Blog Azeroth

Some people i see have their own domain. e.g. blogazeroth.com
While some don't.

How many are using a free host, or self hosted blog.
How much are you paying for your domain name per year?
Why aren't you using a free host, like wordpress or blogger hosted.

Self hosted gives you an identity, its no longer a blog, its your address, so chickgm, worldofmatticus, etc.

Domain hosting is typically < £8 a year for a domain, £2-3 a month for hosting (you can get as low as £0.38 a month).

Self hosting is more beneficial, everything can be stored on your server, you have control over directories, can add things like lightbox easily. Its far more self contained and controlled by you, google can't one day say no more blogger.

I will have a self host in about 40days once I can move my domains to a different registrar, and I typically have a lot of domains parked, its cheap and easy to do if you find a name you want. Self hosting is also cheap and easy, for example I have a wordpress version of my blog at http://2ndnin.com at the moment as I am thinking of migrating. Again I need to do a lot of setup and sort everything though to make it work so its private atm. Having hosting means I can store images and make sure the paths never change and no one does anti-hotlinking code (I eat the bandwidth costs, so if my blog ever gets as popular as google.com I may run out of bandwidth ),

How many are using a free host, or self hosted blog.

Self hosted.

How much are you paying for your domain name per year?

'bout 9 bucks a year, I think.

Why aren't you using a free host, like wordpress or blogger hosted.

There's a lot of limitations and that come with free hosts. I like to have the flexibility and resources self hosting brings because then I can use it for additional projects other than my blog (like plusheal.com for example!).

Mine is still free hosting through Blogger. I just bought the domain name for like, 8 bucks or something.

And under Settings -> Publishing in your Blogger dashboard they even have a handy checkbox and URL box to have a domain attached to your blog.

All the benefits of not paying for hosting and the credibility of having your own domain name. And as you can tell by what I've done to my blog, I haven't felt limited at all.

How many are using a free host, or self hosted blog.

Self hosted for the last 8 years and multiple blogs

How much are you paying for your domain name per year?
Zip, Zilch, Nada, free domain for life with my hosting provider

Why aren't you using a free host, like wordpress or blogger hosted.
I started with multiple free hosts, and found limitations with each of them that zapped the "this is mine" feeling I wanted. With my domain, on my webspace, I can do anything I want, I can toss up a forum, a photo gallery, I have no limits on what kind of scripts I can use, and most importantly, that little space on the web is mine, and it has my name on it.

QFT. Pretty much all the same for me. I'm self-hosted, pay about the same, and chose to go with self-hosting for precisely the same reasons. I like being "the boss" when it comes to my site, and I like that the only limitations are those of my imagination and coding skills.

How many are using a free host, or self hosted blog.

Self hosted all the way.

How much are you paying for your domain name per year?

About $10

Why aren't you using a free host, like wordpress or blogger hosted.

Pretty much what the people above said. Great flexibility, higher limits, etc.
I can also have several domains under one host which makes management
of those sites somewhat easier.

Domain: $10
Hosting: Domain hosted for Free by a friend. I donate to his stuff though in return.

To really go at the blogging game serious, you really need to have your own domain. blahdeblah.com just immediately gives you more authority than blahdeblah.blogspot.com or wordpress.com. That being said, I can understand how it'd be scary to some since managing that stuff can be frustrating. (I've had to switch hosting companies 4 times this year alone)

Yeah, I know that host switching game.

Last time was when they shut down my site for "excess resource usage"
whatever that means. It was pretty silly given the site they shut down,
which wasn't a blog. Their customer service completely poofed on me
when they shut it down, too.

But the flexibility of havng your own host just pwns. And with Fantastico
(on a cpanel host) you can get a blog set up from scratch in a minute or so.

On that note, if you do have your own host, back up your database
on a regular basis! If your host poofs on you you'll be glad you did.

Greg

How many are using a free host, or self hosted blog.
A free host, but I have it forwarding to my domain name. I use blogger, because it's good for those of us that aren't totally HTML savvy, but having the notoriety (if even a little bit) that comes with having a simple .com is something I prefer.

How much are you paying for your domain name per year?
$10

Why aren't you using a free host, like wordpress or blogger hosted.
I am, I just bought mine through Google, and they transferred all of my blog's DNS settings and whatnot over. It was very painless.

I'm over on wordpress for two reasons:

1. I'm relativley new to bloging and still need to figure out if this really is for me

2. I know virtually nothing about website design or hosting, so I don't feel ready for the leap to something of my own

How many are using a free host, or self hosted blog.

I have been free hosted before but I am not self hosted.

How much are you paying for your domain name per year?

Domain name? Around $2 U.S a year.
Hosting? $11 a month.

Why aren't you using a free host, like wordpress or blogger hosted.

