At the start of their blogging career, most bloggers host self-hosted blog on Blogger or WordPress.com. These free hosted services are inexpensive and easy to use and perfect for those who are taking this as a hobby or want to gauge the blogging industry.
However, there are certain limitations to these services. You will notice them when your audience increases or you want to customize the blog. WordPress.com and Blogger are not suitable for serious bloggers. Eventually you have to decide to shift your blog to self-hosting services.
But when can you take this step? Here are 6 signs which indicate you need a self-hosted blog:
Free hosted services for blogs serve their purposes as long as you are taking it as a hobby. You occasionally update your blog only to share your thoughts or tell your dear ones what you are doing. Then these services are enough for your blog. However, if you are passionate about blogging, want to earn money from it, create loyal followers or want to be an influencer in your field then you have to switch over to self-hosted blog.
When your blog becomes popular, you can make it a business by using ads, product sales, sponsorships, affiliate marketing and many other ways. However, you cannot achieve this end when you are suing free blog services. You don’t have any control over ads running on your blog and WordPress.com has clearly stated you are not allowed to use ad networks. However, you have great chance to make money out of your blog if you get paid hosting for it.
Free hosting is ideal for those bloggers who don’t have time to modify designing of their blog and are OK with the looks of their page. However, when you are serious about your blog and start to think that your blog needs some customization which reflects the image of your brand then it’s time to get web hosting package for your blog. With your self-hosted blog you can apply different WordPress themes to give it a perfect outlook.
Not only you have freedom to design your blog but also you can use number of plugins and tools to improve and grow your site with the increase in traffic. For example, with a self-hosted service, you can add a plugin to your blog which automatically generates backup for your blog. So that in a hacking event, you are enable to restore your blog. Free hosting services do not allow use of such tools.
You cannot run an online store on a free hosting service. WordPress.com and blogger don’t allow ecommerce unless you install a PayPal plugin to accept payments and you are making those items available for sale. Likewise if you want to install additional features like podcast, you have to buy extra storage space. The prices of such storage are really expensive and it is limited in its utility. However, when you get web hosting packages they have plenty of features and benefits.
When you get web hosting for your blog, it gives you more control over performance and reliability of your blog. Loading speed of free hosted blogs is very pathetic and especially during peak hours which will frustrate your readers. You will also suffer from constant downtime due to heavy traffic. You can eliminate these problems by hosting self-hosted blogs.
Also check out: 5 Important Business Blogging Stats
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