There are fewer more tantalizing words in the English language than “free”. Unfortunately, too many brand new bloggers and Affiliate Marketers can’t resist the urge and use free hosting providers to publish their WordPress blogs, and may be doing themselves a big disservice by thinking that free is somehow better. If you’re not all that serious about making money online, this is probably an article you can skip. However, for those looking to actually make some money online, getting cheap on your web hosting service is not a great start.
If there is one thing I can’t reiterate enough, it’s that in terms of your WordPress blog, investing financially in your investment of effort is the only way you’re going to get the results you’re looking for. The writing you do uses time, though, and effort, and you don’t want those efforts wasted by a faulty site that few people can see. With the barrier to entry and cost of entering affiliate marketing being so low, there’s absolutely no reason to sign up for cheap or free hosting.
The Benefits Of Investing In Your WordPress Blog Hosting
While free is free, and free is tempting, you want to make an investment into your WordPress hosting if you want your blog to be seen and have maximum SEO benefits. The benefits of investing in your blog hosting are numerous, and vary from making your blog more visible, to faster page loading times, to a more secure environment, and much more. For blogs that may one day be monetized such as affiliate marketers, these benefits provided are the only way you’re going to get the results you’re looking for.
The benefits of investing in your WordPress blog hosting include:
The Disadvantages Of Even The Best Free Hosting For WordPress
Now that we’ve covered the benefits of investing in a paid WordPress hosting provider, it’s important to balance out with the specific disadvantages of even the best free hosting for WordPress providers. The first point that is important to mention is that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and by lunch, I mean WordPress hosting. When a hosting service offers free WordPress hosting, there is an ulterior motive, and that is to advertise their service using your site in some way. It could be in your site’s domain name, it could be an advertisement on your page, but somewhere you will be representing their brand in order to garner sales for them. While this may not be too big of a deal if you’re simply hosting a blog to share with family and friends about your yearly vacation, it will be a burden to those looking to build a professional website, use their content in affiliate marketing, or wish to monetize their blogging. With a hosting service you’ve invested in, you get your own easy to search domain name.
Some of the other common disadvantages of even the best free hosting for WordPress providers are:
- Little to no user support – If your website should go down, which will be a more common occurrence in the overcrowded servers of the best free hosting for WordPress providers, you’re left with little to no help. For affiliate marketers or those looking to monetize their website or blog, this time being offline translates to time not creating conversions.
- Overcrowded servers – The best free hosting for WordPress, while they seem like they may be a good idea, really bog down your WordPress website in terms of overcrowded servers. With too many website being hosted from the same servers, you can expect slower connection times, more frequent breakdowns, and frustrating user interactions.
- Little security – In terms of security, you’re left on your own on even the best free hosting for WordPress providers. If your website or blog gets hacked, or bogged down by false requests, fixing the problem can be difficult and time consuming.
For several reasons, even the best free hosting for WordPress is a bad idea. Investing in the best investment for your WordPress website, however, is not. WPengine offers security, performance tracking, user support, your own domain, professional servers, and everything you’re looking for in a hosting provider to keep your website or blog up and running when you need it most. While free may seem like free at first, in the long run you’re putting forth way more effort for a less successful outcome.