Hosting sites
Part of “Going Self-hosted with Wordpress : A Wolfie Guide”
One of the subjects that is a bit of a minefield when it comes to going self-hosted is which hosting provider to choose. There are, literally, thousands of them out there, and there is often little to choose between them. Ok, you can take recommendations from friends and fellow bloggers (like the ones I’ve given in previous articles) but that only gives you a very small part of the market.
In an effort to overcome this difficulty, a number of sites have been launched that offer information to help you select hosting providers. So far, one of the best that I’ve come across is top10webhosting.com. They have a long list of providers, to help you choose the best web host for you. What top10webhosting.com gives you is a way to compare prices and specifications, filter providers by whether they offer certain things (cPanel, for instance), read reviews and check out in detail what each provider has to offer.
One provider they recommend (that I’d not heard of before) is HostMonster - which has been at the top of the recommendation list for 10 months on the trot. And it’s no wonder - $5.95 per month, 1500GB disk space, 15000GB bandwith, host unlimited domains. It’s an amazing deal and well worth taking a look at.
This post is sponsored by top10webhosting.com
Why go self-hosted?
Part of “Going Self-Hosted with Wordpress: A Wolfie Guide” [PDF]
Another question that I’ve been asked in the course of writing this sort-of Guide to self-hosting is why you would want to go self-hosted in the first place, and what skills you need to be able to do it? I touched on this subject in the first post in the series but I’m going to try and go into a little more depth here.
Why go self-hosted?
The biggest reason is freedom. Whichever blogging service you’re currently using, you’ll be using it under their terms of service which will restrict you from doing certain things. For instance, if your blog is at Wordpress.com then you can’t:
- Edit your theme, or download and install new ones from the Net
- Change the way your blog works
- Add new features, like a blog search, if your theme doesn’t already support them
- Use Javascript in your widgets, or anywhere else
- Use forms, other than those created by Wordpress
- Have Google Adsense or any other form of advertising
If you think that you will ever want to do any of these things, then you need to start thinking about self-hosting.
Another reason for self-hosting is to get some protection for your blog. At the moment, your Wordpress.com blog is not really under your control; at any time Wordpress could delete it for a Terms of Service violation, without telling you about it first. You may not think this could happen to you, but seeing as the ToS are really quite vague (and one important prohibition is actually in the FAQ and not the ToS) there’s always the possibility that it will even if you didn’t mean to do anything wrong.
Once you go self-hosted, you don’t have to worry about any of this stuff - it all becomes possible and if your experience is anything like mine, you’ll immediately see an increase in readership and visitors to your blog.
If you’re at all interested in the way blogs work underneath, then go self-hosted. You can set-up a test blog in addition to your main one and experiment with everything. If you want to learn CSS, then playing about with your blog’s theme is a good way to see how it all works. If you want to add features like threaded comments, or comment subscription, then self-hosted is the way to go. If you want to add a message board (like this one) to your blog, then self-hosted is definitely for you.
What skills do I need to go self-hosted?
You need to have a certain amount of computer-literacy, but then you’ve probably got that if you’re already running a blog. You’ll need to know that some of what is done for you at Wordpress.com, you will have to do yourself. Most of it, though, is not hugely different.
If you use the tips in the first article, then installing the Wordpress software is a matter of a few clicks; this will get you up and running. You can then follow the tips in the later articles to add features. The only thing you really need to learn - at least to begin with - is how to successfully use an FTP client. File Transfer Protocol is what takes the files from your local PC and uploads them to the webserver that your site is loaded on. It’s just like transferring files using Explorer - just that one of the folders is on a remote machine. There are various FTP programs you can use - Cyberduck for Mac, CUteFTP and Filezilla for Windows - all of which work basically the same and make the task really easy.
The only other thing that could be a barrier is cost - and with hosting packages starting from as little as $25 (about £12.50) per year there’s really nothing to stop you is there?
Domains
Part of “Going Self-Hosted with Wordpress: A Wolfie Guide” [PDF]
In the first installment of this Guide, I covered getting yourself some hosting for your very own website, but I didn’t really go into depth about domains; since then I’ve had a couple of requests to cover that subject a bit more fully and now seemed like the right time.
What is a domain?
Simply put, it’s an Internet address, like wolfshowl.com. It’s a unique name that identifies a website on the Net. It can be a “friendly” address (words that you can understand) just a group of numbers, like 192.168.0.1.
You may also hear terms like “top-level” and “second-level” when referring to domains; this refers to the extension at the end of the address. For example, wolfshowl.com is a top-level domain, whereas wolfshowl.co.uk would be a second-level domain. As far as I can see, there is no practical difference, except for the snob value of having a top level-domain.
