The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 34. The Importance of a Self-Hosted Website

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

Should you have your blog on a self-hosted website? What does that mean and why is it important? Today, we are breaking it down for you and sharing why it is important that your biog is on a self-hosted website. We share the advantages and things to consider when choosing between hosted or self-hosted and why we believe you should be on a self-hosted site from the beginning. If the tech side of this overwhelms you, listen in and know that you can do this — and we can help!Check out the show notes (link below) for links and resources mentioned in this episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsIf you need questions answered before you start your blog and you aren’t quite ready to join the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, check out The Blog Depot, an online course and membership community!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode34

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Today on the podcast, we are going to be talking about the tech side of things. Don't turn it off. Okay. I know that a lot of you are like, I don't want to know about the tech side and it feels really overwhelming, but I promise you that Jennifer and I are going to break this down in a way that you can truly understand what the importance is of a self-hosted website. So if you haven't known whether or not you need to be on Squarespace or Wix or WordPress or whatever, we are going to dive into that today and help you get a clear understanding with what you should do for your own website or blog and how you can make that work for you.

So our goal today is truly to give you the information that you need so you can create the solid foundation for your blog. And having all of that information is really, really important because there are so many ways that you can blog and so many platforms that you can use. And the platform that you choose to use is dependent on what your goals are. So today we're going to share with you what we believe is the best platform for those of you who are looking to start a blog that you can monetize and grow traffic that people can find you on Google. This is the platform that we recommend to all of our students and our courses. And I'm talking about WordPress.org. So there are actually two versions of WordPress that you can choose between. There is WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Throughout the podcast episode,

we are talking about WordPress.org. The reason that we recommend WordPress.org is because it is a self-hosted platform. WordPress.com is not. WordPress.com is hosted by WordPress. We're going to dive into these reasons today, talking about why WordPress.org is our recommendation, but don't worry. We're not just going to have this be one-sided. We're going to tell you why some people actually do want a hosted site as well. So stay tuned for some information on that as well. Okay. So like Amy said, our goal is to really just give you all the information so that you can understand and have a really solid foundation before you make any decisions for your own blog and how you will get started. So we do want to give you all the information about the different ways that you can create a website because there are so many different options out there.

And no matter where you look, you're going to find different people making different recommendations. So we just really want to break it down and make it pretty simple. So we're going to talk about the two most common ways that people start a website. And like Amy mentioned, one of those ways is called hosted. And it's also known as like a website builder. So examples of this besides wordpress.com would be something like Squarespace, Wix, Weebly. There's a whole host of different options out there. And these would be what we would refer to as a drag and drop website builder. So there are definitely some advantages to this. If you want to get a website up and running quickly, then you would be able to do so with one of these platforms.

They are very drag and drop. You don't need tech experience. You don't need coding skills. They are also one flat fee. So it's not like you're going to have to pay for a million different things. Whatever you pay, you know that's going to include your plugins and the look of the site, the backups, everything that you're going to need for your website is all going to be included in that package. But there are definitely some disadvantages to these hosted platforms. And when you're on one of these, you can liken it to being like a renter.

So they actually own it. They have control of your content and they could remove it for different reasons. So you could potentially be risking your content that and they could remove it for different reasons. So you could potentially be risking your content that you've spent time creating by having it on one of these platforms. Also, your growth could be impaired. They're not always the most SEO-friendly platforms, and they aren't necessarily intended for growth. Your customization options are a lot more limited. your customization options are a lot more limited. You basically get what you pay for with their package and you can't go out and add third-party things to your site to give it functionality for

things that you might want to add on for your users. And you just have less control over the changes to the platform. Whatever they do, you have to live with, you have to learn their new systems and things that they add to the platform. So I'm sure there's some of you that listened to what Jennifer just said. It was like, well, that sounds easy. It's drag and drop. That's my answer. I actually don't want to learn the tech side. And I respect that. Truthfully, I really do. But first of all, I want to tell you that everyone can learn the tech side. I am speaking from experience. If somebody would have told me years ago that I was going to be helping people create their

own websites, I would have told you that you were crazy because I am not a technical person in any way, shape, or form. But I've been able to learn the tech side of things and also in turn help others learn that as well. So I think the first part in this equation, as you're making this decision, is to ask yourself, am I willing to learn? And what do I truly want this to be? So, okay, I want to have a blog and I want to make money and I want to generate traffic. So how can I do that? And we're telling you today that needs to be on a self-posted site, not a hosted site like Jennifer was just talking about. And so with that, you are going to need to learn a little bit of tech. And that's why Jennifer and I have created the courses that

