This little haven of the internet world has been mine now for about three and a half years. During this time I have learnt so, so much about blogging and the amount of work that’s involved. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that it can be a total shock when you first start blogging, when you realise just how much there is to do and learn if you really want to make your blog successful.
Thankfully, as I’ve mentioned before in my post ‘Big up the bloggers‘, the blogging community is fantastic and there is so much support available. Pretty much anyone will help you out in any way that they can if you ask. So if you are reading this as a newbie blogger, don’t be afraid to ask your blogger buddies for advice. We’ve all been there and will only be too happy to help where we can.
So after long deliberation, vast amounts of research and deliberating of whether I had it in me, I took the plunge and decided to go self hosted! I figured if I was going to do it, I just need to bite the bullet and just do it. There’s no point umming and ahhing. I wanted to do it and so I was brave.
I researched the hosts available to me. The cost and what support was available. I already had my domain name that I purchased through WordPress earlier on in the year, so you can see I have been taking baby steps. I wanted to make sure I was going to stick it out before putting hard earned pennies into it.
Eventually I decided on the company TSO Host. They were recommended to me by someone on Twitter. I looked up their website and was instantly impressed by them from an online chat I had with them. Before even making the final decision they had reassured me and I felt confident that purchasing the hosting package through them, I would be supported all the way through and if there were any problems, they would be there to sort them out.
So I went for it. I clicked the purchase button on £14.99 a year and went on to provide them with all of the vital information they needed to migrate my WordPress.com blog over to a pretty new self hosted blog all of my own.
I have to say. They. Were. Amazing.
I didn’t really have to do anything. Apart from send a couple of emails, I gave them my log in details and they took care of everything. When the time came to point my website in the right direction of their servers, they told me what to do and overnight it went live. Jakijellz.com – the self hosted version, was born.
The next few days were spent playing around with layouts and themes and colour schemes and logos and so on and so forth. Actually it’s taken me a few weeks to end up with the final product you see today. I spent a bit of time looking at other blogs and making a note of particular things I liked to then implement on my own.
I purchased my blog theme from Pipdig. I’d had my eye on it for a few weeks before I bought it. Again. I wanted to make sure it was the right one before I committed.
I made the right decision. I love it and all that I can do with it. I am particularly now fond of my Instagram bar at the top, my popular posts at the side and the Pinterest boards also at the side. Since having this option I have rediscovered my love of Pinterest. It’s a great way to add some different images to the site whilst also getting an insight into my mind. Given that I’m a quote loving Queen, you’ll regularly have an idea of my frame of mind by the type of quote that is displayed!
I’ve also discovered a love of taking photos again. Having the Instagram pictures as one of the first thing my readers see, it’s really important to me to make sure that they are of good quality. Colourful. Well shot and interesting. I don’t just post anything to Instagram anymore. I’ve got very fussy! In a good way of course.
I am also now very happy with my colour scheme. Believe it or not, I took the inspiration for that from a favourite phone case of mine. Turquoise and gold. I love the font of my header and there’s just enough colour to give it a classic look.
I love the fresh look of my blog and the fact that it’s easy to read and navigate around. It’s very easy on the eye which was something I was very keen to implement.
No doubt there will be tweaks and changes in the future. I think this is important to keep it interesting. After all, we all redecorate our homes, this is no different. And it’s also the beauty of being self hosted. There are so many options now available that I didn’t have before. I love the feeling of being in control of my content and its appearance.
So if you are like I was and are in two minds as to whether to take the plunge and go self hosted, I would honestly recommend it. It’s not nearly as daunting as you expect it to be and if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up wishing you did it ages ago.
If I can help in anyway, don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m by no means an expert. But I’m just like you and sometimes it’s nicer to talk to people who have learnt themselves. Feel free to drop me an email or tweet me. I’d be happy to help.
Thank you for reading.
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