WordPress vs Custom Dev
When creating a website for blogging you have a ton of different options, but in my opinion (and many other peoples) WordPress is the fastest and easiest way to get rolling. If you want very little maintenance, tons of options, and an easy interface you don’t have to build, just use WordPress.
Flavors of WordPress
Free
WordPress is an open source PHP framework, so it is free, but hosting is where the cost comes in. You can get free hosting through WordPress.com, but you wont get a custom domain name (http://www.YourNameHere.com), email, support, and you’ll have to have WordPress.com Ads.
Paid
To have ultimate control you will have to host the website on your own domain. This means signing up with a web hosting service and paying a relatively small amount. After going with the paid option, I’ve never turned back. You are able to do anything you want with it. Most hosting options are billed annually and start around $3 a month (BlueHost, GoDaddy, Ionos, etc). I’ve used ionos.com Web Hosting for the past 10 years for personal and professional projects and have never had any issues (affiliate link). Their setup for WordPress takes less than 5 minutes and there are a ton of automated features that save me time.
Checklist
If you choose the free account skip steps 2 and 3. If you plan on monetizing your website, avoid the free account. It can be difficult to move your content to a different host.
- Sign up for hosting account
- Choose your domain name
- Install WordPress
- Start Blogging
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