we've created is so we can help you guys. We can walk alongside you so you don't have to feel like you're doing it all on your own. It's completely attainable. Ask any of our students. I promise they will tell you that we have simplified the process. So don't sell yourself short when it comes to a self-hosted site that we recommend. Because I want to talk to you about those advantages today. And we're going to share a couple of disadvantages as well. So with a self-hosted site, you are going to use a content management system, which is your WordPress.org. And you're also going to have a third-party hosting company. The company that we recommend for your third-party hosting is BigScoots. We can sing their praises

all day, every day. They are a fantastic hosting company that take a lot into consideration in regards to the success of your website. And so we cannot recommend them enough. We will put a link in our show notes so you can check out BigScoots and their different options that they have for your website. So the content management system is your WordPress.org. As of January of 2022, WordPress powers more than 43% of websites on the internet. That is millions of websites. And that is a significant amount of people

who are trusting WordPress.org for their content. There are so many advantages to using WordPress.org. You have freedom and control over the design and the function of your site. So you are in the driver's seat. You are in control. There's also plenty of storage space available because you're going to be using a third-party hosting company. You can always upgrade your storage as your website grows. You have the flexibility to add design and functionality that you need for your website and your users. There are so many different ways that you can do that. But when you use a hosted site, you don't have as much flexibility to add design and functionality. So since it's a drag and drop, it's used for the majority of people, not for your specific needs. So having a self-hosted site

gives you more that you can utilize in order to create the website that you need that is going to work for you. As we've talked about, user experience is huge with your blog. And so having a website that people can come to and it's going to work in a way that you need it to work in order to share the content that you want to share is really important. Another benefit and one that I know is important to so many of you is that you can monetize much more easily on a self-hosted website. A lot of ad networks require you to be on a self-hosted website. So think about that in the beginning. If that is your goal, if you were treating blogging as a business out of the gate,

you're going to want to be on a self-hosted website. The reason being, you do not... Trust me. Listen to me. You do not want to have to switch from Squarespace or Wix to WordPress.org down the line. Go ahead and just learn this stuff from the get-go and just do it all then. I know it might seem attractive to you to just start out with that drag and drop. But if you want this to be a business and that's how you're starting out, trust us and start on WordPress.org. We can help you. There's lots of resources out there as well that can help you create your website and have it be set up with the needs that you desire. Don't hold yourself back from what you want long-term because you're afraid that you don't know what you need to know in the short term. You can learn. I assure you that. That's why we've created

the courses and why we've created the podcast. And we have free resources on our website and we're active on Instagram because we really do want you guys to know that being on a self-hosted site, if you want growth, is where you want to be. Another advantage of using a self-hosted site if you want growth is where you want to be. Another advantage of using a self-hosted site is you're not tied actually to a specific hosting company. So we've actually moved around as well. And I've had another hosting company. Jennifer, how many different hosting companies have you used? I think I've used three different hosting, three to four different hosting companies. Yeah. I'm on BigScoots now, but I had used a different one prior. It was fine, but our students were having such great feedback about BigScoots that we just went that way. And I have

been very happy with them. And so let's say someday BigScoots doesn't, for some reason, we can always switch from them as well. And that is the beauty of having a self-hosted site is that you can actually move your hosting somewhere else to fit your needs as well. There are a lot of different third-party tools that you're going to need, such as email marketing, SEO, lead generation. And since WordPress.org is such a well-used platform, there's a lot of integrations that are already in place in regards to what you might need. Pretty much any tool you need out there for a website will work with WordPress because it's so common and so popular that you don't have to worry about using a certain email

marketing service and it not working with your WordPress site. Do you want to start building a foundation for your blog? Do you have questions you need to answer before you start? Do you wish that you had someone there to hold your hand through the process? We are so excited to share that we have created a membership community just for you. The blog Depot is an online course and membership community that will teach you the foundations you need to build a blog. We teach you about niching down, finding the right mindset, the best platform to build a blog on, and so much more with monthly coaching calls inside the community. You will find the support you need to finally make your dream a reality.

