Self hosting problems. Please advise.

by trnz

Posted: 13 years ago 13 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi I am editing this post because I have had some good info here.
Here is what I need to know.
1) Can I buy a domain name outright i.e it belongs to me totally.
2) Can I change my present Wordpress free blog to a Wordpress hosted one with the new name?
Many thanks to the forum members who explained things to me. :-)

I was on Wordpress and received a message: 'Own this domain name (happinessguru.me) for $24 a year.It included hosting fee'. I have read about the dangers of using free web sites here on the forum and am thinking about changing to self hosting.
!) Is this a good price? Somebody here mentioned domain names for $1 and hosting for $10.
2) Does the domain name become mine permanently or do I lose it if I stop the hosting?
3) Is there any advantage in staying with Wordpress?
4) Will it be easy to move free Wordpress.com blog to a paid Wordpress one?
This is important to me and I hope that any reader can understand my questions.
My present name is below. All advice is gratefully appreciated.

#advise #hosting #problems

Tech19 13 years ago

Are you interested in that specific domain? I never buy anything but .com and .net but that's just my personal preference. I buy my domains for between 5-10 bucks, and hosting is around $10 per month.

Free blogs are fine to get started, but if you really want to run a legitimate business you need to purchase your own domain and hosting. You will have to renew the domain each year, and the hosting payment will be monthly.
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- PatriciaJ 13 years ago
  
  Whoever contacted you doesn't actually own the domain yet, you can buy it on Namecheap for $8.99 a year and either use it for hosting that you acquire or forward it to your free wordpress blog. The domain would only be yours for a year and then you would need to renew it.
  
  Personally I would recommend self hosting with bigger companies like Hostgator or Bluehost, it might cost more but safer than going with the unknown.
  
  Usually $1 domain deals are .info and just for 1 year, the next year you would probably pay full price.
  
  Your advantage with staying with the free Wordpress blog is the traffic that you have already built. I can't see any affiliate links and that's what causes the problems. If you go self hosting then I would keep the free blog to provide backlinks to the self hosted site.
  
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  Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by trnz
  
  It included hosting fee'
  
  These things often look attractive, but it's potentially a huge mistake to register a domain and host it in the same place. Don't do it!
  
  As Patricia says, that domain-name is currently unregistered, and yours for $8.99 at Namecheap.
  
  (Prices have gone up: the last .me domain I bought there was $4.99!).
  
  Originally Posted by trnz
  
  2) Does the domain name become mine permanently or do I lose it if I stop the hosting?
  
  That's one of the many potential problems/worries in registering and hosting at the same place. Just buy it yourself, quickly, for $8.99 while you can, if you want it (it's not a bad name?!) and then think about hosting it later, is my advice. Or even redirect it from Namecheap to your current wordpress.com blog (no hosting needed!) while you're deciding what to do. Namecheap doesn't charge anything extra for that.
  
  Originally Posted by trnz
  
  3) Is there any advantage in staying with Wordpress?
  
  You can't monetize a site there in any way, because of wordpress.com's terms of service, so definitely better to move, in the long run, if you ever plan to make money from it, to have affiliate links, or whatever.
  
  Originally Posted by trnz
  
  4) Will it be easy to move free Wordpress.com blog to a paid Wordpress one?
  
  Too technical for me (I'm not a Wordpress user). Others can answer this one.
  
  But if you want that domain-name, just register it yourself, in your own name, not through any "hosting company" at all. Not even through Wordpress.
  
  That $8.99 will be per year, by the way.
  
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  Kay King 13 years ago
  
  You buy the domain and it's yours.
  
  ...for the term of the registration, that is...and for as long as you continue to renew the registration. When you register a domain it's more like renting than ownership.
  
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  trnz 13 years ago
  
  Alexa and Kay, good advice. Thanks. :-)
  
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Webpromotion 13 years ago

Hosting your own domain it not as hard as you think.
You buy the domain and it's yours.
The hosting is not that expensive either.

The ups of it are that you have more freedom to do with your site as you wish.

Most people that are serious in making money online.. host their own sites.
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hustlinsmoke 13 years ago

I do not buy services like that, alot of my students have before they ask.
Here is the main deal. They will own that domain usually till the term is up which is usually a year.
You will also probably get very bad service and be very displeased.
If you do not just have to have that domain name, stay away from the service.
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Valera 13 years ago

I agree with the above advice given to you...