How do I choose a domain?
This can be trickier - all of the good ones are gone! Basically, decide first what domain extension you want; would you prefer the one specifically for your country (so for the UK you’d be looking at .co.uk), do you want a .com, or do you want one of the more academic ones like .org or .info?
Then think about what you want after the www; if you run a company, you’ll probably want to have the company name or perhaps your best-selling product. For bloggers, you might want your name or the name of your blog. Any and all of these are valid options, but remember that you may not be able to have your first choice because someone will have got there first. You have no rights whatsoever to your name as far as domain names are concerned; it’s first come, first served.
Finally, go to who.is and enter what you’d like in the search box. The results page will tell you whether it’s available, who owns it if it’s not and what related domains may still be available.
I’ve decided what I want. How do I buy it?
Here you have loads of choice. There are sites all over the web at which you can register a domain. If you just want to register the name but don’t want any hosting at the moment, do a Google search for “domain registration” and see what comes up; the maximum I would pay would be £8.50 (about $17), which should get you a .com for a year or a .co.uk for two years. There are many sites out there with headline prices much lower than this; just make sure you read the small print.
If you want hosting as well, then I suggest you register your domain name when you sign up for your hosting package. That way, all the paperwork is taken care of in one go. The two companies I mentioned in the previous article (A Small Orange and Hosting-Unlimited) will both do this for you.
Make sure that, whoever registers it for you, it gets registered in your name not theirs. I’ve heard that some of the companies offering rock-bottom registration prices don’t register them in your name but in theirs. That way, it becomes difficult for you to do anything with the name because it is more difficult for you to prove ownership.
Now I’ve got it, what next?
Well, now you need to set up your site. Use the information in the previous articles if you need help on this.
Wordpress.com offer domain mapping. What’s that?
This paid add-on to the free Wordpress.com blogging service lets you buy a domain name and then have it re-direct to your free-hosted blog. That way, you look like you’re self-hosted but you’re not and you remain bound by the Wordpress.com Terms of Service.
The problem with the domain mapping add-on is that it goes the wrong way. Most people will have started with a free-hosted blog and will be looking to move to self-hosted, and so would want to point their free-hosted blog to their brand new site. That way the traffic and readership they’ve worked so hard to build up on the free-hosted site would be re-directed to the self-hosted site, helping it to establish itself and build up traffic, Alexa Rank, Real Rank and Google Page Rank quickly rather than having to start from scratch.
Going Self-Hosted with Wordpress
The Wolfie Guide for Going Self-Hosted with Wordpress is now available as a PDF download, for anyone that might find it useful.
It includes the three articles so far published and will be updated as and when new articles become available.
(If you find any errors, please let me know and I’ll put them right in the next edition).
Plug-ins for Wordpress.org
Part of “Going self-hosted with Wordpress : A Wolfie Guide” [PDF]
In previous installments of the Guide, I’ve talked about how to transfer your existing Wordpress.com blog to a self-hosted Wordpress.org installation, including uploading a theme, and about the blogroll and widgets. Those two posts, hopefully, got you started and your blog looks pretty much how you want it to.
But looking at your Dashboard you’ll see that there are some things that are missing because they don’t come as standard with the Wordpress.org software. So this post is going to look at plug-ins that you can use to add extra functionality and improve your Wordpress.org experience.
What is a plug-in and where do I find them?
At its simplest explanation, a plug-in is a file or group of files that - when uploaded to your Wordpress installation - give it instructions for carrying out extra tasks. Plug-ins exist for all sorts of functions, some really useful, some less so, and they can be installed with ease.
You can find them everywhere on the Net, but one of the places to start is at the Wordpress plug-ins directory.
How do I install plug-ins?
Sorry, but you’re going to have to FTP again, like you did to upload your theme. But you’re OK with that now arent’t you? As I said before, if you can’t handle a bit of FTP action then you’re probably better off sticking with Wordpress.com.
Most plug-ins are supplied in compressed files, so the first thing to do is uncompress them, using your favourite utility (or the built-in ability of your operating system). Then you’ll either be presented with a folder, or just a couple of files. Whichever you get, there should be a file that gives installation instructions, but in general you just need to upload the folder or the files into the wp-content/plug-ins folder on your server. You should make a note, though, of any special instructions for your plug-in; most are very simple, but some can be complicated; if you don’t think you can manage it, don’t install the plug-in.
