Thinking About Moving To My Own Website

1. 0

   Ben Blackwellposted 10 years ago

   Hello guys.  I have recently been thinking about moving to my own website rather than staying here.  What do you guys think my chances would be if I did this?  I do have some knowledge of SEO, but not much.  Any tips or suggestions?
   
   Thanks
   Ben Blackwell

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   1. 89

      NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I say do both. Your Hubs are already established here at HP and have aged, that's why I think it's better not to move them. They can get residual income and your site can start getting established in the meantime. It's better to diversify anyway.

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         gmwilliamsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I concur with Nate.  Please STAY; however,create your own website.   Both can be highly lucrative in the long run. Ben, you are an excellent writer!

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            Ben Blackwellposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you.

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   2. 88

      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I also agree with Nate. What you could do, like myself here, is gradually build your website. If after two years your site takes off and start making you some money then you can go all out. I am using the same learning curve for HP with my websites. They will take a while to age as did my subdomain. So keep hubbing while you work on your website.
      
      I do not suggest blogger as a CMS Website (as Martin Heeremans suggested). Blogs are more suited for niche topics rather than content management. There are dozens of good CMS applications out there you can use. Here are a few Open Source applications:
      
      ModX
      Drupal
      Joomla
      DotNetNuke
      Umbraco
      .NET CMS
      Kentico
      Orchard
      MonoX...................... an many more
      
      If you purchase hosting you are likely to get a free domain and a choice of any one of these applications which you can use to build your website live.
      
      Or
      
      You can use Webmatrix and build using any one of the above applications or from a PHP template. Webmatrix will help you find hosting and will assist you in publishing your website.

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         Martin Heeremansposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I perused his hubs before answering, and he does have niche topics.
         
         He has a few "How To" hubs that are in a niche topic (music, article writing etc...)
         
         My suggestion, was evidently in regard for to this user building a fresh domain to build a presence from.
         
         In that regard, blogs, like a website, can out rank any topic in a search result.
         
         My opening questions, if responded to, would have clarified a better answer.
         
         In the end, it's about giving this hp user advice. No one is either right or wrong. Just lending a hand.

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      2. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I think it's important to clarify that remark.   Blogger is not ideal for a website because creating effective navigation is difficult.  On Blogger you can only list your posts by date, and that's absolutely useless, even for a blog - what reader is ever going to search by date?  You can get around that by using Labels as Categories, but that does mean you can't create sub-categories so it's limiting.
         
         However I wouldn't suggest any of the options Cardisa lists, because they all have a fairly steep learning curve.  Before I started my own site, I did a lot of research because I know I'm not a technical person, so I wanted the least "techie" option.   Drupal and Joomla were on my shortlist but it was Wordpress that won by a fairly long way.   
         
         The hardest part of creating your own site is that you have to organise your hosting, install Wordpress, etc etc.   Plus there's a cost, of course.  If you're a real technophobe, it's worth looking at the paid version of Wordpress.com - which is exactly the same as using Wordpress on your own hosting, but all the back-office stuff is taken care of.  It's a bit more expensive than DIY but it's a very good service.

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            Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I keep forgetting that many people aren't familiar with this stuff. Blogger isn't hard to modify to look like a content website to me either. It's just that some techies believe that posting different kinds of articles on the same blog wont get much traffic. If you stick to one subject your blog is more likely to succeed.
            
            What I have done with my Blogger blogs is to edit the HTML and add parent items to the menu, then add child items to get drop down menus. From there you can add stand alone pages to each menu item and that would work for organizing content.

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      lagaligoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      you try to do both

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      kevinfreamposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Diversify is definitely the right move. Wordpress is the leading platform and the easiest is Wordpress.com rather than the self-hosted Wordpress.org. You have tons of choices for themes (which should be responsive) to setup a site and have the blogging platform without the ads of Blogger.

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         NateB11posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I just want to say that you  can't monetize on Wordpress.com. So, if the idea is to make money, it's better to get the domain name and find a webhost.

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         1. 88

            Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            If you are using a WP with a web host and your own  domain you can add plugins which makes it easy to place ads in content and on sidebars of your website. There is a plugin called Easy adsense. All you do is add the ad sense codes, tell it where to put the ads and you are done. There are three in-content options and sidebar options as well. Works with any WP theme.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            You can monetize if you pay for the Premium version, which is $99 a year.

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      Marketing Meritposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Blogger, Squidoo, Weebly and Wordpress.com are Web 2.0 sites. Whilst each site has its pros and cons, they are no different to HubPages insofar as your hosting is undertaken by a third party and you have to abide by their rules. They are also more prone to the whims of Google, although I'm guessing Blogger will be least affected than most, in that regard.
      
