Question Static Website Hosting vs. Blog Hosting - Virtual Assistant Forums

Robin · #1 (**permalink**) 05-28-2009

Ok, I decided to go with godaddy.com's "Website Tonight" for my first webpage. It was extremely easy to use and I was able to have my website up quickly! What I didn't realized and wasn't informed of is that it does not include hosting for a blog. Now, this put's me in a particular situation....Because I won a free blog make-over or make up and need hosting which will cost me as much as if I would have gone with godaddy.com's un-Website Tonight hosting. So, their telling me that they will credit me the amount of time I haven't used on the current "static" hosting if I would like to switch to a "normal" hosting which means it will include blogging, BUT I would have to redo my webpage outside of their template and nothing coverts the information I have over. Or if I want, I can just pay $70 or so for a year of hosting for blogging. At this point, I'm just double paying for no reason. Had I known this ahead of time, I would have re-thought the entire process.

Any comments? Suggestions? The blog is being done as we speak, so I do have a little time.....

virtual writing · #2 (**permalink**) 05-29-2009

Robin - Have you been doing your blog for a while, or is it new? Because if it's new, why not just get a wordpress.com blog (which is free) and use that while you work out your blogging kinks? Later, if you wish, it will be easy to configure a wordpress.org blog for your website. You could do this right now, if you have a little technical help (which it sounds like you do?) There are many advantages to having your blog on your own site, but wordpress.org promises a '5 minute installation,' and it's a tad more than that, in my experience. So if you go with wordpress.com to start with, and get used to the whole gig, switching it to your own site can be a second step.

Robin · #3 (**permalink**) 05-30-2009

Hi Mary - I don't currently blog. I'll need to check with the person who doing the blog if it's a .com or .org. I can't tell from our prior emails. This is really driving me crazy!!!!

Tess · #4 (**permalink**) 05-30-2009

Yet another reason to stay away from the free website builders - they seem popular for the startup phase and I do understand they are free and easy enough to work with but they allow for NO growth whatsoever and so little creative control.

If you have your own domain, why not talk to the blog designer about helping you create your website itself using the blog platform. You can create 'posts' with your about us, rate, and services info - each sep. pages, then create a menu across the top to navigate these items, permanently linked up to those posts. And you can also blog!

You'd be done with GoDaddy's awful pay-per pricing [I think it's nuts they charge sep. for email, etc.] and you'd have your site AND blog ready to roll PLUS have the ability to do quick textual updates to your business pages.

All you'd need to do is sign up for hosting at a *regular* hosting company [like ace-host.net or hostmonster, etc.] where you have a cPanel, your email accounts would all be included, etc. and you could upload the WordPress files right there onto your own domain - voila!

Sorry if that got long... I think as a professional with the need for a professional website it's best to get away from the freebie sitebuilders as soon as possible and winning this blog makeover is a great opportunity to do just that.