If you want to make money from blogging or a niche website – your best choice is to create your website on a self-hosted platform like Bluehost (one in which YOU PAY for your website to be hosted). For the nominal cost (~$3 – $10 / month) of paying for hosting – you have infinitely more control over your website and opportunities for generating income.
Free blog/website platforms are free for a reason – and that is because by ceding control of “your” website – you also give up most, if not all, opportunities for generating income from your blog. As they say – if you can’t figure out what the product is – YOU are the product! So if you are not paying for the hosting – the company hosting the “FREE” platform is, most likely, making money off of you and your work-product.
Why You Should Chose a Self-Hosted Website You Have to Pay for Over the “Free” Blog & Website Platforms!
- You OWN your website & domain!
- You can MONETIZE your blog or niche website!
- You have more FLEXIBILITY with regard to what your blog or niche website looks like
- You can build an audience.
- Better ranking for search results with search engines.
- You can sell your website and/or domain.
- Enjoy a more professional perception in the Internet community & with visitors.
- 39.5% of ALL websites on the Internet are powered by WordPress!
Before we delve into the 8 reasons you should go with a self-hosted option for a website as opposed to one of the “FREE” options out there – – let’s first just identify & talk a little about some of the “FREE” options for creating a website or blog, and compare them to some of the most recognized self-hosted options out there as well.
Some of The “Free” Options
- WordPress.com (NOT WordPress.org!)
- Blogger.com (owned by Google, shows up as a subdomain of blogspot.com)
- Tumblr.com
- Wix
There is a free option with all of these above indicated platforms. Sometimes these free website or blog platforms are referred to as hosted websites or blogs – since they are hosted on someone else’s platform or domain. (See https://adamapples.blogspot.com as an example) The hosting company or website is providing the servers to host your website and all the software to build and personalize your online presence. There is little opportunity to customize these hosted websites – beyond the tools and templates the hosting company provides.
On these FREE platforms (on the ones listed here – as well as some others not listed) – you CAN certainly establish an online presence – for either a blog or niche website. I am sure you are probably thinking that FREE is WAY BETTER than paying for hosting. After all, why pay for something if you can get it for FREE!
Well, as indicated before – because FREE is not really FREE! When you establish your website or blog on one of these FREE platforms you are giving up more than you probably realize or bargain for!
WordPress.com versus WordPress.org: An IMPORTANT DISTICTION to be made here is that:
- WordPress.com is a website in which you can have a blog hosted for free (one of the FREEE options we indicate here).
- WordPress.org is the website for the developer of WordPress – the open source and FREE content management system that powers about 40% of the websites on the Internet and is used by such companies, organizations & periodicals as Rolling Stone, Vogue, The White House, The Obama Foundation & The Walt Disney Company.
The WordPress Content Management System (CMS) is open source and free to use. However, to really use it, you need to host your own site – which means you usually pay for that hosting at one of the big hosting companies such as Bluehost, Hostgator or SiteGround.
| WordPress.org (Self-Hosted) | WordPress.com (Hosted) |
| You OWN your website name! www.mywebsite.com | You get a subdomain that looks like www.mywebsite.wordpress.com |
| Navigate to Bluehost.com to signup for Hosting and to install WordPress. | Navigate to wordpress.com to sign up |
| You CAN monetize your website! | No |
| Unlimited customization options | Limited |
| $41.39 for the first year (Bluehost 3 year hosting @ $2.95/month + $5.99 for first year domain name @ Cosmotown) Then $44.39 / year | Free |
| Phone, chat & email support included! | Email support only. |
Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Bluehost, and will receive a commission if you sign up through my referral link. There is no additional cost to you, and you will get great pricing through using my link.
Some of the Self-Hosting Options for Your First Blog /Website
- Bluehost (Affiliate Link)
- Hostgator
- SiteGround
These above mentioned companies are all hosting companies that are in the business of helping you to self-host your own website or blog. (for example – www.EpicTreasureHunts.com) These are the companies which you can pay to host a website you own & establish your online presence. They don’t just provide you with a subdomain of their website – but rather allow you to host your own website or domain with a .com extension!
You can use the WordPress Content Management System with all of these, and in the case of Bluehost – the installation and setup of WordPress is super easy and streamlined! It’s just one click to install WordPress and then just a few more steps that Bluehost will walk you through to get your website up and running! Even if you are “technology impaired” – you CAN do this, and it is surprising easy and quick!
