Mar 18 2008
Leaving the nest
This is what I believe to be a hummingbird nest that I found in my yard. It’s only about 2″ across. It doesn’t show real well in the photo but the nest is made with some real fine grasses but mostly hair from my German Shepherd.
But, that’s not what this post is about. Traveling around the blogosphere, I notice many blogs are changing over to or are considering self-hosting. Being in the process of setting up a new blog myself, I figured I’d provide a few helpful resources for anyone considering hosting their own blog.
With just a little computer know-how, it’s really quite easy to setup your self-hosted blog. This is a brief overview of the main steps required.
If you don’t have one already, you will need to acquire a URL (this is your own dot com) and have it hosted. A hosting company that I have been using for years, both for myself and clients, is ICDSoft. I haven’t encountered any downtime and their support, features and pricing is great. Their hosting is only $6.00 per month without a setup fee, unlimited email accounts, subdomains, etc… You are able to register your url (or have it transferred) and hosted with one easy step.
After you have your domain and host, if you wish to use WordPress as your blog software, you can download it here for free: Download WordPress.
The installation instructions for WordPress are straightforward and easy to understand. One thing you will need to know is how to initialize a new database on your host server. The installation routine takes care of all the details, you just need to create the database.
I use FileZilla, a free program, to upload the WordPress program files to the host server. I also use this program to upload my photos. Download the “client version.”
Wordpress gives the option of hundreds of free themes that can be applied to your blog. Again, this is easy. Find the theme you want, download, unzip & upload to your server. There is a menu option in WordPress that allows you to change your themes. With some html experience, you will be able to make modifications the your theme to suit your individual needs, or you don’t have to.
Happy blogging!