The doors are open to join this amazing blogging community, and we can't wait to help you find the link to join the amazing blogging community, and we can't wait to help you. Find the link to join the blog depot in the show notes. So while we could sit here all day and talk about the advantages, we do want to let you know some of the disadvantages of the self-hosted site. And while they're listed as disadvantages, I still don't think they're disadvantages, to be honest. But I guess some things to consider would be that you actually can't drag and drop the way that you can on the hosted platform.

So it's not quite as simple, but because you need like a parent theme and a child theme for WordPress.org. And so the themes that we recommend, actually, you can drag and drop a little bit using that theme, but you do have to purchase the additional theme. You also do have multiple different things that you'll need, such as that child theme that I was talking about and different other tools, such as plugins that you will need in order to give your website the functionality that it needs. So with all that, that can be a little bit more confusing and a little more hard to set up. So you are going to want some support most likely because you're not going to be able to get that support necessarily from WordPress.org.

Once again, that's why Jennifer and I are here for you because we do see the value in having the self-hosted site. And so we want to make sure that people know how to use it because we want you to not, we don't want you to take the road that you think is easiest without being willing to learn because you can absolutely learn. Something else that's a quote unquote disadvantage is if you have a hosted site, they include your backups.

But since you will be on a self-hosted site, you will pay for backups through your hosting company. And we actually recommend our students have an additional source of backups just for good measure. So that is an additional cost that you will have. So what would each of these be good for? So what's the difference? Who would utilize a hosted versus self-hosted and why would that be more important? Jennifer, do you want to dive in a little bit to who could benefit from a hosted? Yeah, definitely. So you can obviously tell we are super excited about getting our students

and anybody that we work with that wants to become a blogger on a self-hosted site. But that doesn't mean that nobody could ever use one of these hosted website builders. If you are somebody who has an actual physical store and you just want a website for just a web presence, maybe you have a service or a product that you offer and you want to just have some credibility behind your business. So you just need a really basic website that explains who you are and what you do. And that way, when you see people in person, you can give them a card or a code to scan and it will take them to your website. They can see

you're a legitimate business. Also, somebody who is just hobby blogging or maybe working for a charity, something like that. There could be definitely situations where you're not looking to grow a business, make money, reach a lot of people. You just simply need a web presence or just your own little spot that you want to carve out on the internet. So for somebody like that, using one of those platforms might be a good option. But we really just want you to take a step back and not sell yourself short and say, I'm just going to be a hobby blogger. If you have a dream in your heart to have a blog that can grow and potentially become a source of income for you, then take

yourself seriously today. Really consider creating a blog on a self-hosted platform. Because we promise that if you are willing to just take the extra time and learn, you will be so much happier in the end with that platform if you do want to grow. Because you will not have to go through that pain that Amy mentioned later on down the line of making that swap. Because we have helped so many people in that situation. And just a little story. When I first decided I wanted to start a blog, I was looking at all the information out there. I felt very overwhelmed. And I thought, I'm just going to start it on Blogspot. I know a blogger who has their blog on Blogspot and makes money. So I'm sure that would be fine. I don't want to have to learn how to do all this.

And thankfully, my husband knew a little bit about websites and he was able to get mine up and running for me initially. And I quickly learned that I would not have been able to do any of the things that I wanted to do, especially the monetization piece if I hadn't had my blog on WordPress.org. And then just a little further on down the line, I even realized that I wanted to be empowered to understand how my website worked as well. So just because it feels overwhelming at first doesn't mean you can't learn. You can completely learn everything you need to know about running your own blog. And it doesn't mean it's always going to stay overwhelming. Truthfully, I think sometimes when we first log into the dashboard of WordPress, you're like,

oh my gosh, what did I just get myself into? But you will learn how to utilize the backend of WordPress and how to make that work for you. So yeah, don't sell yourself short. You can absolutely do it. And I also want to speak to anybody listening who was like, well, crap, I built my website on Squarespace because I thought it was the right thing to do. You can switch. You can. If that is you and you're wondering, what do I do now? Please feel free to email us or contact us on social. We can help you. We can take a look at your website. We'd be happy to do that and let you know what your options are. So don't think that you've kind of dug yourself a hole here that you can't get out of. You absolutely can.

But our recommendation would be is dig yourself out sooner than later. Don't keep creating content on the drag and drop, on a hosted, if you know that growth is your goal. So if you know growth is your goal, then make steps towards getting on a WordPress.org site. That's my recommendation. Yeah. We just want you to always keep in mind all the different pros and cons and the trade-offs of every decision that you'll make.

