In this corner, the current champion, WordPress. And in this corner...
January 31, 2015 1:26 PM   Subscribe

I'm about to rebrand my blog (and give it some activity). It's on WordPress.com, which seems the blogging platform most recommended to previous askers, and it's the one I chose when starting said blog,but since I'm a very special snowflake, I'd like to have that perception challenged and see if there's something else out there that's better for me.

A few months ago I started this blog to write about my experiences traveling, my feelings about my transition, some occasional poetry, and anything else that pops my mind, as well as sharing a selection of the photos I take (and linking to a Zazzle or something store where people can buy prints of my photos as a means - one of many I have, adaptability is the key - of supporting these travels).

Well, a few things got in the way, so I have only posted three or four times, still haven't created the store, and I haven't advertised the blog anywhere, so I have only one reader who is also the writer.
Now I feel I have the time, the drive, and the free internet to get back into it, but I'm not that thrilled with the name I gave it at first (it's not THAT original, so the simplest subdomain on WP was taken, as well as the .com domain if I ever can get my own domain), I just came up with a better, more original (zero google hits, YAY!) easier to remember name that pokes some fun at one of the expressions sometimes used to refer to MtF transsexual people (it's ok when we do it) and I'm also wondering if there's a better way to implement trilinguality (that's a word, I just googled it! Or bilinguality is, so...).

From your experience, what would be the best blogging platform or blogging software / host combination with my little shopping list of requirements?

- Free. I have no way of converting the little money I make (a situation I'm happy with) into electronic form that I could use to pay for hosting or service (If it needs clarifying, I AM able to withdraw any money I eventually make). I don't care if it's ads supported.
- Appropriate for both text heavy/text only and photo heavy/photo only posts.
- It should allow embedding slideshows. If they can be embedded in the background as in some paid WP themes I've seen, that would be glory.
- Scalable. Once my readership grows I don't want the blog to be sluggish, nor pressure me into upgrading to some premium package (specially because of the fact that a big readership is no guarantee for making a single dollar), or worse, block me and keep the domain name as I've read some free web hosts do.
- Making money is not the main goal of having this blog, but of course it's something I would like to do, so the TOS should allow for some casual (not in your face) monetization. Like WP.com does, where you can occasionally post affiliate links as long as it's not every three words and the posts aren't just an excuse for those links, or where you can't have a web store on the blog but you can link to it. I haven't looked enough into how Patreon works yet, but I may want to do that as well, so it shouldn't have anything against it.
- Eventually, if I'm making some money out of it I may want to switch to using my own domain and paid hosting, so it should be easy to export content.
- If it's one of those free hosts that give you a free domain, I want to retain ownership of the domain. Just a subdomain is a better option than being tied forever to a host.
- Do I even have to mention sharing buttons for several social networks? I think even my medical history has that.
- I mentioned my blog is threelingual, with versions in English, Spanish and Portuguese, translated by me. The way I have that implemented right now, since it's not a native feature on WordPress.com, it's that I really have three blogs, with appropriately different subdomains (as in metafilter.com for English and metafiltro.com for Spanish), and on each of them I have two pages named after the other two languages. The trick is that the page title is not plain text, but html code for a link to the other blogs. I like it because it's not just three pages in different languages, people can see the whole blog in their language of choice, but having to do any change to the settings or appearance three times is a pain in the neck, and is just not the most elegant. So if there is some platform where I can do that without that huge workaround, it would be amazing.
- I'm not your grandma, but I'm not very tech savvy either. I know what ftp is but I don't know how to use it (although I can follow instructions and know how to google), and most of the time, at least for a while, I'll be using a crappy tablet to use the internet. Which means I'm looking for either a blogging platform or a host that offers easy installation of blogging software, not somewhere to upload my own customized code (nor off the shelf for that matter).
- And last, of choose, ability to customize the appearance, not necessarily down to the last pixel, but if it offers enough variety to pick something I feel fits the mood, that's great. If I can move stuff around like on blogspot, even better.

Thanks for any help and ideas!
posted by Promethea to Computers & Internet (11 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
You are asking for an awful lot for free. I don't think you're going to find it. You may need to adjust your expectations. I'm pretty sure nobody is going to give you a free domain that you retain control of.

