Are you a blogger or a website owner? Do you use free hosting or paid hosting? After surveying on my social media, I noticed that more than half of the respondents are using free hosting or free blogging/website platforms like WordPress.org or Blogger.com.

I have been blogging for more than 13 years and it comes quite a surprise to me that most bloggers and content creators that I know do not realize that by using free platforms, the blog and the account contents does not actually belongs to them at all, but belongs to the platform itself as it can be wiped out anytime without prior notice by service provider should you violate any terms and condition eg: using the blogs commercially, placing inappropriate ads, paid contents etc. I’ve seen plenty of blogs that’s been deleted or wiped out without prior notice because they have violated the terms and condition.

Here’s sharing with you the advantage of self-hosting your blog:

1. Extra security and full control over your blog/site, including in its layout,
2. Making money while blogging is easier as you are not tied up to the advertising restrictions imposed by free blogging platforms.
3. Contents will not be wiped out without notice and it actually belongs to you.
4. Space is upgradable
5. You can fully customize your blog as when you host your blog in your own hosting, you can install custom themes to brand your blog as you will have complete access to your backend files, which allows you to make any necessary code changes.
6.Using a third-party host usually costs only a few dollars per month.
7. Looks more professional as self-hosting allows you to use the domain name of your choice.
8. More searchable on search engines as you can customize your ‘search engine optimization’ (SEO)
9. Auto ping to social media can be done directly from the blog and therefore it can boost the visitors’ traffic and therefore increase the blog’s value.
10. Backup can be done easily to the cloud storage.

I opt to self host my blog(s) to allow myself the flexibility and the extra security, but self hosting can be very intimidating to first-timers. Should you need info or tips on how to start hosting your own blogs or sites, you might want to hop over HERE to help you decide.