So when it comes to creating your own website, maybe you even decided you want to be on a self-hosted WordPress site, but you don't want to deal with it. You want to hire somebody to build a website for you. And we completely understand everything really does come down to a cost versus time decision. You have to decide, can I invest my time or my money in this? But what we do encourage people to do is to think about learning to create their own website. Because in the long term, you will be able to do all the things you want to do on it, like updates and things without having to constantly ask for help. So if you can just find resources out there to help you along the way, you can get over that hurdle, you can learn and you can feel confident. And that's just one of the things that we like to offer to people. That's why we wanted to be a resource. We kind of wanted to take out some of that confusion and streamline

this whole process. So if you have questions in particular about your situation, about your goals, or about the website you've already created, we would really like for you to reach out to us because we always want to answer the question versus leaving you out there feeling like you don't know what to do and you're too afraid to ask for help. Absolutely. So you might be asking yourself, okay, so you want me to start a self-hosted site. You're telling me that that's what I need. So what all am I going to need for that self-hosted site? Since I do have to have different components in order to make that site work and be utilized the way that I want it to be. So in summary, we are speaking to those of you who want to grow and monetize a blog.

So who want traffic, who want to be able to have passive income with ad networks on your site and be found on Google and that. So that is going to be a self-hosted site. Our recommendation for hosting is BigScoots, like I've mentioned. And then your content management system is going to be WordPress.org. It is free.

So when you go to sign up, you're going to do WordPress.org, not.com. You want the free version. That is very confusing, I feel like, but that's what you want. And, and just to clarify, when you purchase your hosting, they can help you install your content management system. You don't have to go to a separate place to install that. You will install that within your hosting. Yep. Your hosting company can help you with a lot of

different things to be honest. So utilize them. They're fantastic. So then you will need your theme. So that's going to add the basic functionality. The theme that we recommend is cadence. And then a child theme will go on and that's going to be your design theme as well. Some other things you'll need are plugins for functionality. There are free and paid plugins, but if you're going to be a food blogger, you're going to need a plugin that is going to be able to help you add nutrition facts and recipe cards to your website, anti-spam plugins. There's social sharing plugins. There's a lot of different plugins that you need in order to give you the functionality that you need. Some of those are free, some are paid. And then email marketing is for integration. So that's

any integrations that you need, such as email marketing, that will be something else that you'll need. And then any maintenance that you have as well. So that was the backups I was talking about earlier, updating your blog, and then different various support that you may need for your website. So I know this is a topic that feels kind of overwhelming. It is more of the tech side. And I understand that some of you listening are like, oh, I just don't know. I'm just not sure. But I hope that we've empowered you to at least have some knowledge going forward about how you want to move forward and how WordPress.org being on a self-hosted site can serve you well.

We've both mentioned this a couple of times in the podcast, but treating yourself as a business from the start, taking yourself seriously from the start, that's really important here. And I think a lot of times when we're sitting with this kind of dream of wanting to be a blogger, we do sell ourselves short. We say, who am I to do this? Why? Why would anybody come to my site? But I want you to actually flip that script. And I want you to say to yourself, who am I not to? And who am I not to be able to learn the tech that I need to learn? Who am I not to be able to have a website that can serve me well and serve my readers well and allow me to do the things in my life that I want to do? So give yourself a little pep talk. We have some great podcast episodes with Melissa

Pepin and also Lindsay Chambers about building that confidence as a blogger. And I think when we talk about the tech side of blogging, those are really helpful because you don't want to go down that rabbit hole that you can't have a blog because you can't figure out the tech. You can figure out the tech, but you got to get your mindset in the right space first that you are capable and you are going to be able to have a successful blog when you get your mind in the right space. So if you have any questions about what it looks like to start a self-hosted blog, please reach out to us. You can send us an email anytime. We're checking our emails every single day. So we would love to help you and your unique situation and help you grow the blog that you're dreaming of.

And if Jennifer and I can help you in either of our courses, the blog Depot or the ultimate blog bootcamp, we would love to do that for you. As always, we're here each and every week sharing free content on the podcast. It would mean so much to us. If you would leave a review or share this episode or another episode with someone that you think would benefit, or share this episode or another episode with someone that you think would benefit. The podcast is really growing and we love showing up in your ears each and every week. And so helping us get in front of new people is so appreciated. Thank you so much for being part of our community here. And I hope that you learned something today. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us,

please find us on Instagram at spark media concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes for those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the wait list for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the wait list is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.