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\\n\\n<\/p>\n
Blogging software<\/h2>\n
\\n\\nThe first thing we should talk about is blogging software.\u00a0 What kind of software should you use for your blog?\\n\\nThere are quite a few options out there, including writing your own custom made blog, but I think the best option for most developers is to use WordPress<\/a>.\\n\\n \\n\\nYour first goal should really be to create something that belongs to you and only you.\\n\\nIf you spend a large amount of time producing content for a blog and someone else is ultimately in control of that content, you are putting quite a bit at risk.<\/strong>\\n\\nJust like you wouldn\u2019t build your house on someone else\u2019s lot of land, you shouldn\u2019t build your blog on someone else\u2019s domain.\\n\\nSo, the first thing you want to do is buy your lot.\u00a0 You are going to need your own domain that is owned by you.\\n\\n \\n\\n<\/p>\n \\n\\nAs long as you have your own domain, the choice here won\u2019t be as important when you are first starting out, but it is still good to consider your options.\\n\\nThere are three main options to choose from for hosting your new blog.\\n\\n<\/p>\n \\n\\nThis option is the cheapest and will allow you to get a blog up without having to do much management of any software or any operating systems, but it has the drawback of giving you the least amount of control over your blog.\\n\\nI started out my blog with this option using WordPress.com<\/a>, but you can also use a fee service like Blogger, from Google, or one of the other free blog hosting companies.\\n\\n \\n\\nWith this option, you are usually using some space on a web server that is shared with other blogs or websites, but you are in control of a large portion of that space.\\n\\nShared hosting companies usually will have some options to preinstall or automatically install WordPress or another blogging platform for you and give you access to that blogging software as if it were installed on your own machine.\\n\\nYou usually access your \u201cserver\u201d through the use of a control panel application that gives you options to add and remove certain software applications, access your database and files directly, and do other administrative tasks that you can\u2019t do with a free hosting platform.\\n\\nOnce I got off of free hosting on WordPress.com, because I wanted to be able to fully control my theme and add plugins to my blog, (something you can\u2019t do with free hosting,) I switched to Bluehost.com<\/a>, one of the most popular shared hosting platforms for WordPress.\u00a0 I was able to get everything migrated from WordPress.com to my WordPress install on Bluehost<\/a> pretty easily, and my readers never even realized it.\\n<\/a> \\n\\nThis brings us to the 3rd category of hosting options, VPS or virtual private server hosting.\\n\\nVPS hosting is pretty close to what it sounds like.\u00a0 A VPS is basically a virtualized private server in the cloud.\u00a0 Most VPS hosting solutions will give you the ability to create your own virtual server running Linux and configure it how you wish.\u00a0 You are basically given the keys to the car and you are on your way.\\n\\nThis of course can be a bit intimidating for starting out, but if you know what you are doing, or you are willing to learn (sometimes the hard way), this can be the most cost effective and efficient option to choose.\u00a0 But, you can definitely get yourself into trouble<\/strong>\u2014I know I have.\\n\\nWith great power comes great responsibility!\\n\\nThis blog is currently hosted through a VPS provider called DigitalOcean<\/a>, but there are several other VPS solutions out there as well.\u00a0 I found DigitalOcean<\/a> to be the best priced option and it also seemed to have a very simple to use interface to create new virtual servers.\u00a0 I actually run several VPS\u2019s for my different blogs and sites through DigitalOcean<\/a> and I only pay for what I use, since DigitalOcean<\/a> bills by the hour based on what kind of hardware configuration you are using for your server.\\n\\n \\n\\n<\/p>\n \\n\\nIf you are just starting out with your blog, I\u2019d really recommend going with shared hosting with a company like Bluehost<\/a>.\\n\\nGoing with free hosting is nice, really easy, and you can\u2019t beat the price, but it comes at a cost of not really having control over your blog.\u00a0 I felt this pain pretty quickly with my blog, but I didn\u2019t have enough knowledge to know what to do about it and to know what my other options were.\\n\\nFree hosting really restricts what you can do and diminishes a large amount of the value of using something like WordPress for your blog.\u00a0 WordPress has a huge number of free plugins available that allow you to add many different features to your blog and really customize the appearance of it, as well as integrate with other software systems.