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Which is better for WordPress -Hosted or self-hosted?
In the blogosphere, community is everything. "Notes from the Trail" is hosted on its own server. Many bloggers have found more interaction and followers by moving to a hosted blog on the Wordpress.com service.
I’ve hosted my blog on my own server since 2004.I’ve tried a number of other blogging platforms (Typepad, Tumblr,etc.), but I like the features and customization available with themes and plug-ins with a self-hosted site.(I know I’ve already lost most of you, but for you blogging nerds, hang in there.)
I convinced Aaron
last year to move from Blogger to WordPress.com, and he has shared with me that it’s been a great transition – especially bringing added interaction (blog comments) and more followers than he had over on Blogger.
Then I stumbled across this article from 2013 which says:
Self hosties are missing out on the community side of wordpress. Sure, we’ve got our own thing going on, and we tap into communities like facebook, twitter and DISQUS, but we don’t seem to have any way of readily tapping into the rich and fascinating community over on the hosted side of the fence.
It’s got me thinking.. should I move my blog to WordPress.com? I can still use my URL of journeyguy.com and just forward it there.
Thoughts?
Do it! I’ve made so many friends through blogging with WordPress. In fact, I was asked to be one guy’s best man when he gets married in August. And we’ve never even met face to face.
That is amazing! Do you have a comparison of your stats before and after? And would you recommend just importing a blog or reposting entries?
I’ve been asked that question before and here’s 4 things I would consider… First step, you have to know their ad policy. This can be a deal breaker for many thinking it’s free. Know that your visitors may see ads if you as the owner don’t get at least their personal (currently $3/mo) service. That includes other features (like a custom domain and more storage) but without it you have to know ads may be shown you don’t control, so know the ad policy @ https://en.support.wordpress.com/no-ads/ Second, you have limited theme and plugin options, so you have to be good… Read more »
Andrew, great stuff here. Thanks so much for bringing up the ads! It’s something I haven’t thought about. $36/annually is probably worth eliminating ads, but it stinks to think about having to pay to NOT get something rather than TO get something (everything else I can already do on my self-hosted blog). I do like the idea of focusing on content instead of maintenance and design. On the other hand.. 😉 I love design. So I’m not sure if I can turn loose of that. However, the biggest thing for me is if going to WordPress.com would increase traffic and… Read more »