Let me ask you something.
Do you prefer living in your own or rented house?
I know most people dream about having their own home and that makes perfect sense to me.
When you own your house, you’re the boss, you make things the way you want it. Otherwise, you play by someone else rules and that’s not a very comfortable situation.
The same thing is with your website.
Essentially, it boils down to creating assets for your business. If your site lives on someone else’s domain (like wordpress.com or blogspot.com), you’re at the mercy of the policies and stability of those organizations.
Self-hosted website is the cornerstone of your business asset. You own it, you control it, and over time, if you take care of it, it becomes more and more valuable.
Let’s take a quick look at the advantages of hosting a website.
1. Content
A self-hosted website gives you complete control over the content.
There’s no limitation on the number of pages you can create or topics you can use.
2. Ads
Hosting your own website gives you absolute control over what, if any, ads you include on your website.
If you choose to include ads on your personally-hosted website, the revenue go exclusively to you.
3. Domain name and Email
Most Web hosting companies include at least one domain name with your hosting plan, giving you a brand from the get-go, so to speak.
Other Web hosts may include a URL in the form of a subdomain, such as yourblog.wordpress.com which is not so bad but does appear less proffesional.
4. Design
With self-hosted website, you are only limited in design by your own creativity and experience.
Not only are you able to experiment more completely with layouts, but you’re also free to change them at the drop of a hat.
Use the right tools
The truth is, until you’ve done it, it can seem complicated, difficult, and expensive.
Nowadays, reliable and inexpensive hosts are easy to find. To help you with this I personally use and highly recommend WP Engine.
The proces of creating your self-hosted website isn’t any more difficult than getting Internet hook-up at your home and setting up a wireless network.
Remember, if you’ve built a successful business on a site that’s not on your own domain, you don’t own your future … someone else does.
When it comes to writing your posts and publishing your work, get yourself set up with the free WordPress publishing platform and a design theme that grows your audience from StudioPress.
These tools (among others) take care of so much of the “heavy lifting“ for you, so you can focus on your content.
How about you?
Are you using self-hosted or free web hosting service?
What was your main reasons for choosing one or the other?
Please let me know in the comments …
Hey, did you know it’s simple to get started with your own WordPress site, on your own domain.
[EXPAND A step-by-step guide to creating your self-hosted WordPress website (INFOGRAPHIC)]
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Well, to answer your question, I have a self-hosted blog on wordpress.org through Hostgator and GoDaddy. I do not have a premium brand like Studio Press though I would like one. That will have to be in the future. Some highly regarded A-listers suggested with my medical bills this would be the best way to go and still monitize. From reading your article, maybe I got the wrong idea, but does that mean that not all of my revenue from any affiliate ads that I put up won’t go all to me? I was of the understanding that if I pay for domain and hosting that the percentage agreed in the contract would go to me. On another matter, I certainly hope that when I do upgrade to a premium theme, there is not so much backpage work and learning. Takes a big chunk out of my day. Thanks for your thoughts on this Dragan. I appreciate it.
As I already wrote “If you choose to include ads on your personally-hosted website, the revenue go exclusively to you”. Since you already have self-hosted site, all of your revenue from any affiliate ads go to you! Don’t worry :). Btw, Hostgator is a fine web hosting provider and I hope you don’t have any problems.
Switching to a premium theme should be a breeze. Think of it as a one time investment, you won’t be sorry, trust me ;). And I agree StudioPress is the top-notch.
Thanks Lee for your questions and don’t hesitate to ask.