      If you do opt for hosting your own website, then make sure you select a company that provides Cpanel access and has auto-installers such as Fantastico or Softaculous. You should also install FTP client software to upload the files to your website.
      
      If you want to run Google ads, you need to ensure that you have a privacy policy. There are plugins which will do this for you.
      
      It sounds far more complicated than it really is, but it can be a steep learning curve if you don't know what you are doing. I have a standard list of plugins and themes that I use and can have the bare-bones of a website setup in under 10 minutes.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Wordpress.com and Weebly are hosting platforms.  Both have a free version with restrictions, and a paid version, which is exactly like having your own hosting. 
         
         The paid versions of Weebly and Wordpress are more expensive than other hosts, but they look after more of the "back office" for you.   
         
         I don't recommend Weebly because they're too expensive (you have to pay top dollar to get on the fast servers) and if you build a site there, it's not transferable.  I do think Wordpress.com is a viable alternative for people who hate the technical stuff - their service is excellent, servers are fast and the site is easily transferable to a self-hosted Wordpress.org site in the future.

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   Martin Heeremansposted 10 years ago

   What do you mean moving to a website? Are you going to move all your content from HP to a domain that you will purchase?
   
   In my opinion the best route to take, if your planning on purchasing a domain name for your content. would be to go to blogger.
   
   Blogger is owned by Google. If you know HTML you can custom build templates and make it appear as a website.
   
   You can also purchase the domain name.
   
   Blogger is the easiest platform to associate to webmaster tools - It does it automatically if the account you use has a webmaster tools profile associated with it.
   
   However, initially, blogger will rely on your SEO work. Namely SMM.

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   psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

   I would suggest trying both strategies in parallel rather than just one or the other.

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4. 89

   Tolovajposted 10 years ago

   Your own site is the way to go in long term. But your own site without authority will never be found. So use the authority you already have here in your established hubs to send some traffic to you. If you just move the content, you will loose the authority with transferring any.
   
   My tip would be: choose a niche, choose it wisely, make your own site, fill it with content, open a blog, fill it with related content, make some hubs with related content and interlink. Promote on social platforms. Earn money.
   
   Hope this helps:)

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   Paul Maplesdenposted 10 years ago

   I do both (write here and for my own site) and find it best to diversify content.
   
   I searched extensively for the right platform to build my own website and found that Weebly worked really well. It's inexpensive for their 'Pro' account and is better suited to a knowledge base / how to and learning articles, whereas a blog would be better for chronological articles.
   
   I've also setup a couple of Wordpress sites, but found them a bit fiddly with all of the addons etc. that I wanted.
   
   The website I created with Weebly is at: <link snipped> if you want to see the sort of thing it can do.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Have you checked your site speed using a tool like Pingdom.com?
      
      I set up a site for someone on Weebly because it had a reputation for being easy to use.  However I've been disappointed in their reliability, and their sites load quite slowly.  Given that Google sets so much store by site speed these days, that's a problem.
      
      The other big problem is that if you ever decide to move hosts, you can't - there is no way to download your content or transfer it to another host. Your only option is to rebuild the site from scratch.
      
      If you're going to pay for a service, Wordpress.com is the way to go.  Blazing fast servers, powerful Wordpress software, $99 a year.  Content is easily transferable to any host offering Wordpress.org software.  You can't monetize the free version but you can monetize the paid version.

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   Room of My Ownposted 10 years ago

   As some of the others have suggested, I think having both a HubPages account and your own site would be a good idea.

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7. 69

   ChicagoPhotosposted 10 years ago

   You should have you content on as many places as you can. As a habit people tend to not check each and every one of your sites, so placing the same content on a few never hurts. no one has ever emailed me to complain they read the same thing on separate pages Plus, if one is bought out, or merges, it is better to have your work in many baskets. 
   
   As for any thought about Blogs and in my case Blogger. Don't let people talk you out of trying either one.  I used blogger for the past 12 years and I have picked up all of my fortune 50 clients by my blogger page.  ALL of them.
   
   So don't think the worlds largest  software company , soda and Aircraft manufacturers don't type in the same search words as everyone else does.    It may not work for all, but for me.  Blogger has paid for itself in spades, even though it was free.

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      Paul Maplesdenposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The issue with having the same content posted on separate pages is that Google has to decide which one to show (the so called 'duplicate content' penalty, although it isn't actually a penalty).
      
      Additionally, HubPages (and most other writing sites) specifically forbids posting duplicate content in hubs that is also posted elsewhere.
      
      My advice would be to post relevant, original content on the channel that it is most appropriate to (whether that's HP or your own site).
      
      As regards which platform you choose, it really depends what your intent is; Blogger, Wordpress etc are great if you want to create a *blog* - i.e. a chronological series of posts that you update on a regular basis (say 3-4 times a week.) Personally, I have used both and prefer Blogger.
      