Don't ever buy a domain and host it in the same place, a lot of people make a mistake by buying domains at godaddy and hosting them there as well as I hear their hosting is not really compatible with everything you may need and so on.

Buy your domain, host it on a reputable hosting company like hostgator or hostmonster, you can get pretty cheap shared hosting account with your own cpanel access and everything you need at your fingertips.

Then, you can move your free wordpress blog to your own, self hosted domain.

This will have heaps of benefits, such as:

A. Run adsense on your site

B. Free to use affiliate links

C. No one will delete your site, unless you don't renew your domain.

The only downside is if you have built any backlinks to your free wordpress blog and all the reputation associated with it will be a little bit tricky to transfer to your new domain that you will be hosting.

Best you can do in that case, is make a post on your free blog and direct your visitors to visit your new blog on new domain...

Hope that helps you some
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- MattVit 13 years ago
  
  $24 per year for a .me is standard. But with hosting included, that's great value. And as you probably aren't too savvy in this area, it sounds like it will set up your Wordpress site free and instantly on the new site - too easy!
  
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MoreTricks 13 years ago

Getting a domain is a easy task and it only cost around $10.I will suggest you to go with self hosted blog if you are serious about your busniees,and it is easy to transfer your wordpress.com posts to hosted wordpress since the tools are available there itself.

When we consider about hosting the cost may varies.I will suggest you to go with hostgator hosting for wordpress which will cost only $5 per month for shared hosting.
If you need 25% off on hostgator hosting you can PM me
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trnz

13 years ago

First let me thank all the members for their time in answering. I now have a good understanding about it. My intention is to move from free hosting because they can be closed down. I did have a free .com blog. If I change to a .me name will my blog then be safe i.e since I am then paying for it, they can't close me down?
I've googled and studied WP help but no info there. Does anybody have an email for queries at WP?

New Domains for You and*.me — Blog — WordPress.com

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Istvan Horvath

13 years ago

Originally Posted by trnz

As long as you are using the "free" blog services at wordpress.COM, you are not safe - in case you plan to do anything to earn money with your blog. If you are blogging just to become world famous, you are OK.

No matter what kind of domain mapping service wp.COM is offering - you are still at their mercy.
(To understand what wp.com is offering: you will have the same username.wordpress.com blog hosted by them as you have it now, and they will "redirect" your domain to it; the technical term is 'domain mapping'. That is NOT the self-hosted wordpress...)

If you really want to be independent:
- save/backup your content from wp.COM.
- buy your own domain and hosting (from 2 different companies)
- install the free script from wp.ORG
- import the saved content into it

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Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by trnz

I did have a free .com blog. If I change to a .me name will my blog then be safe i.e since I am then paying for it, they can't close me down?

No; it doesn't work this way.

The fact that you're redirecting (or mapping) a .me domain-name to a blog hosted at wordpress.com doesn't change the fact that it's hosted at wordpress.com, and all of wordpress.com's terms of service will still apply to you (i.e. no monetization at all).

Wordpress.org is a totally different animal. When you have a self-hosted Wordpress blog (made with software from Wordspress.org) you get to make up the rules, because it's on your hosting, not on hosting at wordpress.com.

Don't get confused between paying for a domain-name and paying for hosting.

This is also a difficult point to understand: the issue with hosting isn't about whether or not it's free. Yes, I know everyone says it is, but I'm afraid "everyone" is just wrong about that. There are some perfectly satisfactory, well-established, safe, decent, free places you can host a wordpress.org blog (such as Byethost.com or 000WebHost.com) and not have any of these problems, and not have to worry about "using free hosting" at all.

The problem with the places like wordpress.com and Blogspot and Squidoo isn't the fact that they're free: it's the terms of service, and what they allow/disallow, and how they can change the rules whenever they like and delete sites that people "report" and so on.

A much better arrangement for you, in the long run, would be to get your own hosting, and host your own wordpress blog on it. It doesn't matter much whether the hosting you use is paid-for or free (with either, you need to choose a good, reliable, well-established company - that's all). For paid hosting, I recommend HostGator (form about $5 per month). For free hosting, I suggest either Byethost or 000WebHost (but you won't get customer support from them, like you will from HostGator, and they may not be quite as reliable as HostGator or an equivalent company where you pay).

However you do that, it will still leave you with the issue of transferring what's already on your current blog from wordpress.com to your new/replacement site, though.

Edited to add: sorry, I was writing my post while Istvan was replying, just above (not for the first time!).
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Self hosting problems. Please advise.

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