You want to self-host your blog but don't have time? Can you spare 38 minutes?

The Passage of TimeWhat I have heard from most people who have been blogging for a while is that they would really like to self-host their own site but they never got around of doing it because of time constraints. And every time I hear this excuse I can’t help but wonder where they got that impression.

The Passage of Time
CC - Credit: ToniVC

What I have heard from many people who have been blogging for a while, is that they would really like to self-host their own site but they never got around of doing it because of time constraints. And every time I hear this excuse I can’t help but wonder where they got that impression.

Now I can understand that one might also have the false idea that setting up WordPress is something technical and thus would take time to figure out, but I’ve also heard this reasoning from experienced computer people.

The only thing I can put this down is a simple ignorance on how easy and quick most good web hosts make it to setup your site, both in WordPress and in most other known systems. Not only are the installations a one-click procedure but the whole thing will be wholly automated so that you can simply ignore it until its ready.

Do you know what would probably take the most time? Getting your credit card out and typing the numbers in the purchase order for your hosting plan.

Here, let me break it down for you:

  • Register a new hosting plan: 10 minutes and maybe 1-5 more until it’s activated
  • Register your new domain name: 3 minutes
  • Install your new WordPress site: 10 minutes (and about 10 minutes of waiting)
  • Configure your new WordPress site: 5 minutes to infinity (depending on how much you want to play around)
  • Import from your blogger or WordPress account: Lets say another: 10-20 minutes depending on the volume, all automated of course.

Honestly, I’m just looking back at the notification emails of when I first started. I made the purchase at 4:56 and my website was up and running at 5:15! I kid you not. And back then I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

It took me more time to find a theme and install some plugins of course but that’s the great part. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to but you can if you do. And given how ridiculously easy it is to try, change and install addons now, compared to when I started, the whole procedure should not take you more than an extra 30 minutes to 1 hour if you want to take your time.

And from then on, you’re simply opening your “write new post” bookmark or even better, just pressing a button on your keyboard.

Another thing that you may not realise about a wordpress installation is that you’re activelly saving time as you use it.

  • Managing: Whether it is looking at your stats, checking your comments or modifying your categories, WordPress has it as easy as possible.
  • Writing: I would argue that even writing a post can be quicker with all the extra options that wordpress provides for media or special formatting. nevertheless, for one who simply writes text, there won’t be much of a difference. Nothing can beat the ability to grab a CC image from flickr for your post in three clicks however 😉
  • Designing: If you’ve ever had to edit your blogger template and look for the start of the body and the end of the head or whatever, you’ll love the wordpress way of using different files for each part. Customizing your theme has never been easier.

These may not seem like much but altogether and in small amounts, they start to build up. There’s a thousand little ways were you can become more productive with wordpress and if that’s not enough, there’s plugins to make it even quicker.

So if time is your constraint, don’t even think about it. What are 38 measly minutes?

8 thoughts on “You want to self-host your blog but don't have time? Can you spare 38 minutes?”

  1. I've just started to wonder why you mentioned 38 minutes. Why not 30 minutes? Is this a reference to some science fiction show with big circular artifacts?

  2. I don't understand what to do after I import my blog from wordpress.com to my self hosted web site. How do I even edit and post new stuff. Where's the log int my site now that it's not a wordpress.com?

  3. Hey Jen, I don't mind helping you but you need to be a bit more polite ok? You're sounding as if I am your personal tech support.

    You can either upload it through a post (use the "add image" button) and then note the location it is saved in or you can use ftp, place it in a folder under your domain and then link to that.

  4. Ok, I imported my old blog entirely from wordpress.com to self hosted wordpress and have figured out how to do postings. Question is now, I want to upload a photo into my header through the header.php. The photo is on my desktop. Where do I upload it to and how?

  5. Hi, am moving forward sort of…last night I went into my wordpress self hosted site though admin and went into the header.php template and ventured into trying to replace code that was there with other code. Everywhere I saw Kubrickheader.jpg, I deleted that and replaced it with the name of the image I saved in a file manager folder. Then everywhere I saw 'bloginfo' I put a link http://www.nameofmysite.com/wp-content/images/myi…When I hit 'visit site' to see the changes, I got a parse error message on a white page, but no blog .Bluehost reset me, but I don't know what I did wrong so I'm afraid to go back in again. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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