Business at Home Income Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Blogging’

This is a question I get all the time and many bloggers undoubtedly get all the time.

Should I use a free WordPress Blog? Or should I host my own WordPress Blog?

To be clear, a free WordPress blog can be obtained by simply signing up for one at WordPress.com. The username you use to join becomes your blog name. As an example I have a username “howdoyoustartablog”. This translates to my free wordpress blog site “howdoyoustartablog.wordpress.com”

The self-hosted WordPress blog would be on your own domain on your own site you would install the WordPress software on. The WordPress software would then be the blogging system that manage the content of your website. These days, installation is quite easy with most hosting companies. Most use push button software such as Fantastico Deluxe or Simple Scripts to install Wordprses. Check out my website and watch a free video and watch before your eyes as I set up a blog and post to my blog all in about 10 minutes.

So now to address the question: which is the right one for you?

FREE WORDPRESS BLOG PLUSSES AND MINUSES

PLUS free to setup

PLUS installation is easy (done by WordPress the company)

PLUS maintenance is free (setup, upgrades, spam, security, backups are all done by WordPress)

PLUS reliable servers (hosted on WordPress.com servers)

PLUS inclusion into the WordPress.com community may facilitate community traffic

MINUS cannot update/upload your own theme. Must use WordPress.com themes

MINUS cannot edit any of the php code (useful for adding additional features from third parties)

MINUS cannot upload any plugins. The WordPress plugin community is huge by the way

MINUS no ad placements allowed. In fact, WordPress will place their own ads on your blog

MINUS WordPress brand (not your own brand)

MINUS no true ownership of content. Site is still a WordPress site

SELF HOSTED WORDPRESS BLOG PLUSSES AND MINUSES

PLUS can upload custom made and third party WordPress themes. There are thousands of third party themes you can choose from or you can make a custom one.

PLUS can change the php WordPress code as desired. This will allow nearly unlimited functionality in your site. There exists a large community of WordPress developers with many out-of-the-box scripts to add function to your site.

PLUS can upload plugins! iPhone’s motto is “There’s an app for that”. WordPress’s motto should be “There’s a plugin for that”.

PLUS your own ads allowed, better control of monetization

PLUS your own brand/domain name

PLUS you have ftp access to your hosted account which allows you a lot of control on your site outside of your actual WordPress blog

MINUS you need to set up yourself (though most hosting providers provide push button installation through “Fantastico Deluxe” or “Simple Scripts”. Plus my free video walks you through this process.

MINUS costs involved to setup. You have to pay domain registrar fees which is about $15 a year. Hosting fees can be $5 to $10 a month.

MINUS you maintain on your own including spam control, backups, security, etc. There are many plugins available for this.

MINUS need to find reliable servers. Make sure to choose a good hosting company. Most of them have a pretty good uptime guarantee.

In summary, if you want just the most basic blogging features of the traditional blogging sense, a free blog is for you. If you plan to monetize it even with adsense, then you will want a self-hosted paid blog. Moreover, if you want to add your own custom look and feel, you will want a self-hosted paid blog. You also have access to many free WordPress themes as well. And finally the world of plugins is the big kicker. Think about apps for the iPhone. There is a quote that whatever you want, .there is an app for that.. Plugins are much the same from security to SEO to driving traffic to membership sites to just about anything.

In most cases, I recommend a self-hosted paid blog.

I hope this has been helpful. And please do contact me if you have any questions or post them here on the blog. And if you are thinking about starting a blog, check out my free video which walks you through the simple setup of a hosted blog in about 10 minutes with a hostmonster account.

Want to learn more about starting a blog with WordPress? Come by Emil Yau’s site How Do You Start A Blog and watch his video as he creates and posts to a new WordPress blog in less than 10 minutes right in front of your eyes.

One of the definitely most advantageous things, which were created in the 20th century, is the web. It gives great opportunities for people all over the world, from different nationalities and social layers to build up their careers, their knowledge and change their future. Therefore, learning how to make money online is all important.

Though the World Wide Web has remained a portal for leisure and socializing, there is no doubt that it is in the making money online business that it has thrived. Many existing companies now conduct a large part of their business this way, others however use it as their only source of working.

It is no wonder things have gone this way of course. One of the major issues a business has when first setting up are the overheads. Paying for office rents, electricity bills, water rates, maintenance costs and so on and so forth. It all adds up. Takes these away, and things just become simpler to organize, easier to manage and cheaper to run. Here are a few tips for how to make money online.

Today, on the web, there are special sites, called upload servers. They have lots of free space and you can upload as many information, as you like for free. The point here is that when people download the file, you have uploaded, you receive your pay.

Doing this requires a lot of time and resources, before you will be making income, because they pay for every 1000 downloads and all the advertising and promotion work to increase the number of daily downloads the uploader has to do by him self. One really interesting thing here (like in other ways of making money online) is referral programs. If people work in your team, you will receive interest from their income.

Companies and other organizations are always after information. Whether this is to get a message out there, monitor public opinion or to get feedback on a new product. That it is possible to get paid for completing these sponsored surveys makes sense for anyone really.

There are a host of sites that create surveys throughout the year; be it for major brands, local companies, utility companies or even the state. As such, signing up to these could well get a bit of extra cash coming in each month, which will always be welcome.

For skilled people, one of the best ways with how to make money online, is freelancing. Many companies are outsourcing designs, programming, data input and ghostwriting, so people become employees, if they have required knowledge, skills and expertise.

Significant amounts of cash can be made this way, but for those looking to get into a new career or start on their journey, working in this way can be a great way to build experience. A great thing to be able to mention at interview, it could make the difference to securing that dream job.

This examples is just a fraction of the great many ways that people can discover ways in how to make money online. Concentrating on a skill that is already perfected will help a great deal, though being interested in something will make a good deal more sense. For so many people, working in this way is not only generating cash, but creating excellent lifestyles.

Now you can get the information you need to learn how to make money online easy! When you have questions about the methods on making money online, you can get all the answers today!