Is it beneficial to host my wordpress blogs myself and if so what are the benefits? And how would I go about doing it? Thanks
No you should spend countless hours developing projects that can be turned off with the filp of a switch.
I highly recommend hosting your own wordpress blogs. The search engines take top domain name urls far more seriously than subdomains - so you automatically get better authority for NOT being on wordpress.com it's incredibly easy to set up yourself, you don't need to know a ton about it either. Find a hosting company that uses Cpanel with "Fantastico". Fantastico is a cpanel add on that allows you to install a wordpress blog on your account in minutes. No uploading, no downloading, just click and it's done. I highly recommend using a domain name registrar (I use namecheap.com) to register the domain first. Make sure you own the domain free and clear of any 3rd party (like your site host). That way if you decide to change hosts in the future, the domain is yours to take as you wish. This is important! I recommend hostgator.com for reasonable priced hosting and exceptional service.
You should definitely host your own blogs if you can. It is more professional and gives you more control over your site.
I depends how serious you are. If you are going to quit in less than a year if you don't make any money, then no. If you are serious about starting an online business, then yes.
There are a lot of advantages. 1. You can do whatever you want with your site. There is no risk for a ban. 2. You can host ads or sell paid reviews. 3. Better ranking opportunity in search engines. 4. Change codes as you wish. 5. Looks more professional and you can more proudly say that you own a site/blog Go on for it. Domains are not that expensive (a .com costs around $7, and if you are looking for something cheap, go for a .info domain for as little as $1). Also, you can find good hosting here at DP that will charge you $1 per month for a 1 GB hosting.
Thanks people, looks like I should move to hosting. Is it easy/possible to migrate blogs hosted by wordpress to hosted or do you have to start again? I have one blog that gets 200-250 hits per day via a Google image search (I think). If I move that blog will it still get those hits from google or will I miss out? I am based in the UK and at present have links on my blogs to amazon.co.uk for my amazon affiliate account. Should I get a .co.uk domain for the blogs or a .com or something else?
I believe wordpress.com does offer an export function. As for the image, you will only get those hits if you redirect the old blog or atleast the old image link to the new blog. If the image is hosted on wordpress.com you may not be able to do this. As for .co.uk or .com, it is really up to you, but .com's tend to have more value. If it is a site targeted for uk visitors then i'd go for the .co.uk, otherwise I'd go for .com.
Thanks. Think I will go with .com Would there be any benefit going with having a mirror with .co.uk ?
It would ensure no one else registers it and tries to mimic you site. Also, you may be able to get it into google.co.uk for England search, although I don't know if that would work if you are redirecting the .co.uk to .com.
If you want to make money from your blog, straight away go for self hosting, coz the free wordpress blog doesn't allow any advertisements other than their ads.
Cool. Hosting it is. So I need a host that can host multiple domains and have fantastico. Anything else?
Absolutely host them yourself, get yourself a shared hosting account. The benefits are control, uploading images, plugins etc and knowing you have access to them properly, to remove, add more, do as you please.
Blog on your hosting is better on a long run especially if you are in for monetizing your blog. i would suggest hostgator. checkout http://www.hosting-4-a-penny.com for coupon to start off for just 1cent. -Dan
Of course, own hosting is the way. There are a few excellent hosting companies that are good for blogging. Just do a search and you are good to go...