8 Reasons to Choose Self-hosted Website as Opposed to a “Free” Platform Website
1) You OWN Your Domain Name & Website!
The importance of this cannot be overstated! When you OWN your domain & website – you have complete control! You can determine what it looks like, the business relationships you enter into, can generate advertising revenue, or even sell your website and/or domain! If you own your own website – you are a business owner – and all the rights and privileges of business ownership are yours to be enjoyed.
You may only be able to have a subdomain at that “FREE” platform…
When you sign up with one of the FREE platform options – you will most likely only receive a subdomain. So instead of having something like TheParenthoodAdventures.com you would get something like theparenthoodadventures.blogspot.com – in which theparenthoodadventures is a subdomain of the blogspot domain. (Or, again – see https://(adamapples.blogspot.com)
Why is this so important? Because if you are going to be pouring yourself into this endeavor to build up your presence on the Internet – it would be a shame for the plug to be able to be pulled on your whole project by the whims of a company that is hosting your website and may, at any point, arbitrarily decide that it no longer wants to / or is able to host that platform!
If the “FREE” platform that you are using shutdowns their service – you have NOTHING! Your subdomain does not exist without their primary domain!
Difficulty moving website and content…
If you do initially set up your website on a hosted platform – you may be unpleasantly surprised at how difficult it may be to move your website! All the time and energy you invested in learning the host’s interface will be wasted – and you will not be able to just pickup your website and relocate it – as it is set up and includes the host’s proprietary web code. You will have to rebuild your entire website! What is the saying – pennywise – pound foolish… Where you don’t want to be so focused on saving money in any way possible – that ultimately, you end up having to spend more time & money because of some of the foolish ways you cut corners earlier!
2) You Can Monetize Your Niche Website / Blog
If you own your own domain and self-host it – you have a lot of different opportunities to generate income from your blog or niche website that may be restricted or not allowed on a “FREE” platform.
- You could sell an ebook or an instructional course.
- You can setup an affiliate relationship with Amazon – or some other company or network to generate commissions for referrals.
- You can generate ad revenue from displaying ads to the people that visit your site.
- You can enter into a partnership with other content creators to sell their info products or services.
- You can charge a membership fee for access to parts of your website for premium content.
- You can feature sponsored posts for a fee.
3) You Have INFINITELY More Flexibility for Customizing You Website
You can customize your website or blog – and there are literally thousands of themes you can choose from! This is a good thing – just don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with all the choices out there. I would suggest that you try a few of the clean and easy themes that are easily adaptable to just about any type of website. The first one I would suggest you check out is the free theme Blocksy. This is the one I am presently using on all of our website – after trying many others!
Picking the theme is only one aspect of the customizability of a self-hosted website. Within the each theme you will also have a varying degree of flexibility in creating just the look and feel you want for your website. If you really can’t find anything that suits you – you can design your website from scratch (or pay someone to do so). I would highly recommend that before going down this route that you first get up and running with a free stock theme that comes closest to what you envision for your website.
4) You Can Build An Audience
There are various WordPress plugins (many that are free) that can help you in building an audience for your self-hosted website – that are simply not available with the free hosted websites. I like the Mailchimp plugin that allows your website visitors easily opt-in and subscribe to your newsletters or be notified when you have put up a new post. You can control when and where the pop up comes up – and what it looks like.
I also like the OneSignal plugin that allows you to set up browser push notifications for each new post. When you publish a new post – individuals that have opted-in for the push notifications will receive a browser notification of your new post. Pretty cool the first time you see it work with a post you created!
5) Better Ranking in Google Search Results
Self-hosted websites using WordPress.org as a Content Management System (CMS) easily rank better than hosted sites on “FREE” platforms. Why? For a detailed explanation I would point you to the following article on Search Engine Journal entitled “10 Reasons Why WordPress Is the Best CMS for SEO“.
There are also plugins like Yoast that is available for free to WordPress users that have self-hosted websites to help them with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Yoast is useful in helping you by “holding your hand” to optimize your site, posts and pages for higher search engine results.
Ranking higher in search engine results directly translates into higher traffic to your website – which leads to more revenue opportunities. It is a numbers & eyeballs game folks – so make sure you are doing everything you can to get as many visitors to your website as possible! Self-hosting is one of the most important factors in doing so – so make sure that is the route you go if you are serious about monetizing your website!
