Wordpress.org or Wordpress.com?
September 6, 2008 by yelena
Filed under Building Better Blog, Burning Questions, blog
Q: I’m thinking about starting a business blog. Should I be using Wordpress.org or Wordpress.com? And what’s the difference anyway?
A: When I first started my blog, I would inevitably get a “deer in headlights” look any time someone mentioned hosting services, FTP transfers, HTML and similar techno-speak. There was also the issue of money. Third-party hosting is not terribly expensive, but it’s not free either. And I was trying to stick to my ”no-budget” budget.
So when I first read on Wordpress that you can start a Wordpress.com blog in less than 1 minute (nothing to install) and for free, I was totally sold! I started my first blog right there and then. It was easy to maintain, very powerful, and considering very little effort that I put promoting it, attracted an ok traffic. And did I mention it was absolutely free?!
However, based on my personal experience, I would strongly recommend you to go with a self-hosted blog instead. As it turns out, with a Wordpress.com blog, you can’t
fully brand a blog;
have a short and professional-looking URL (it will always be http://yoursite.wordpress.com)
upload useful plugins and widgets that make life easier for both you and your readers;
install Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics program to track your performance;
explore all the options for monetizing (making money from) your blog.
After a few months of hitting these kinds of road blocks with my first blog, I decided to get over my fear of techno-speak and get a self-hosted blog instead. Luckily, many hosting services now offer one-click Wordpress installation through Fantastico Deluxe. With this service installing a self-hosted Wordpress blog is very easy and quick.
Technorati Tags: Wordpress.com blog, business blog, Wordpress, Wordpress.com
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Haley on Mon, 8th Sep 2008 6:34 pm
Another really good host is Hostmonster.com. They are actually the same people that run Bluehost.com so you get the same stuff. But I was able to search for a promo code for hostmonster and get hosting for 3.95 or 4.95 a month for 3 years. That’s an amazing deal.
Haley
Skye Hussain on Wed, 5th May 2010 10:30 pm
Our home business in our village is a small catering service. The profit is good in the food and beverage business. .”
Olivia Smith on Mon, 24th May 2010 10:50 pm
Copyrighting is very important specially if you wrote original articles both online and offline.’,~