Blue Host - Why Bloggers Switch to BlueHost and WordPress
Right now, we run over ten WordPress blogs on our one BlueHost account. All of our blogs have their own domain names. We also have an unlimited number of email addresses ending with our domain name. And, we are in full control of the look and feel of our blogs.
But, it wasn't always like that.
In the beginning... we were broke. We wanted to blog, but we didn't want to pay for anything. So we signed up for a free blogger account. Ten months later, we decided to get more serious and we switched to a self-hosted WordPress blog powered by BlueHost.
Here are the 3 big problems we had with free blogs:
1. You have that navigation bar at the top that often comes with free blogs. For example, Blogger and Xanga both do this. It helps users to find other Blogger or Xanga blogs, but does it really present the professional look that you're going for?
2. Your free blog only has a few basic features. For example, WordPress offers a free platform, but you can't install any of the plugins to add extra features like top-commentator plugins, polls, survey, etc.
LiveJournal offers a free platform, but their basic accounts only have a few of their features turned on.
If you want more services, you can get a plus account, but then you agree to let LiveJournal run their ads on your blog. If you want to turn their ads off, or buy your own domain name to use with your blog, then you need to have a paid account ($3 per month).
3. You're not allowed to make money with your free blog. Lots of people blog because it's fun. But, we also try to see if we can make a little money on the side. After all, there are lots of ways to make money through blogging: google ads, affiliate links, sponsored posts.
The only problem is that a lot of the free blogging platforms specifically say that you can't run those things. For example, the free WordPress.com platform doesn't allow you to run ads on your site. Same with Xanga.
The big exception to this is Blogger. Blogger is owned by Google and they make it easy to run Google Ads on your blog. But, even then, companies like PayPerPost that pay your to write sponsored posts will often reject your blog if you are running a free account at typepad, xanga, blogspot, livejournal, wordpress.com, or vox.
We switched to BlueHost for the following 3 reasons:
1. BlueHost offered a free domain name for life when you signed up for their web hosting package ($6.95/month).
2. BlueHost offered free domain privacy registration.
3. You can have an unlimited number of domains hosted on your BlueHost account. This was important to us because that way we could experiment with a lot of different blogs and each blog would have a different domain name.
4. Finally, you can create install WordPress on your blog with the click of a button. If you run a blog on WordPress.com, you can't do anything. But if you install the free WordPress software from WordPress.org on your blog, you can run ads, make money from your blogs, and install all of the features (plugins) that you want. BlueHost let us install as many WordPress blogs as we want on our BlueHost account with the click of a button.
Bottom Line: If you want to experiment with blogging, then get a free blogging account. If you want to experiment with making money through blogging, then get a free Blogger account from Google. But, once you decide that you want to step up your money making experiment, then you should consider getting a Web Hosting account somewhere and running Wordpress from it.
If you're ready to register domain names for your blog or website, we're here to help at http://domainnames.webdiggin.com where you'll find this information and more detailed information about why we switched to BlueHost and WordPress.
But, it wasn't always like that.
In the beginning... we were broke. We wanted to blog, but we didn't want to pay for anything. So we signed up for a free blogger account. Ten months later, we decided to get more serious and we switched to a self-hosted WordPress blog powered by BlueHost.
Here are the 3 big problems we had with free blogs:
1. You have that navigation bar at the top that often comes with free blogs. For example, Blogger and Xanga both do this. It helps users to find other Blogger or Xanga blogs, but does it really present the professional look that you're going for?
2. Your free blog only has a few basic features. For example, WordPress offers a free platform, but you can't install any of the plugins to add extra features like top-commentator plugins, polls, survey, etc.
LiveJournal offers a free platform, but their basic accounts only have a few of their features turned on.
If you want more services, you can get a plus account, but then you agree to let LiveJournal run their ads on your blog. If you want to turn their ads off, or buy your own domain name to use with your blog, then you need to have a paid account ($3 per month).
3. You're not allowed to make money with your free blog. Lots of people blog because it's fun. But, we also try to see if we can make a little money on the side. After all, there are lots of ways to make money through blogging: google ads, affiliate links, sponsored posts.
The only problem is that a lot of the free blogging platforms specifically say that you can't run those things. For example, the free WordPress.com platform doesn't allow you to run ads on your site. Same with Xanga.
The big exception to this is Blogger. Blogger is owned by Google and they make it easy to run Google Ads on your blog. But, even then, companies like PayPerPost that pay your to write sponsored posts will often reject your blog if you are running a free account at typepad, xanga, blogspot, livejournal, wordpress.com, or vox.