      If you are looking more at a series of evergreen articles, how to guides, useful resources etc, you'd be better off going with a website builder, of which there are many. As I mentioned before, Weebly is my favorite, but there's also Wix, Squarespace and a few others.

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   Silva Hayesposted 10 years ago

   I have a blog on Blogger, and I have HubPages articles.  I concur with others; it's a good idea to run them both.  I make about ten times more money on HubPages than I do on my blog; however, it's nice to have money coming from both. 
   
   Some of my content is similar but I take care not to duplicate.  If I were you, I wouldn't move my HubPages content, but instead, I would create new content for my blog or website.

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   Misfit Chickposted 10 years ago

   Totally agreed - I run both a blog and send links back and forth between them. It's pretty effective. Good luck!

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    Kia Dietteposted 10 years ago

    Hello Friend~ It's going to be a lot of work and time consumption.  I would really do my research before jumping into a website of your own before giving up on HubPages which is awesome.  There are so many programs and things out there you can do online. I think HubPages is a great place to start. I almost wish I had started here first rather than just jumping right in trying to put together an entire site alone. Crazy!!  It might give you the jumpstart you need before you move into more complicated things like a website. It's like a baby, you have to really nurture it have time for it, write to it, you have to feed it ads, and love what you are adding to it and be ready to answer and help others who are constantly coming to your site wanting your opinion. 
    
    If you've got a great product, a brand or you have affiliates or wonderful vendors then hey, you're half way there. But If you haven't read up on coding or themes or HTML, CSS, Scripts, what ever styles you are going to be using or designs, your niche, selling, marketing, publishing, colors or typography or fonts or security, SEO, keywords, optimization, MONEY, caching plugins widgets are you adding a shopping cart paypal or payza?! whatever you are going to decide to use.
    
    There are a lot of big decisions that go along with it- Starting a website is no walk in the park with George!  Get ready for big expenses, hosting challenges, your site will go down periodically, there will be admin problems where you can't get into your dashboard to edit your site, password problems, knowing what is c-panel, knowing where your files are located, FTP, links back links front and back end editing, figuring out mySQL, truly make sure you have good tech support if your not tech savvy, and are getting prepared for several content challenges and media and text challenges or anything you can think of with regards to owning a website outright will happen.  It will make you want to pull your hair out at times and then other days you will feel so rewarded like hey I created something fun! finally!!!  All I can say is research read and have fun with it.  Allot yourself ample time to be creative and time daily to work on your new creations.  2 to 3 hours max. Spend this time cultivating what you have then you can move to greener territory once you feel like- hey I've got this!!!?!??!! Get the Blueprint ready. Best Kia~

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11. 0

    Ben Blackwellposted 10 years ago

    Thank you guys for your suggestions and feedback.  After hearing all of this, I have decided to stay on Hubpages.  This is a bit too much for me to tackle by myself right now.  Perhaps in the future.  I'm glad that all of you were able to leave some advice.  Thank you all.

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    JRScarbroughposted 10 years ago

    Any one of the afore mentioned content management systems (wordpress namely) can be hosted on your own site under your own domain name. You can write about as many different subjects as you like by creating subdomains (like mine here, jrscarbrough.hubpages.com). Everyone here is categorized independently of one another.
    
    You can monetize wordpress if it is on your own host. I tried wordpress.com a while and that is where it gets hard to monetize.
    
    Ben, the only problem with your own website is not having traffic. Hubpages comes with built in traffic and in truth, is the only reason a lot are even getting the traffic that they get. Going off into the far reaches of space to start a new domain is a tough chore. It gets expensive to try to get your rank up in search engines and to get back links to snag what traffic you can snag. I have ran 4 different websites and I am here to tell you, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.
    
    Your best bet is to use Hubpages to begin building an outside domain that you control. It would also help to use other sites like Blogger and anything that already has daily visitors. Then simply refer to your personal site and link out to it. Once a traffic glow begins there, you will start rising in Google and other search engines.
    
    Starting a website is fun and I look at it like a hobby. Watching it grow becomes a sense of pride for the webmaster. It also is eventually better money. But again, it is work.

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    NewHorizonsposted 10 years ago

    I totally agree.  It really is not at all easy to start your own website, unless you are an expert in something that people want.  Hubpages is a great start.

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    101Ways2Lifeposted 10 years ago

    Investing in your own website is a great idea. It's like owning a house vs renting. Yes, HubPages has its advantanges, and you should use HP as a learning platform, and apply those learnings to your own website. Tomorrow if HP closes down, all your content would be gone. Not so with your own website, own hosting.
    Having a website is like owning real estate, it needs time to mature. So sooner you start the better. I have owned websites since 2005, and I have been on HubPages since 2011. You decide.

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