Self-Hosted Blog? Why not?

WordPress

Anyone want to know how can I have michaeljubel.com as my blog? Do you want a blog like mine, a self-hosted WordPress blog with my own domain name? Well, it’s not free (of course), but you can have one like mine with a very low price. But, before we get to business and talk about money and prices, I will explain you some terms in web hosting services, in a very simple way of course, which is rather important to be understood well. And I will take some blog sphere friends as examples to make everything easier to understand.

What is the difference between domain and web hosting?

Well, this is some examples of domain: michaeljubel.com, hannasyalala.com, majarimagazine.com, sherwintobing.com, republikbabi.com, putraditama.com, journal.marisaduma.net, ydoea.com. Do you get the idea? Domain is simply some identification you use to get to somewhere on the internet. There are many suffixes in domain names that you can choose, .com, .net, .org, .info, etc.

“Somewhere on the internet? Where is that ‘somewhere’ actually?”

Aha, this will define what web hosting is all about. Web hosting companies provide some space in their servers on the internet so you can put your blog data there. Everyone from all over the world will be accessing the data in that server when they visit and explore your blog. So, that ‘somewhere’ may refer to the location of server where your data is kept.

Can I have a blog with domain like that without having the web hosting service?

Yes, why not? Domain and web hosting are actually a different type of web services. Some web hosting companies usually put those two services into one package, but many of them provide separate services so that you may only buy just domain, or even only just web hosting.

Examples of domain without paid web hosting are guebukanmonyet.com and jakartabutuhrevolusibudaya.com. Those two blogs are actually hosted in WordPress.com then owner bought some domains pointing to WordPress.com server so that the WordPress.com blogs are accessible through its own domain names in addition to the ones that WordPress.com already provided: guebukanmonyet.wordpress.com and revolusibudaya.wordpress.com. This is very useful when you want your own personalized domain without being messed up with all the start-up and installation process. This process may be frustrating to some people; it includes the WordPress installation, theme installation, and FTP client configuration. The main drawback of having WordPress.com blog with your own domain is the lack of personalization in the blog theme and layout as you can only choose WordPress.com provided theme.

I want a total control of my personalized-domain blog; meaning I must rent a web hosting service. But, can I have a free one?

Obviously you can. You need two things: a domain (this is usually not free) and a free hosting service. After buying your own domain, you should have it pointing to the server of the free hosting service. One example of free web hosting service is 000webhost.com; the one which is used by republikbabi.com and izul.co.cc. The server name may be something looked like: ns1.yourwebhost.com or dns6.yourwebhost.com. You can do this setting in your domain control panel.

I don’t know much about web hosting services, is there anyone that provide comparative review or something?

Well, I recently find a comparison portal that reviews top Web Hosting companies in the world: Webhostingpal.com. You can seek for the cheapest and the most reliable web hosting service on the net. The website is pretty simple, free from banner ads, and only need little time to load. Considering the HUGE bandwidth and disk space the listed web hosting companies provided (it is all in the order of GIGABYTES) in the portal, it is only useful for you who want to have a HUGE business website that offers business and e-commerce hosting if you are planning on selling any goods from your website.

$7.95/mo for 50 GB disk space and 750 GB bandwidth. (this is madness)

See? Holy cow, that’s cheap!

Well, can I have just a USUAL one, please?

Yes, just try the local web hosting companies. I have been using Qwords.com and everything goes well up until now. They have quite a nice customer support service, both for the ones who already have IT background and also for the ones who doesn’t really understand these stuff at all (yet).

$1.00/mo for 100 MB disk space and 8 GB bandwidth. (pricing is actually in Indonesian rupiah)

Although the international web hosting services are way cheaper if you put the disk space and bandwidth into leverage, but you don’t really need that super-huge space for a personal blog, do you?

How about the domain names pricing?

Usually, a web hosting provider sells domain names as well. At Qwords.com, you have have your own domain names starting from IDR 80.000 per year. If you want to seek another web hosting company, you can go the the portal I’ve mentioned above: Webhostingpal.com.

Good luck with your self-hosted blogs! Should there be any question, I would be very happy to help!

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  • I think its a great work done.

  • mau tanya sobat, kalau kita dah punya blog.wordpress.com, kemudian kita beli domain untuk diarahkan ke blog wordpress kita tersebut, apa hal ini mempengaruhi kunjungan yang selama ini sudah ada ? terutama hasil pencarian di google, fungsi kerja tag en di wordpress juga,

    thanks atas pencerahannya. tapi maaf, tolong di cc via email juga ya.

  • Unfortunately, sometimes those harmless-looking, perfectly-named domains may have a checkered past. Before picking up a domain name that may be banned or blocked due to previously delivering malware, trojans, or porn, you need to do a background check.

    There is a free Domain Background Check cheat sheet at http://siteriver.com/domaintest.php - just enter the domain name you are researching and over a dozen links are created to domain check, anti-malware, and other tools. You can quickly check if your domain name is ready for business or is still on parole.

  • I had never even considered self hosting my own blog. Great post.

  • Sweet blog. I never know what I am going to come across next. I think you should do more posting as you have some pretty intelligent stuff to say.

    I’ll be watching you . :)

  • Pingback: Start you own blog in 6 easy steps ( Part 3 : Choosing your blogging platform ) | Make Money Online Junkie()

  • Yes I agree to have a self hosted blog is far better than free blog. You will have more control on many things.

  • Thanks, there is more reason to comment than ever before!

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  • Why I decided to buy domain and hosting for my wordpress blog http://www.gareng.net, because I thought with self hosted blog, I can do many things. I can put adsense code there or choose theme as I like.

  • Reading this article make me sure to have self-hosted blog (although I didn’t touch it yet). I love blogging and like to share what I think about this world, people, engineering, social and make others smile.
    I like you and your blog because you’re “Indonesia Banget”, So am I. I wanna be good Indonesian.

    PS: Let’s make our country become green again. ‘Selamat Hari Menanam Pohon Indonesia’. Sukses Desember Bulan Menanam Pohon Indonesia.

  • punya self hosted blog . . . memang menguras banyak perhatian, memiliki tantangan tersendiri
    bukan begitu Bang Jubel?

    saya lagi nyobain tantangan itu, sambil megukur limit kesabaran saya di http://www.ninjarider.org :lol:

  • thanks :mrgreen:

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