\u00a0 For example, I use a WordPress plugin with my Get Up and CODE podcast<\/a> to automatically publish my podcasts to iTunes when I publish a blog post of a new podcast episode.\\n\\nFree hosting also tends to hide you from what is really going on with your blog.<\/strong>\u00a0 When I first moved from WordPress.com to shared hosting with a real WordPress install, I was a bit overwhelmed, because I had to try and figure out how to add the same functionality I had with my free hosting on my new shared hosting install.\u00a0 I had really wished at that time that I had just started out with shared hosting.\\n\\nThe other thing to consider is that you\u2019ll probably eventually want to move off of free hosting when your blog grows, especially if you want to monetize it somehow, and even though migration is possible, it isn\u2019t the easiest thing and it is a bit nerve wracking.\u00a0 I was very concerned that something would go wrong in transferring my blog over to shared hosting\u2014that was not a very fun time in my life.\\n\\nOn the other end of the spectrum, is the VPS, which really is not something I\u2019d recommend for starting out, because you won\u2019t see any real benefit when your blog is small, but you\u2019ll inherit quite a bit of headache.\u00a0 I\u2019d still rather see you use a VPS than free hosting, but if you do go with a VPS, just know what you are getting into.\\n\\nSo, all things considered, my recommendation for starting out is definitely shared hosting.\u00a0 You get the benefit of a very low price to get started, good support, and the power to do what you want with your blog.<\/strong>\\n\\nBluehost<\/a> is the shared hosting provider I\u2019d recommend, simply because the price is really reasonable, the customer service was excellent, and I felt like the setup was extremely easy.\u00a0 I was able to sign up for an account and click a single button to install WordPress.\u00a0 (It appears that Bluehost actually has a VPS offering now as well, but I haven\u2019t tried it yet.)\\n\\n<\/p>\n \\n\\n<\/p>\n \\n\\n<\/p>\n \\n\\nHopefully this two part series<\/a> has helped you realize why having a blog is so important to promoting yourself and advancing your career, and given you enough information to get started creating your own blog.\\n\\nI\u2019ve just talked about the basics here, but I\u2019ll be posting more about marketing yourself and creating a blog in the future.\u00a0 Make sure you sign up for my newsletter<\/a>, so you don\u2019t miss any of these kinds of posts and I can let you know when I release a few products I am working on that cover more about marketing yourself and creating a blog<\/a> than I can fit here.<\/strong>\\n\\nAnd be sure to let me know what you think.\u00a0 If you use this information on how to create a blog to create your own blog, send me a link to it or leave a comment below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How to Create a Blog: Getting started \\n\\nOne of the biggest barriers that many developers have with creating a presence on the web is getting started.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to try to make getting started as easy as possible, but not gloss over some of the important details that could hurt you later on when you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,183,162229212,2260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","category-entrepreneurship","category-newsletter","category-web-development"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"2013-12-16_08-27-28\"](\"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/2013-12-16_08-27-28.png\" "\\"2013-12-16_08-27-28\\"")
<\/a>\\n\\nI don\u2019t say this lightly, and I realize that in the developer community WordPress might not seem like the best option, but let\u2019s dissect this a little bit.\\n\\nWhen you are creating a blog, most of the time your goal is not to show how good you are at creating a blog or using blogging software, but instead your goal is to get your message out, control your image, and build a home base for yourself on the web.<\/a><\/strong>\\n\\nIn business, we\u2019d say that your blog software is not your core competency, instead the content you put on your blog is your core competency.\\n\\nMany developers are tempted to start out by creating their own blog or use a less popular blogging software solution, and they end up wasting a huge amount of time messing with or creating software instead of blogging.\\n\\nI choose WordPress, because it is the most popular and widely used blogging software, which means it is well supported, has tons of plugins and just works.<\/strong>\\n\\nYou can literally get a new WordPress install up in minutes, even from a bare server, and you can find plugins for just about anything you can think of.\\n\\nSure, I come from a .NET and C# background, and WordPress is PHP, but I can\u2019t deny how easy it is to use and customize WordPress.\\n\\nYou can, of course, use another popular piece of software or write your own blog from scratch, but if you want to get up and running quickly, I\u2019d recommend you just use WordPress for now and you can switch later if you want to, once you have a better idea of what you are doing.\\n\\n<\/p>\nBuying your lot<\/h2>\n