If you're prepared to pay for web hosting and a domain name, you've got plenty of options. You can do all this using the wordpress software + themes and plugins, although doing it hosted at wordpress.com would require you to pay for a pretty expensive hosting plan, IIRC.
posted by adamrice at 3:43 PM on January 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


To meet all - or even most - of your requirements, you won't get it for free.

I'd recommend self-hosted Wordpress to meet your desires, Namecheap for domain registration, and HostGator for very inexpensive - yet ultra-reliable, high-quality hosting for the price.

I (and others here, I'm sure) could recommendation / share research and experiences re: themes and plugins and working with social media and such - because much of what you seek, that is how you get it - but it wouldn't make much sense to give specifics like that at this point in your decision-making.
posted by stormyteal at 4:09 PM on January 31, 2015


Look at less expensive web hosts. I use Bluehost with Wordpress and have no complaints. You'll have to pay for a domain name, which doesn't cost much. There's always a catch with free hosting. As an example, Wordpress.com runs ads on your site which you can't see. That's the main reason I transferred my blog to a commercial hosting service.
posted by Agave at 4:13 PM on January 31, 2015


and most of the time, at least for a while, I'll be using a crappy tablet to use the internet.

1. Register the name you like just to own it.
2. Change your wordpress blog name to the new name.
3. Keep using wordpress.com blog until you get a better computer and internet connection. THEN you can think about developing your site. You can always export everything you have added to another platform later. Lots of bloggers with lots of readers use wordpress.com. A slicker platform doesn't make you a better blogger, just like a shiny expensive car doesn't make you a better road user.
posted by Kerasia at 4:20 PM on January 31, 2015


And if you have time on your hands now, use it to draft and research blog posts for publishing now or later. Content is king, and all that.
posted by Kerasia at 4:22 PM on January 31, 2015


Response by poster: Let me make this clear again.

I can not pay for hosting, domain nor software. Unless you know of any hosts that take cash, hehe. I'm quite off the grid now, with only a pre charged card that only lets me do deposits through ATMs in Uruguay, but that's not where I am (although it takes money from Paypal and other sites and I can do withdrawals anywhere). That's why I'm looking at free options only, while keeping an eye open for paid options in the future.

Also, I'm not looking for all of that. Getting everything in that list would be ideal. I may have made a mistake in calling them requirements, but I tried to say, on each item, if a certain thing is a must or a nice plus if its there, and also several options for some (as in the item about slideshows, having them at least on posts is a must, but if I can get them as background it'd be even better.

And I said I prefer mysubdomain.theirdomain.com to mydomain.com if I won't be able to take that domain with me. But I still have to ask, maybe that is out there. Like, who in their sane mind its going to give you a free email address with more than 100Mb? Hotmail just upgraded from 2Mb to 50!
posted by Promethea at 4:37 PM on January 31, 2015


Unless you know of any hosts that take cash, hehe.

If that extends to "money order," that shouldn't actually be hard to find. Cash might be harder, but I've done it in the distant past with a hosting company in my city.
posted by Shmuel510 at 9:42 PM on January 31, 2015


You could try Medium. It's more geared towards full length entries but there's nothing stopping you from posting whatever you want. As far as I know it's free, you don't have to buy a hostname or deal with web servers, just make some content.
posted by sophist at 11:41 PM on January 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Another option is using Jekyl to manage blog content and github for free hosting as described here.

Except for the domain name ( which should not be more than $15 / year or so ), this should be entirely free and I think it would meet most of your needs.
posted by metadave at 5:44 AM on February 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Of course you don't have to use a custom domain name so that $15/year is optional.

Here's an example of a blog that was created using Jekyl and github pages

The first blog entry on that site is a tutoral that explains in detail the steps involved in creating the site.
posted by metadave at 6:01 AM on February 2, 2015


Response by poster: Wow, metadave, this is why I love this site. Last year I asked for recommendations for a camera and I was told of one that want exactly what I had in mind, but ended up being much better.
Now, I wasn't thinking of learning to code my own blog, but learning to build websites (or any programming language) was one of those things I kept postponing. I've been reading about Jekyll for a few hours, and I'm very much interested! It will take me a bit longer, but I may switch to it!

Thank you all!
posted by Promethea at 11:24 AM on February 3, 2015


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