Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer and online marketing professional in California. Specializing in search marketing, social networking, web analytics and web hosting, she has helped many companies establish their online presence.