Being/Going Self-Hosted ?

Good morning !

This is officially the first post being written AND published since i’ve jumped the fence and got my own domain and became self-host :3 So this is what we will be conversing today.

First, there may be different reasons why someone would wanna get self-hosted. Which honestly would differ from blogger to blogger; some will be for the “making money” option, some may be for the freedom, or just to be “successful”… or many other reasons that I cannot think of right now.

Personally, it has been something I was thinking for quite a while; what was the most attractive to me has been the availability of plug-ins. The one I wanted the most was of course “CommentLuv” ! Many in our community is using that one and it’s just a nice way to help blog hopping and returning comments, by allowing commenters to include one of their recent posts.

Different bloggers also have different opinions on when is the best time to go self-hosting.. Some prefer to start blogging being self-host so you can learn all at once, some prefer to do a lot of research, while some others like me just go head onto it and bam!

Is it the best one? most probably not, if we are being honest.. but it’s how I’ve been doing EVERYTHING so far 😂 yep, even the more permanent things like my tattoos and piercing. If I give things too much of a thought, my anxiety gets the override and I might not even end up doing it – and to be fair, I don’t know what I could’ve had researched.. All I needed to know was the different prices and what they offered between the companies, so I could pick one.

The most important thing to me is passion. This of course costs money, inflating with every options you wanna get. So it’s important that you know it’s something you love, and won’t wanna quit after a period. From there on, I think any blogs needs constant works; from graphics to getting better writing, etc. The switch however need more work in term of fixing the links everywhere and such. Aswell as being used to the new plug-ins, format and customizations you can do now.

The ONE thing i’m not so fond of the switching though, is how everything still link to the old one. So you gotta go back and fix what’s in your post but also Goodreads, Netgalley, and everywhere you’ve put your link into. That’s the most tedious part, with fidgetting with the settings and figure your way out; as WordPress don’t do it for you anymore. You also have to put it out there that the new blog is going, many being unaware. So all the followers you gained, you lose them for a period. I’d thought all would just apply to the same blog – but nope! A new blog was created instead, which caused me anxiety for a while.. That was one thing I should’ve read about.

What’s your thoughts on Self-Hosting?

What is the must-haves and basics in your opinion?

What would you say is the best time to do the switch?