Blogging tips #1
Blogs are becoming even more popular than they were – despite the forecasts of many annalists. If you are passioned about something or want your own place to express your views and ideas setting up your own blog is the way to go. I decided that I am going to do few articles sharing my experience with you.
Free solutions
There are various services online that offer free hosting for blogs. Amongst the most popular ones are :
Out of them I recommend WordPress.com as it provides excellent services , has higher SEO value that Blogger, excellent support and dedicated community. I used to like blogger few years ago , but after its acquisition on Google their services become inferior than the one wordpress.com provides. In addition Google has a tendency to randomly delete blogs ( for example if someone tries to register a blog with you domain ) – so you will be better off standing away from them.
Paid solution
If you have some money to invest – or want greater flexibility for your blog – best thing you can do is get your own domain and hosting. Even if you are using a free hosting solution for your blog I highly recommend that you get your own domain. Why ? Because having your own domain allows to to build credibility for your content. More over it gives you additional flexibility – as if something goes wrong with your hosting provider or you decide to move your blog – you won`t loose any CEO value by doing a simple redirect .
I am registered my domain at Namecheap.com and am satisfied with their services. Unlike GoDaddy ( which is one of the most popular places which you can register your domain – don`t know why ) – Namecheap provides free privacy on domain names which is a must have in order to avoid spam and protect your personal data. A domain from them will cost you about 10 $ per a year.
For full flexibility you may consider purchasing hosting for your blog. This would allow to to use the plugins provided by WordPress and will give you full abilities to customise the look of your blog.
There are various sites that offer to host your blogs for a fee – out of them I selected Dreamhost – partly because I have read good opinions on it and party because I managed to get a good price taking advantage of a coupon code of theirs. ( for example the coupon “ HOSTMYBLOG” will take 60 $ off for a year of your hosting with them.
One important thing I want to mention is that when you pay for your hosting almost any company will give you a free domain for the lifetime of your blog. You may take advantage of that for another project of yours – but do not pick it for the main domain of your blog. The reason for that is simple – when you decide to change hosts some time later – because you feel like doing it or because you saw a better offer somewhere – you won`t be able to take away your domain with you – as it was provided for free for your hosting and is available as long as you stay with them. I made that mistake some time ago myself – wish there was someone to tell me back then …
In the next issue : SEO tips ( Search engine optimisation )
Wanted (1994) Short film review: 
Review of the coming of age classic book Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon . Audio review of the book is included in the article.
Hello Skykid. I got 2 useful pointers from this post as a newbie blogger on the lookout for hosting the right way.
1. Not to pick one’s major domain name for an lifetime free domain name registration package.
2. Privacy factor to protect one’s personal data and avoiding spam.
p.s. I also heard that having the privacy option is not a good idea for certain reasons, can you give some insight on this please.
Hello and thank you for commenting . You really got the essence of my post. As about the privacy option – not being a good idea – some may argue that it prevent advertisers to contact you and gives you less creditability – however I found that those 2 points are largely untrue from my own experience.
[...] Blogging tips #1 (theskykid.com) [...]
[...] Tips for bloggers | theSkyKid.com [...]
[...] Blogging tips #1 (theskykid.com) Related Posts [...]
I will end up paying about 100 $ per year to Dremhost once my promo is over. But so far I am satisfied with their services …and besides having an unlimited space and domains I can host works good. There must be some cheaper hosting providers too …but there is time to think of that.