Once you’ve uploaded a plug-in, it will need to be activated. This is done from the Dashboard > Plug-ins screen. Just click the “Activate” button next to the plug-in that you’ve just uploaded. If there are no special instructions you need to carry out for the plug-in, then that’s it!
Which plug-ins do I need?
Well, I suppose you don’t really need any of them, but there are some that you might want. Particularly if you’re coming from Wordpress.com. These are the ones that I’ve tried out so far and found useful (I’ve tried a bunch of others that I haven’t found useful, but I’ll leave those out). It should be noted that there are many, many plug-ins out there and you’ll probably find others that do the same job as the ones listed here; this list is not a recommendation of these plug-ins over any others, it’s just a list of ones that I’ve found useful and use on The New Wolfs Howl. If you find any that do the same job but better, let me know.
Wordpress.com Stats
You’ll have noticed that your Dashboard doesn’t have a link for Blog Stats; this is the plug-in that will restore that functionality for you. This isn’t an ideal plug-in because it requires a Wordpress.com API key (a string of letters and numbers that you’ll find on your Wordpress.com Dashboard at Users > Your Profile). The reason this isn’t ideal is because it creates unnecessary confusion between .com and .org blogs, as well as meaning that you won’t be able to get rid of your .com account.
Once you’ve activated the plug-in, you’ll get a message telling you that you need to enter an API key. Enter it at Dashboard > Plug-ins > Wordpress.com Stats. After that, the Stats function just like they do on Wordpress.com
Defensio Anti-Spam
Your Wordpress.com account comes with Akismet Anti-Spam, and your .org installation also includes it - although it is not activated. If you want to use that, then you’ll need your API Key again. But, Akisment comes in a for a lot of stick, being accused of creating many false positives (blocking comments that are not spam) and also being criticised by people who are not fans of those that run it.
An excellent alternative, which gives you more control over the functionality, is Defensio. This also requires an API Key, but you have to sign up for a (free) account with Defensio. If you don’t want yet another online account, stick with Akismet but if you want good quality spam filtering, this is the one to go with.
Contact Form 7
On Wordpress.com, if you want to add a contact form to a page or post, you just enter one line of code. This plug-in allows you to do just the same thing with a .org installation, but with flexibility over the way the form looks, how many different forms you can have, etc.
Wordpress Admin Bar
One of the biggest things that’s missing from a .org installation is the blue admin bar at the top of the screen, that allows you to get to your Dashboard, your Stats, etc. This plug-in will give you back the blue admin bar, but with greatly increased funcitonality. When viewing your blog (it will only be shown when viewing your own blog, not on every .org blog), it will give you dropdown menus for every item on your Dashboard menu. It is probably the most useful plug-in I have so far found.
Subscribe to Comments
This is great piece of extra functionality that is sorely missing from Wordpress.com. What it does is add a “Subscribe” option to the comments form on each post, which allows your commenters to stay updated by email of when anyone else makes a comment.
Brian’s Threaded Comments
This one isn’t available from Wordpress.org, you’ll need to download it from the developer. You’ll have seen on many blogs that specific comments can be replied to and the reply will be indented, or linked in some way to the comment it is in response to. This is called ‘threading’ and it’s what this plug-in does for you. Some people love threaded comments, some hate them, but at least now you have a choice.
Absolute Comments
One thing that really bugs me about comments on Wordpress.com is that if I want to reply to them I either have to edit the comment and aaadd my reply to it, or go to the post concerned and add my comment there. I don’t like the first option because I prefer not to mess about with comments at all and the second option is a drag. Which is where this plug-in comes in, as it allows you to reply to comments directly from the Dashboard - and also allows you to thread them or not.
Popularity Contest
One of the widgets that you’ll notice is missing is Top Posts. I’m not sure why this isn’t included as it’s one of the most useful, but there you go. This plug-in will takes over the role, but also gives you much more information about what’s popular as well as allowing you to alter the ‘weighting’ for each element (permalink views, archive views, etc).
Be aware, though, that this plug-in doesn’t automatically display any of these results on your blog. You can put them wherever you like, but you will need to enter some code yourself. The easiest way is add a widget to your sidebar; if you want to do that, though, you’ll need the next plug-in as well.
Daiko’s Text Widget
You’re familiar, I’m sure, with sidebar text widgets. They can be useful for displaying all sorts of things like links, pictures, and so on. But they are limited; you can’t, for instance, enter PHP code (the code that your Wordpress.org installation is built on) in them. But with Daiko’s you can. That way, following the instructions from Popularity Contest, you can add a widget to display your Top Posts.
So there you go. Some information about plug-ins and how to use them, as well as ones that I’d recommend. Happy plugging.
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