RSS Feeds: Thoughts on Blog Hosting, Self-Hosted and Otherwise
If you've ever wondered what the best route to take when setting up a new blog, and you don't have much experience with the different options available for hosting the blog, it can be quite confusing. Let me see if I can help. While I'm no "guru" by any stretch of the imagination, I've worked with this stuff both inside and outside of the information technology field.
Hosted by Blogspot.com (Blogger), WordPress.com and Others
This is an option that a lot of people choose for blog hosting when they the first start blogging because everything except personal choices are handled by the hosting service. There's no need to know anything about the backend or how it all works. This is also the perfect choice if your goal is nothing more than to be socially popular or even just to use it as an online diary.
There are few monetization options, but the options do exist and if you know how to do it, you can still make a lot of money while using one of these services. Grizzly at How to Make Money Online for Beginners is the "go to" guy if you're looking to monetize a Blogger blog.
Self-Hosted (Using your own domain name with a hosting service)
While both blogspot.com and wordpress.com allow you to point your own domain name at blogs you've set up on their services, you're still limited by their backend in the things you're allowed to do. This is not the definition of self-hosted. Self-hosted means you control the whole ball of wax. You're the person that keeps the software up-to-date, changes and edits themes, adds code blocks, etc. It can be a daunting task for a beginner.
Being self-hosted gives you the greatest flexibility in monetization options. You're not restricted by any hosting service and you're limited only by your own imagination and the options available.
Domains, Subdomains and Add-On Domains
Knowing the difference between domains, subdomains and add-on domains is an important facet that many people overlook. It's actually quite simple when you understand how it works.
You start with a top-level domain (TLD) like ".com" and then anything to the left of it (other than a period) is considered the domain name, like "untwistedvortex.com". Add another section in front (separated by a period) and you have a subdomain, like "www.untwistedvortex.com". Go even further with it and you have a sub-subdomain (for lack of a better term). It always irks me when someone uses "www.something.blogspot.com" instead of "something.blogspot.com" because the "www" part is a sub-subdomain and if anything starts acting funky in the DNS, the sub-subdomains are the first to quit working. Since it merely points to the subdomain without the "www", I don't think it's a good idea to use it and I won't use it when linking to someone.
Some hosting services, like HostNine, allow you to add additional domains to your hosting plan, hence the term "add-on domain". What it really is, is a subdomain that has a domain name, as well as the subdomain name, pointing to it. If you do something like this, it's a good idea to use a redirect to make sure it's only accessed with the domain name. That's a topic in itself, so I won't go into it right now.
Top Level Domains
It's arguable that the ".com" TLD is the one to go after. It is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to get a good domain name established due to the proliferation of domain names over time. I believe you can do just as well with most TLDs that have 3 letters or more. There was a time when, if you just entered the domain name into a browser address bar without the TLD, that it would automatically start looking for ".com" as the first choice. I think that's no longer true. At least, I can't make it work that way with Internet Explorer or Firefox anymore.
Many familiar websites use TLDs other than ".com". Examples: php.net, last.fm, del.icio.us
What Do I Recommend?
Ah, that's the clincher. I can't recommend anything over anything else, because I'm no expert on the subject. I've used all of them at one time or another. Since "www.untwistedvortex.com" is a subdomain that points to the domain of "untwistedvortex.com", it's obvious that using a subdomain won't hurt your blog in anyway. In this case, it was a matter of preference. There's nothing to stop me from creating a "sillyname.untwistedvortex.com" or something and have it completely separate, or even pointing to the same domain. The choices are not limited in any way.
The question boils down to the image you want to present and how professional you want or need to be. It's quite obvious that strict domain names appear to be more professional. Speaking of domain names, check out the Godaddy Promo Code list for 2009.
Your Thoughts?
I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject. Since I'm no expert, I could be completely wrong about everything and I love a good argument. Please, give it your best shot.
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Thanks for the great info on hosting!
Kind regards,
Marian
I had few things up in my mind.. As everyone knows there are lots of web hosting agencies spread around, its a matter of fact to buy a domain and host them over the internet. However i took HUGE amount of time spending in debugging few bugs myself. While there are better services like Marble Host which provides web hosting as well as assistance in web design and service, I feel now, i could have better used it!
The cost for own domain name and hosting is so low that it is worth it now. Some free hosted sites can go down or remove your account. To work on site and loose it after all the work is not worth the low cost to host it yourself.
You can also do almost anything you want when you host own blog and add any way you can think of to make money on it. Once you own domain you own it no one can take it away unless you let it expire.
As per me Hosting on own domain is good as it creates more brand awareness and helps in long run..
to start with blogger is good!.. google is KING after all
I agree with every point of this blog post. Indeed for a newbie blogger, a hosted solution sounds much better. It is free, doesn’t require any configuration, it is easy to use and secured. On the other hand after a week, all the weakness of this solution will be presented to an ambitious webmaster. My personal opinion is that getting a web hosting plan from a reliable company will give enough boost to every newly formed website that will allow its webmaster to put more of his energy to his web child. When I started my personal website about web hosting I was thinking to host it with a free web hosting provider. That solution had many disadvantages. Searching for a reliable web hosting firm isn’t always easy, but be assured that not only you will find one, but also it will allow you to lay down the foundations for an exceptional web presence.