How To Start A Self Hosted Travel Blog?

Here, I assume that you have already tested your free blog by now and are getting a substantial response already.

Further, you have understood the basic functions of both Blogger and Wordpress apart from the basics of creating a good content.

Also Read: 6 Steps on How To Start A Travel Blog?

In this post, we delve deeper into how to go for a self-hosted blog.

Buying A Domain Name

In case of a free blog, you will have the option of buying out the domain in the same name itself with options of several extensions. 

If you are looking for a global ranking page, it is best to go for a .com or a .net domain. If you are focussed on a particular country, it is a good idea to go for the country extension . For example, for India, you can go for .in domain if your target audience is India only. 

Here are few service providers from where you can easily buy out a domain. 

1. Godaddy: Easiest to get. You can get it at a cheaper price if you register the name for a longer duration.
2. Hostgator: They provide both domain name as well as hosting services. Their two-three years services are the cheapest.
3. Namecheap: Namecheap is the cheapest domain name service provider. You can get your domain name registered for as low as $0.88.You can also go for their hosting services which include VPS and shared hosting services, although the rest of the service providers also provide pretty much the same service. It will only be pricing at the end of the day. Namecheap is also very user friendly when it comes to managing accounts.

Choosing A Good Hosting Service

For hosting, the following services can be used in the order of their after sales service quality.

1. Bluehost: I have registered with Bluehost for two years straight and I found them not only cheaper, but also good in their service quality. They are prompt in case of queries. Plus, there are a lot of tutorial videos for learning, should you get stuck anywhere .It also comes with a service called ‘Cloud-flare’, which allows you to host with a secure sign on your website with ‘https’ extension. It is easy to set up and prevents malicious threats on your website. They also run a Wordpress learning program that can help you to learn more about Wordpress Self-hosting. You can start with Bluehost for as low as $3.95 a month.
2. Hostgator: I trust Hostgator and I have used their services before. They are good if not the best. It is easy to configure and will help you if you are completely layman with little understanding of websites. Bluehost and Hostgator come with hardly any difference in their pricing.
3. Godaddy: Although they say Godaddy has a good name, but I beg to differ on that .I had first taken the entire service from Godaddy and landed myself in a huge black hole. My travel blog got hacked; people signed up from all corners of the globe, and ruined my content. After all this, I knew more than the Godaddy staff, when I called up numerous times for help. They just couldn’t figure out and resolve my problem. Ultimately, I dumped them, when I got no solutions and recovery of my website. I also lost a lot of my posts and content.

Hosting Directly With Wordpress Or Blogger

If you do not want to hustle yourself with lot of coding and other things, and want to keep it simple, both blogger as well as Wordpress have the option of direct domain and hosting from where you can take a complete hosting package. 

The best part about the Wordpress.com hosting is that it is completely managed by them and you do not need to bother about the technical aspects of hosting. All you need to do is simply focus on creating good content. 

Another great platform for getting some of the best features for blog is Wix. Wix.com has its own set of templates from which you can choose from to design and quickly launch your website. 

Even Wix allows you a free version until you get comfortable enough to buy out the domain name. However, you will need to get traffic on your website on your own, unlike Blogger and Wordpress. 

Summary

• First, go for the free services provided by the various blogging platforms. 
• When migrating to self-hosted platform, you will need a domain and a hosting that is reliable, quick and comes with a good after-sales service to address your hosting issues. 

That’s all about setting up your blog with self hosting. Feel free to share your comments or queries below.