New to WordPress. Do I host my blog or use WordPress.com?

  • I recently signed up for wordpress.com and then I noticed www.ads-software.com. I want to start my own technology blogger site. I have several questions.

    1.) Do I host my wordpress blog on BlueHost or should I just use wordpress.com. I want to use a new domain name?

    2.) I noticed some nice plug ins from Revolutions. How do I implement this?

    3.) Can I have my own website logo inserted?

    4.) Can a Forum be integrated into my blog?

    Thanks,

    Abe

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • hosting your own blog is an investment, of time, and in some cases, money. are you willing to invest?

    I do both. Most of my own hosted sites are now mirrored in WordPress.com, so if one goes wrong I can redirect from my control panel. The advantages of both are thus:

    WP.Com

    Any security issues are theirs and not yours. Having a domain banned by my hosts recently because it was spamming, unknown to me was a wake up call. My host said it was the WP at fault. Others here said it was the server security.

    Now I am proficient in lot’s of things but life is too short to learn php scripting. If you want to know about machinima and all it’s technicalities ask me. I run a forum on that subject.

    The other point is that the script doesn’t go wrong and if it did it wouldn’t be upto you to fix it. The help forum is not inundated as this one – presumably because fewer things go wrong – which means you will more likely get the answers you want.

    WP.org

    When you host your own WP you have a large number of plugins/widgets available, whereas there are not that many on WP.com

    If you have any problems with your install – and there can be plenty, you may not get any help and your thread will have gone into the abyss within hours. It’s a no win situation because if you “bump” your thread it may well be ignored.

    Thread Starter apopilot

    (@apopilot)

    Thank you for your comments.

    I have no programming knowledge or scripting. I just want to BLOG and start a community. My goal is also to start a revenue generating model with Google Adsense.

    1.) Can I insert my own logo into the blog and change the colors around. I have been playing with the themes but I can not find a location with custimization.

    2.) Can I insert Google Adsense.

    3.) Can I insert a forum?

    You can insert google adsense using the text widget on both wp.com and wp.org. The former makes it easy to add your own graphic on the blog header whilst the latter means you have to upload your graphic to the server with ftp – at least it does with the version I’m using.

    After what you have said I believe you would be better starting off with the hosted WP on wp.com if you want to get up and running quickly, after all you could always try your own hosted version in parallel and it’s easy to transfer content from one to the other.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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