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

Why aren't you hosting your own Wordpress blog?

  • I'm not (or planning to be) a pro-blogger. There's no point. (30%, 32 Votes)
  • The hosting costs are too high. (25%, 27 Votes)
  • I am not technical. I'll never be able to setup and maintain it. (17%, 18 Votes)
  • I'd like to but I don't have time to set it up. (11%, 12 Votes)
  • Other (Please specify) (11%, 12 Votes)
  • I don't like Wordpress. (Please explain) (5%, 5 Votes)
  • What's Wordpress? (1%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 107

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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

  1. So you don’t want to be a pro-blogger eh?
  2. The costs of self-hosting your blog
  3. Why setting up your own self-hosted wordpress blog is not hard.
  4. You want to self-host your blog but don’t have time? Can you spare 38 minutes?
  5. Self-hosting Addendum: Host Selection
  6. The 31 definite reasons why you should be self-hosting Wordpress
  7. Still wary of self-hosting? Then here’s my ultimate proposal.

The final part of this series will be revealed this Monday (barring unforeseen events) wehre I will explain my “grand” plan. Hopefully the articles in this series will have given some basis to what I have to propose.

Until then, feel free to try to second guess what I have in mind or simply check the poll results (and take it if you haven’t already)

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My comments elsewhere

Zoulapia

  • 03.01 Quote of the day: Rise to the Top

    Quoth Julian Edney

    But the chances of a person born poor climbing all five classes into the top (”making it”)[...]are too small to constitute a real freedom.[...], one sociologist puts the upper class at roughly 3 percent of the population. About 7.7% of that has moved in from below – a minute, and historically persistent, figure.[...]But the trick of flaunting possibility to mask actual probability is not a casual device.

    (h/t to the Barefoot Bum)

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  • 24.12 Quote of the Day: Fables

    Quoth David Willey of BBC news

    The priest said he had never intended to hurt anyone, but it was his duty to distinguish the reality of Jesus from the story of Father Christmas which was a fable just like Cinderella or Snow White.

    The Irony! It burnssss

  • 21.12 Quote of the day: Knowledge before Expertise

    Quoth Isaac Puente

    We are asked from the outset to come up with a flawless system, to guarantee that things will work this way and not that, without mishap or error. If learning to live had to be done this way, then our apprenticeship would never end. Nor would the child ever learn to walk, nor the youngster to ride a bicycle.

    This is a classic gripe I have with people inquiring or criticizing communism with me. They ask me to provide a perfect answer for every question they have, and when they can think of holes in my replies, they ask more. If I refuse to keep playing this game, they point this out as proof of an obviously poor-thought system.

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