While it might be fine for you to start out your blog on a free blog platform so you can get some traction, there comes a time when you need to branch out on your own. It is true that you are not going to have the authority that comes along with the free blogging platforms, but you are going to have control and people are going to take you more seriously when you have your own blog. Let’s go on to look at 5 signs it is time to change from a free blog platform to paid Platform.
1. You Are Serious About Being a Career Blogger
If you are serious about establishing yourself as a blogger, you can’t only be operating on a free blog platform. This screams hobbyist and if you want to have people pay you to guest post on their blogs and do feature articles, you need to be taken seriously by publications and other top bloggers.
Being serious about blogging is a sure sign that you want to switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. When you do this, you are able to host your own website which means that it is truly yours and you are not piggybacking off anyone else.
2. You Want to Earn Money
If you want to earn money with your blog then you need your own self-hosted blog. There are sites that will allow you to share the revenue with them from the traffic that you bring in but most of the time those are peanuts when you look at the amount of money that you could make if you were keeping the full stream of revenue.
You can even partner up with Adsense on your site to get a nice cut of the ads that they serve of your site if you have your own self-hosted WordPress blog.
Ads aren’t the only way that you can make money. You can make money through your website with affiliate marketing, services and more. If you are blogging on other sites, they may have terms and policies that do not allow you to build sites on some of the different topics that you might want to cover so make sure you aren’t violating TOS when you start blogging about a new topic.
3. You Want a Custom Site Design
If you want a site that has a custom design then you need to have your own site instead of trying to make your site fit within a certain template. If you have your own website you can make your own site to whatever specifications that you choose. You can even hire a web designer that can cook up an awesome design for you. The choice is yours and with the many options that are available, you are sure to find a design that is going to be perfect for what you want.
4. You Want Access to More Tools to Build Your Site
If you are on a free blogging platform then you are very limited on the tools that they provide you to use. If you have a website on WordPress.org, you have the right to download any plugins that you want from the WordPress plugins section as well as any other plugin that you find for free or purchase on the web.
Before you install any plugins, you need to make sure that you check their ratings as well as how their updates are done. If they haven’t been updated in a long time, you do not want to choose them for the solution to your problem. Plugins that haven’t been updated for a while usually haven’t been tested with your version of WordPress which can cause problems with your site’s function and security.
5. You Want More Reliability and Control
When your website is on your own hosting, you have more reliability and more control. If something goes wrong with your blog, you can call your hosting and make sure they get it fixed so that you don’t have a lot of downtime on your site.
With yyour own hosting you are able to control any aspect of your site so that you can create the look and function for the site that you have been working towards getting. Having a clear plan about what you want out of your website is important so that you can put the pieces together and create a site that gives your user a great experience and allows you to get the best conversion rates.
Conclusion
If you noticed any of these signs that you need to change from a free blog platform to a paid platform, you need to make sure that you have your domain as well as your hosting in order before you start making any changes. Make sure to get a total backup of your site so if you lose any of your files in the move, you have them in a zip file which will allow you to replace anything that is broken on your site.
Having your own website sets you apart from all of the other bloggers on free platforms. It allows people to take you much more seriously and you can set your site up so that you can take payments, create opt in forms that allow people to contact you about services or products that you might be offering and more.
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