6) Selling Your Website or Domain
You may be interested in creating a website as a means for a stream of passive income now – but there may come a day when you want to pursue other endeavors or start a new site. In that case you might want to sell what you built – and you can if it is a self-hosted website!
In fact, there are entire websites devoted to buying and selling websites! Here are a few, by way of example:
Some people build websites to run and maintain them – while earning some passive income. Others like to build them and sell them for some quick cash. I say to each his own – but having the ability to sell it is one other factor that makes OWNING your website soooOoo important!
7) More Professional Perception
Just ask yourself what looks more professional to YOU – www.TheBlogIncomeProject.com or TheBlogIncomeProject.blogspot.com? Yup – that’s what most other people think too!
Additionally, for any given website name – the self hosted version of it will be shorter than the hosted version – where the main domain (.blogspot – for example) is also listed. Shorter is better and easier to remember!
8) 39.5+% of ALL Websites on the Internet Are Powered by WordPress!
Ok – Maybe you are new to this blogging website thing – and are concerned with making the right choice – right from the opening gate. Well, if that is the case just think about that statistic for a second. 39.5% OF ALL WEBSITES ON THE FREAKIN’ INTERNET in 2021 ARE POWERED BY WORDPRESS! That is a very large percentage – that has only grown, with good reason, over the last several years!
Now I realize that just going with the crowd is not always the right idea, and that there is a logical fallacy called the bandwagon fallacy – where one claims that just because something is popular, it must therefore be TRUE…. But sometimes something that is VERY popular is so popular BECAUSE it is so good! WordPress, I would argue – is one such an example.
WordPress’s CMS is open-source software – which is software in which the original source code is freely available to anyone to redistribute and modify. WordPress is developed by an HUGE active community of largely volunteers that use and help improve and further develop the software constantly. No one owns it or can prevent you from using it or modifying it.
That fact gives a lot of people piece-of-mind that they are building their online web presence on a solid foundation rather than quicksand.
Maybe you can find some piece-of-mind in that fact too…
Conclusion
You probably learned that “you get what you pay for” when you were a child. Well, in terms of setting up a website – that is certainly true! Although there are NO COST ways to set up a website or blog – you will be giving up a lot of flexibility with regards to the look & feel of your website, and most, if not all, opportunities for monetizing it!
The cost to set up a website with a reputable and established host like Bluehost is really nominal: about $3-$10 / month depending on the term you select and other services you might elect. Please use my affiliate link for the best available pricing!
If money is really an obstacle – by all means, use one of those free platforms to start your journey! However, make sure that you have an easily accessible copy of all the content that you created – so when you are ready to jump to a self-hosted website you are able to do so with minimal frustrations.
Sincerely,
Definition of Terms Used in This Post
- Blog = shortened version of weblog.
Weblog - Weblog = a log of online entries – usually in reverse chronological order (newest first, oldest last)
- Hosted Website = a website, platform or company that provides the severs and software necessary to host your website as a subdomain on their website / domain for you. (Example: Adams Apples: https://adamsapples.blogspot.com) This is really just the same thing as a Free Blog / Website Platform.
- Free Blog / Website Platform = a website that allows you to create an account and website or blog with limited control and flexibility. Think tumbler.com, Blogger.com and WordPress.com. This is really just the same thing as a Hosted Website.
- Self-hosted = You own the website / domain – but need to PAY to park it somewhere, like Bluehost.com or Hostgator.com. (Example – this website www.TheBlogIncomeProject.com – which resides on Bluehost’s webservers.)
- Niche website = a website that caters to a particular hobby, topic or theme. It is generally informational in nature and represents a common interest of a subset (or group) of people in a larger population. An example would be a website that focuses on 3D printing as a hobby (see Hobby3DPrinting.com).
- CMS = Content Management System. WordPress is an example of a content management system for websites.
- Domain Name= Most references to this probably mean to refer to it as a top-level domain name, or a website with a “dot” com, biz, org or edu following it.
- Subdomain = a name for a website that is part of a larger domain or name. Like AdamApples.blogspot.com – where blogspot is the name of the larger domain that Adam Apples reside under.
- SEO = Search Engine Optimization
- Open-Source Software = software in which the original source code is freely available to anyone to redistribute and modify.
