Eden Bloggers - January 27, 2011 at 7pm: Blogger's Club

My blogs have all been self-hosted using the Wordpress platform for several years now. I've found that there is much more flexibility by going to a self-hosted blog rather than the free set ups.

For me it's really all about design and freedom to make whatever changes I want. I'm a code geek so when I started you needed to know a lot of code to tweak things but now I barely need to touch code to get things the way I want 'em. less

This month, we're going to keep it simple. We're just going to chat about the different hosts you use to host your blog and also what issues those can cause you if you are a sex blogger.

There are free blogger hosts as well as paid blogger hosts. Each has its own pros and cons. What blogging host do you use? How did you make the decision between going for paid hosting or free hosting? less

My Blog is Tales from the Porn Store.

I use GoDaddy.com for domain names, and Dreamhost.com for space.

I have built sites and was using the myspace blog since 2002. Then 2 years ago I noticed that Dreamhost had a pre-installed Wordpress. So I took advantage of that and set up a real blog.

That's how I got into the game. less

For those who are new to blogs, Wordpress is both web-hosting blogging software as well as a site, similar to Blogger.com, which hosts blogs. If you are using the self-hosted software, you are free to do as you please with it, but they are a bit adult-unfriendly on their regular site, if someone were to complain. less

The two most popular free blogging hosts are Wordpress as well as Blogspot. Those blogging hosts will accept any type of blog. Blogspot has a adult-content policy that requires a warning before your visitor can view your blog, but Wordpress does not allow "pornographic content". The problem with this wording is that it's up to the individual as to what "pornographic" actually entails. In the past, this has gotten some adult blogs deleted with no prior notice. Kinky Blogging is a new host that is run by an adult blogger. It's still in beta, but the host will allow adult content with no danger of it being removed for being adult since she runs the servers herself.

Paid hosts really vary. There are hundreds of blog hosting sites out there. The prices can range from $3 a month to $80 a month and over. The biggest thing to consider is if the blogging host will be okay with adult content. Look around for the best deals, ask opinions of your other blogging friends, and e-mail the company with any questions including whether they accept adult sites. It's better to be safe than sorry. You can usually start with a small package that costs less, and you can upgrade to a more expensive plan if you find out that you need it.

For me, I run my Kinky-World review site. I chose to pay for my own hosting to allow me to have the most freedom when it comes to the content on my site. Of course, I have more freedom when it comes to content, and I seem more reputable when it comes to my reputation, but at the same time, it does cost money instead of being free.

With your type of hosting, what would you say are the advantages or disadvantages? less

When you want to own your own site, there are two steps to the process.

First, you need to buy the "name" (the link), usually charged per year.

Second, you need someone to "host" all your files (the content of your website) and "serve" your information to other computers.

You don't have to use the same service for each of these things (though it can be decidedly easier to do it this way). less

When you want to own your own site, there are two steps to the process.

First, you need to buy the "name" (the link), usually charged per year.

Second, you need someone to "host" all your files (the content of your website) and "serve" your information to other computers.

You don't have to use the same service for each of these things (though it can be decidedly easier to do it this way). less

I find that Wordpress is easier to format and set up as opposed to Blogger. Wordpress does require you to kind of know what's going on HTML wise with coding. I know that I had to go back to my HTML book to figure out how to format a few things.

Blogger is easier to use, but I find Wordpress to look cleaner. less

Wordpress.org copies now allow you to export your Blogger files into Wordpress for easy transfering onto Wordpress. So if you go from Blogger to a paid version of Wordpress, you're good to go. I'm not sure if it applies to free versions of Wordpress.com though. less