Why You Need Your Own Blog Hosting Account
He’s a lesson on why all bloggers need to have their own hosting accounts if they are serious about blogging.
Many of my readers will remember that in September I left for my grandmother’s funeral. When I returned home, I found my two oldest blogs non-operational. I had been given “free” hosting on the domain Rainbowofwords.com and apparently while I was out of town dealing with a very emotional issue that kept me offline, the owner of that site made the decision to pull access to my blogs based on the fact that her mother (yes, her mother!) had disagreed with a post I made that said I considered Benadryl an option to my daughter’s allergy meds during our travel. Its common knowledge that Benadryl not only helps with motion sickness, it also helps with anxiety. All in all, it would be serving three purposes if I gave it to my daughter. In the end, I never did need to. Her allergies were fine, as was everything else.
Anne’s removal of my blogs was supposed to be for two weeks, according to the one e-mail she ever bothered to send me about the issue. She refused to reply to the e-mails I sent to her; including those at the two-week mark asking if she would reopen access to my blogs. I have yet to regain access to my blogs and it has now been over 6 weeks. I do not expect Anne at Rainbowofwords to live up her word.
As someone who makes a living off of my freelance writing, the loss of my original blogs cost me right around $1000 in unpaid work. Anne is quite aware of what taking my blogs off line did to my income, as she is also a freelance writer.
Anyway, this all serves to say that blog hosting is something you need to have 100% control over. Get your own hosting account. Do not use the free services or accept free space from another individual. You need to have unfettered access to your files and know that as long as you are adhering to the Terms of Service of your professional hosting company, all will be well.
I personally recommend Wordpress hosting, as Wordpress is the most common blogging platform (along with platforms like Moveable Type), simple to navigate, and easy to customize. If you are just now starting a blog, do it the right way and pay to have your own account. There are various hosting packages out there for very reasonable prices. In fact, in most cases your monthly cost will be about the price of a cup of coffee from Starbucks.
Good points, and I made a near identical assertion for some of the same reasons you cite in your post. It’s not hard to own your own domain and have it hosted, it just takes a little more patience and education.
In Agreement,
Dave