Reasons to Self-Host Your Blog

If it’s free, you’re the product

When we sign up for any free service, it means we are the product. Think about it, Facebook is free to use therefore we are the product.

We’re the millions of users that are targeted by ads each day.

Ads in the news feed, ads in the timeline, ads on websites not even on Facebook. Sheesh. It’s the same with free blog sites.

You’re the product and they get to run their own ads on your blog, without you making a dime. Don’t you want your money?

If it’s free, you don’t own it

Here’s a biggie. The content that you spend hours creating and perfecting and marketing can all vanish one day if the free blog site decides you’ve violated their terms of service somehow. You have to abide by their rules.

They get to tell you what you can write about. And if they don’t like it, poof, it’s gone. Massively popular websites have fallen to Blogspot’s whim and lost their entire blogs because they were hosted on Google’s free service, instead of paying for their own. Now that’s a scary thought.

If it’s free, you can’t monetize

On some free services, you can monetize your blogs with ads or affiliate links, but most don’t allow you do to so any at all while others take half of your earnings. The nerve. You may not mind this if you’re using your blog as more of an online diary but if you’re thinking about making money eventually, then self-host now. Do it right from the beginning and save yourself the hassle later.

If it’s free, your functionality is limited

Many free platforms limit what you can or can’t do on their site. The free version of WordPress won’t allow you to install any plugin you choose nor any theme you choose. They give you a narrow list to choose from. Well, that sucks!

If it’s free, you’re showing your lack of professionalism

What do I mean by this? I mean, if it’s free then your website would be something like blogwithmo.wordpress.com… Would you take professional advice from me if I presented that domain to you? You’d question my authority just a little bit, wouldn’t you? Sure, you can buy a domain name and point it to your free blog. But the savvy reader will see through that in a jiffy (and potential sponsors sure will) and they’ll be off to find a blog that looks like they know what they’re talking about. A free site just gives the impression of an amateur. It screams “you ain’t ready.”

Anyone of these five reasons should be enough for you to self-host your blog from the beginning. Self-hosting is an investment you’re making in yourself and your product that you’re putting forward to the world. Do it the pro-way, step by step following my guide and you’ll have a beautiful, robust blog ready to woo your readers. Is your next question who should you host with? Why Siteground of course. They’re the most reliable for new bloggers everywhere.

Related: How to create killer blog content that brings you traffic long after your social shares have died down.