<\/a>\\n\\nSeveral free blogging platforms will gladly host your blog for you and give you an address within their domain.\u00a0 Even though this is free and the cheapest way to get started, you need to look a little bit deeper into the future and realize it is worth the $1.99 or whatever it costs to buy a domain for a year.\\n\\nWhatever you do, don\u2019t botch this one up, because you will regret it.<\/strong>\u00a0 Everything else can be changed later on, but moving domains and trying to keep your search rankings and all your content in place, is a pain that you don\u2019t want to have.\\n\\nYou can register a domain pretty cheaply by using a service like GoDaddy<\/a>.\u00a0 I usually use GoDaddy for initially registering my domains, even through I may move the registration later.\\n\\n<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
Choosing a hosting method<\/h2>\n
Completely Free Hosting<\/h4>\n
<\/a>\\n\\nI originally started out with this option, because I didn\u2019t want to make a big investment in something that I didn\u2019t know if I would stick with.\u00a0 But, I later came to regret that decision, because of the lack of control over my blog.<\/strong>\\n\\nWith this option, you basically just register a new blog and can start posting immediately.\u00a0 The hosting company gives you access just to create and edit posts and a few management functions, but you don\u2019t have access to more advanced options that you would get with your own install of WordPress or other blogging software.\\n\\nThis might not seem like a big deal, but if you eventually want to put ads on your site, sell something, or customize your theme, you may quickly regret this decision.<\/strong>\\n\\nIf you do go with this option though, make sure you pay the optional fee most of these services offer to allow you to use your own custom domain for your blog.\u00a0 Don\u2019t make the mistake of skipping this.\u00a0 You do NOT want to change your domain later\u2014trust me.<\/strong>\\n\\n<\/p>\nShared Hosting<\/h4>\n
<\/a>\\n\\nThis is actually the option I\u2019d recommend for someone starting out<\/strong>, but I\u2019ll get to why a little later on.\\n\\nThe big thing with shared hosting is that it gives you almost full control over your blog<\/strong>.\u00a0 The only thing you don\u2019t have control over is the web server that is being used to handle the web requests and the actual OS your blog software is running on.\u00a0 This means that you can install plugins, add custom themes, add your own HTML code and JavaScript, or pretty much anything else you want to your blog.<\/strong>\\n\\nThe other thing about this option is that it is pretty cheap as well.<\/strong>\u00a0 The prices can vary based on features, but you can expect to pay around $6 \u2013 $10 a month for a fully hosted setup when starting out.<\/a>\u00a0 (In my opinion well worth it compared to the free hosting.)\\n\\nI ended up moving off of shared hosting pretty quickly, because by the time I had moved from free hosting to shared hosting, my blog was a little too big already.\u00a0 I ended up having a little more traffic than the shared hosting could easily handle and I wanted to experiment with the 3rd option, which I\u2019ll tell you about next.\\n\\nI could have stayed on shared hosting, but my blog was getting frequent enough spikes from articles becoming popular on Hacker News that I decided to try and optimize things myself.\\n\\n<\/p>\nVirtual Private Server or VPS<\/h4>\n
<\/a>\\n\\nSo, like I said, the big benefit of a VPS is that you have ultimate control of pretty much everything.<\/strong>\u00a0 You are just given a Linux server and the root password and you are on your own.\\n\\nBut, this can also be the big disadvantage with a VPS.\u00a0 You have to know or learn enough about Linux and installing your blogging software to be able to get up and running, and you\u2019ve got to be able to troubleshoot your own problems.\\n\\nFor me, it is worth it because I get quite a bit of traffic to this blog, so my optimizations really make a difference, but for someone just starting out, I really wouldn\u2019t recommend a VPS until you feel you\u2019ve outgrown shared hosting.<\/strong>\\n\\n<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
My recommendation: shared hosting<\/h2>\n
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More details<\/h2>\n