WordPress hosted VS downloading your own blog

5 replies
Can you actually install plugins to the hosted version of WordPress at wordpress.com or do I have to download my own wordpress blog for that ?

And which approach is generally preferred ?
#blog #downloading #hosted #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Adam Jetson
    3ukman,

    If you really want to "pimp your blog" at any time in the future, then
    get it set up on your own domain right from the start (unless you really
    need the hand-holding/hands-off approach of having it hosted for you).

    With most hosting accounts these days (certainly with CPanel with Fantastico
    nstalled) it takes just a few seconds, and using Worpress itself is easy
    (with infinite help through Google).

    You'll then get full control of your own blog to do pretty much whatever
    you want with it, whenever you want.

    Best,
    Adam
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    • Profile picture of the author PatriciaJ
      I don't think you can add plug ins other than what are already there in your dashboard and that varies according to what theme you use.

      I much prefer the full control of self hosting on my reseller account because I can add whatever plug ins I want and tweak the designs better, if traffic increases I can increase size and bandwidth to match.

      Also having had a blog about Suduko pulled on Tumblr that was doing rather well through my article marketing efforts I'm leary of anything but self hosting now.
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  • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
    I agree with the previous posts -- you should absolutely host your blog on your own domain. You never know what a third-party host might decide to do in the future. They could just take their site down (and your blog with it). Or they could have an unrecoverable crash or something (get hacked with no backups).

    Who knows.

    You may consider hosting "lesser blogs" on third party hosts (perhaps for links or more exposure), but host your main blog on your own site. And then, yeah, you can easily add all the plugins and whiz bang tools you want.
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  • Profile picture of the author Micheal Perkins
    Self hosting is the way to go. I had a blog a couple of years ago that was hosted on wordpress. Luckily I had not done much with it, but they decided I violated their terms somehow. I don't remember what I did, but it was nothing I had not seen on self hosted blogs.

    So think about what will happen to your business if you use wordpress hosting for you blog and 2 years down the road, they shut you down for some reason. I asked at that time if they could reinstate my blog because the mistake I made was honestly and innocent mistake. They said no, that I would just have to start over.

    So, if you want to be serious about this and try to build a business and make money, you need to treat it seriously. Hosting on your server gives you much more control, and you can use any plugin that someone comes up with.

    Just my 2 cents.

    To your success,
    Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author Steadyon
    It depends how big you want your blog to be, but host your main blog or blogs on your own hosting account.

    But have a number of other mini blogs on the free hosts such as wordpress and blogger etc.

    Search the forum for lots of further data on this.
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