WestonWilliams.com

If you’ve decided you must host your own blog there are two major decisions that must be made.  First, which platform will you use?  Second, which host will you use?  The platform is the software you use and the host is where you upload the platform (aka online hard drive).  There are many different platforms and hosts available for self-hosting a blog.  These hosts include: WordPress, Movable Type, and a slew of others.  WordPress.com offers hosting services but strips out many of the great features available to self-hosted Word Press blogs.

As far as hosts are concerned there is no shortage to good drive space available online.  New hosting companies are popping up daily and driving down the price for reliable hosting. WordPress has a list of hosts that they have had good luck with available here.  If you’re like me and completely technically illiterate I would suggest finding a host that will load the hosting software for you (often known as auto-install).  This eliminates having to create databases and designate all the more technical specifications.  My host uploaded and setup the blogging platform for me in about 30 minutes.

Finally once you have created a new space for blogging you must fill it.  If you’ve been blogging before on a free platform you’ll have to export your posts and pages into an XML or HTML file.  You’ll then be able to import it onto your new host.  Bear in mind that things won’t transfer perfectly so plan on inspecting each page and each post especially if you have links.  I use WordPress and was able to transfer all my material over from WordPress.com in less than fifteen minutes.  I kept my other account open (but disabled it to search engines) so that the media files I had would be hosted there and my links remain intact.

The only problem I encountered in this transfer process was my pages were filed with different URLs.  I was able to go into my dashboard and restructure my file system so that the previous posts matched but not until I lost a lot of traffic.  Realize that search enginges keep a listing of your pages – if the URLs aren’t identical your readers and searchers will get an error page.  I suggest at the very least making your home page your 404 page (error page) so that viewers can at least see you have an active site.

I’m still journeying in hosting.  I’m learning about counters and widgets.  As I journey further down the path of self-hosting I’ll take you along with me.

As a total programming, web hoster, illiterate (English isn’t a real strong language for me either) I was a bit overwhelmed by the thought of moving from WordPress.com to self-hosting.  Two months later I’m proud to say that I’ve survived, my blog has survived and my traffic is rebuilding.  While making the move to my own host I looked for articles and help. I had a hard time finding complete advice for the completely illiterate.  I went through the process somewhat blind, tried and made several mistakes which hurt my traffic considerably.  Now that I’m emerging from this transition I thought I would pass along notes from my journey and tips for a succesful switch.

Before you self-host you should really consider the motives for it.  Blogger has really stepped up it’s free online offerings.  They have total HTML editing capacity and many programmers are offering custom templates.  If you don’t need space for large files then this might be the choice.  You can add your own domain name, monetize and link through HTML to other web-based services. A few drawbacks are some of the more technical benefits of self-hosting with a platform like WordPress, more robust template CSS editing and file hosting. With Blogger’s free offerings self-hosting is only for the very serious blogger and even then might prove just as efficient.  There are several other free-blogging platforms but few offer the free options of Blogger.

If you decide you need to self-host the next installment of this journey is for you where I’ll discuss platforms and hosts.

I have successfully navigated swapping hosts, but now have a host of broken links…particularly in the Sermons page. Bear with me throughout the week as I restore functionality to the blog and its links. If you catch a broken link send it my way and I’ll work to restore it.