Disadvantages of a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog
Previously I shared some of my thoughts about the advantages of blogging on a self-hosted WordPress blog. But in the interest of balance, there are some downsides that you should know if you are considering a similar move…
1). COST – This is by far the biggest hurdle that keeps people from moving to WordPress. Blogger provides hosting for free. If, however, you would like to move to a self-hosted WordPress blog, then you will need to purchase hosting from a private company. Basis hosting packages range between $5 – $15 a month.
2). not as POINT & SHOOT: Blogger is designed to be VERY EASY TO USE. It has an extremely user-friendly interface that assumes that you are a newbie (which is VERY NICE when you are, in fact, a newbie). In my experience, the WordPress interface is slightly more challenging. That does not mean you need a PhD in engineering to blog. It’s not that hard – you just might need to read the directions on WordPress.
3). GOOGLE FOLLOWERS need to sign up again: If you have the Google Followers gadget on your Blogger blog, those followers will no longer get updates from WordPress in their Google reader. Until Google fixes this and allows for a means to update the feed, it is a bit of a bummer and inconvenient for some. But it’s probably easier to make the change when you have 200 followers as opposed to 2,000. This does NOT impact those who sign up for the email or RSS feed; just Google Readers.
(NOTE: many people get confused on this one – it’s not hard to move the gadget to wordpress, and the reader’s FACES will still show up, but they are not getting the updated feed anymore. Why this happens is a little complicated to explain, so I would recommend that you read the FAQ I’ve developed. )
4). LEARNING CURVE: Learning a new program can be hard, and when you’re good at Blogger it’s hard to go back to the beginning with WordPress. But eventually you learn your way around and get comfortable again — it just takes some time to get the lay of the land. If you do make the move, I would strongly encourage you to take advantage of the support from your hosting company, and the help forums for WordPress. Every problem you’re encountering has been addressed by someone already… So don’t give up!
5). TRANSITION WORK to maintain Page Rank: There are a few tasks that need to be done in order to preserve Google Page Rank when you move to WordPress – specifically fixing broken links and redirecting incoming links. There are several good plugins available to help with this, but there is a time commitment involved (how much time will depend on how big your blog is).