I like being able to FTP whatever file I want into my server and edit stuff continuously and with Blogger, Wordpress, etc it is very hard to edit their page ;]

How many are using a free host, or self hosted blog.

Self hosted.

How much are you paying for your domain name per year?

Free (I get a coupon every year that covers domain/hosting)

Why aren't you using a free host, like wordpress or blogger hosted.

Started out on blogger to test the waters but moved to self hosted WP as there is so much you can do with it and how solid a platform it runs on.

I use Blogger, though I do have a domain paid for and hosting lined up. jenimorton.com points to my blog right now. I am not html savvy, so instead of leaping into the mud puddles I so love to jump in, I'm stirring the pool with my toe first, testing the depth and temperature, seeing if I can handle it all by myself.

Domain plus hosting is 80 a year. I'm still thinking on it. That much money is a nice dinner out for the clan, or a full tank of gas.

Hmm. so any suggestion (url) to which hosting company to pick for just domain hosting?

Seen a few in euro that (ex tax) ask for about 5-6 euros a year for just the name.
But it's all "weird" companies which i never heard of.... kind of makes me wonder whether they're just middle people.

Self hosted. $10/year for domain registration, $90/year for web space. I like the freedom, power, and flexibility of self hosting. I feel that it lets me give more to my visitors than I could have if I were still with Blogger.

As for a hosting company, Hostmonster.com has been PHENOMENAL (like Veneretio, I've switched hosts four times this year). BRK recommended them to me, and I couldn't be happier, especially after the NIGHTMARE that was Dreamhost.com. HM includes a free domain registration, live chat for support, an amazing array of tools within their control panel (better even than what I found at Dreamhost), and overall has been exceptionally stable. I can't recommend them highly enough.

Domain registration: http://www.Godaddy.com
Hosting: http://www.mediatemple.com

Usually you want to register your domain seperatly from your hosting provider that way you just change the info on your domain account in case you change hosting.

I'm self-hosted now, although I did start out on Blogger. Blogger is great for getting started because it lets you focus on blogging, and you don't have to worry about all of the other things that come with running your own blog (domain registration, hosting, spam, etc.). But once I knew that I enjoyed blogging and wanted to do it for the long term, I switched over to my own domain.

I pay about $10 per year for my domain, and around $4 to $6 each month for hosting.

I'm now self-hosted for many of the reasons that the others mentioned. I like being in control of my own blog/site, I like having more options available to me, and I found Blogger to be too generic and inflexible.

I can see your points, but I am still compelled to disagree with people using this as a sole reason.

As long as it's an opinion, it will be like you disagreeing with someone not liking strawberries and thus not wanting strawberry ice cream. Kind of.

Anyway, to stay on the topic...

How many are using a free host, or self hosted blog.

Self hosted.

How much are you paying for your domain name per year?

thegnogue.com
1 year Whois Privacy = $ 6.99
1 Year .COM Registration = $ 8.95
Total: $ 15.94

Why aren't you using a free host, like wordpress or blogger hosted.



That.

1. free host (blogger.com)
2. n/a, see below
3. freehost is nice but its too limited for my taste.

I've been looking into getting a custom domain & host for my new blog. I went on ebay and found what i think is a really good deal. Fogcityhosting is offering package deals for very cheap. They have a year of hosting for $4 and up to 5 years for $11. Of course you'd still need to get a domain which shouldn't cost you more then $10 a year.

I'm probably gona make the purchase and i'll make a post on how their service is.

I've never heard of anyone using eBay to find their hosting/domain... Hrm.

I'm currently using GoDaddy.com for everything. I've got two sites hosted there with two different domains, I pay about $50/year for hosting and about $5/year for domain registration (each site).

I think $60/year is a reasonable price for a hobby.

I started on WP.com, but I am a web developer so having the restrictions on me and not being able to control everything myself inspired me to make the switch.

I went ahead and made the purchase, spent $11 for 5 years of hosting + $10 for 2 years of domain registration (+whois privacy)

I have a free website on wordpress i proably be willing to pay the money for a self hosting site expect for two very important reasons

A specfic subjects (most bloggers that seem to get there name out have there own Specfic thing that makes them special such as BRK and hunters (Particular BM Hunter's)

Second i don't think anyone besides me reads my own blog

third a name....i never really thought up a good name when i started i thought of basing it on an experiance of a new character and titled it learning to walk but back then i was an Alt nut.

I use my own server hosting but it can be a pain to setup if you don't know much about computers.

I know Wordpress offer hosting and the ability to point any domain at your site there so an easy thing to do would be to setup an account with them and then just purchase the domain you want and set it up using their instructions to point to your site. Gets past the hassle of self hosting plus you get the benefits of your own domain name.