We switched to BlueHost for the following 3 reasons:
1. BlueHost offered a free domain name for life when you signed up for their web hosting package ($6.95/month).
2. BlueHost offered free domain privacy registration.
3. You can have an unlimited number of domains hosted on your BlueHost account. This was important to us because that way we could experiment with a lot of different blogs and each blog would have a different domain name.
4. Finally, you can create install WordPress on your blog with the click of a button. If you run a blog on WordPress.com, you can't do anything. But if you install the free WordPress software from WordPress.org on your blog, you can run ads, make money from your blogs, and install all of the features (plugins) that you want. BlueHost let us install as many WordPress blogs as we want on our BlueHost account with the click of a button.
Bottom Line: If you want to experiment with blogging, then get a free blogging account. If you want to experiment with making money through blogging, then get a free Blogger account from Google. But, once you decide that you want to step up your money making experiment, then you should consider getting a Web Hosting account somewhere and running Wordpress from it.
If you're ready to register domain names for your blog or website, we're here to help at http://domainnames.webdiggin.com where you'll find this information and more detailed information about why we switched to BlueHost and WordPress.
Blog Post Gone Viral!
While posting to one of my niche blogs I decided to get more for my effort. Researching and writing the post took a little time so why not make it count? Here's how one blog post can help your online business and site promotion.
Blog Post To Article
Nothing new here. Bloggers have been doing this for years. Once you have the post written it's a breeze to submit it to article directories so other site owners can use the content. Now your blog post just went viral!
Blog Post To E-Book
Another way to increase the value of your work is take the content and write an e-book. Yes, even more viral. It was quick and easy since the content had already been written.
Random Tips
Using a simple HTML rotator I was able to set-up random tips taken from the article to display on my site. It took about an hour to copy and paste each tip into it's own section.
Cross Promotion
This worked once for me but probably won't work twice. I posted to a different blog about the steps I took with the original blog post, much like I'm doing in this article.
Other Ideas I Could Have Used
I could, and still may, build a blog widget so the random tips can be added to other blogs as free content - and viral site promotion of course.
It would have been a very simple task to require subscription to a newsletter in order to download the ebook.
I could have expanded my promotions even further by writing and submitting press releases.
Another idea could have been to break the content into parts for a free e-course using an autoresponder to build another list.
I don't want to forget about video! I could have read the post on video or even recorded it for an audio download.
I'm sure a cool interview could have been worked out using the content.
I could have taken the time to include affiliate or product advertisements such as a few banners in the ebook.
I'm sure there are other ideas. Site promotion is limited only by your imagination.
Brian Hawkins - Publisher of the Extreme Ezine, Your internet marketing newsletter. Quality Content, Free Downloads, Contests, Jokes, Quotes and more... Free software for subscribing and then free downloads with each issue. Free email publication for webmasters, business owners, online marketers and affiliates.
Blog Post To Article
Nothing new here. Bloggers have been doing this for years. Once you have the post written it's a breeze to submit it to article directories so other site owners can use the content. Now your blog post just went viral!
Blog Post To E-Book
Another way to increase the value of your work is take the content and write an e-book. Yes, even more viral. It was quick and easy since the content had already been written.
Random Tips
Using a simple HTML rotator I was able to set-up random tips taken from the article to display on my site. It took about an hour to copy and paste each tip into it's own section.
Cross Promotion
This worked once for me but probably won't work twice. I posted to a different blog about the steps I took with the original blog post, much like I'm doing in this article.
Other Ideas I Could Have Used
I could, and still may, build a blog widget so the random tips can be added to other blogs as free content - and viral site promotion of course.
It would have been a very simple task to require subscription to a newsletter in order to download the ebook.
I could have expanded my promotions even further by writing and submitting press releases.
Another idea could have been to break the content into parts for a free e-course using an autoresponder to build another list.
I don't want to forget about video! I could have read the post on video or even recorded it for an audio download.
I'm sure a cool interview could have been worked out using the content.
I could have taken the time to include affiliate or product advertisements such as a few banners in the ebook.
I'm sure there are other ideas. Site promotion is limited only by your imagination.
Brian Hawkins - Publisher of the Extreme Ezine, Your internet marketing newsletter. Quality Content, Free Downloads, Contests, Jokes, Quotes and more... Free software for subscribing and then free downloads with each issue. Free email publication for webmasters, business owners, online marketers and affiliates.
