Self-hosting with WordPress
What is self-hosting
Self hosting is the act of having your website totally under your control. This can include you managing all whole aspects of it, from setting up the web server to installing software, to simply managing your weblog software like WordPress. This is usually accomplished by either renting your own server/virtual machine or, more commonly by using shared hosting. The later choice allows you to have low costs while giving up some control but generally not in the areas that you are interested in.
The opposite of self-hosting is free hosting, where you use a free service to host your site. Usually this is done either through Blogger, WordPress.com, Livejournal or any other popular system. This means that you have very little control over your site other than the content and you have to follow specific TOS, which are very frequently quite limited.
Now, If you are a blogger you will sooner or later create a strong connection to where you make your little place on the web. Your blog becomes sort of an online home with a much more value than any shallow social network profile. It is the place where your character or professionalism is shown to the world at large and with time you may find that you have invested a lot of effort and time into it.
It is for this reason that I consider that for anyone who views blogging even as a hobby, self-hosting their own site is the better choice. I understand however that there are a lot of misconceptions about what self-hosting entails and you can see in the following poll result the reasons so many people avoid it
To this end, I’ve written the following articles in the hope to counter some of these misconceptions.
Why self-hosting with WordPress is suitable for all
- So you don’t want to be a pro-blogger eh?
- The costs of self-hosting your blog
- Why setting up your own self-hosted wordpress blog is not hard.
- You want to self-host your blog but don’t have time? Can you spare 38 minutes?
- Self-hosting Addendum: Host Selection
- The 31 definite reasons why you should be self-hosting WordPress
