5 Reasons why I moved to self-hosted WordPress Blog

April 19, 2011 Blogging Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

If you are reading this you found my new blog home. I’ve moved from WordPress.com to an external hosting service and thought I’d share the reasons why.

Javascript – There are widgets that I’d like to add to my blog that contain Javascript that WordPress.com does not allow. This reduces the capabilities of my blog to interface with other sites.
Search Engine Optimization – None of the SEO plugins for WordPress work with the WordPress.com web site. I’d like to optimize my blog for search engines to drive more traffic.
Domain name control – I can control the domain name and can move to another hosting service if that becomes necessary.
I get to work with the fantastic people at Davis Services Group who are now hosting my blog. I highly recommend using them if you are considering moving to a self-hosted blog.
Overall control – WordPress.com or blogger.com are great ways to start blogging, but with a self-hosted blog, you are only limited by technical feasibility and not by policy decisions.

Feel free to comment about other advantages that I’ve not thought of. I’d also appreciate feedback on the usability of this blog and any suggestions for improvement.

-Mark

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Don’t quit your day job

The point of this ramble is that God redeems all of life, even the aspects of life that seem to have no eternal value. To be faithful in a difficult or boring job is as much an act of grace as teaching a Bible study.

Pursue the reality beyond

For my generation, I would also offer the hope that it is never too late to return and see the reality that you’ve been ignoring. I must constantly remind myself that there is a reality beyond the thing that consumes me at the moment. I must, as the psalmist reminds me, “prepare my heart” to be conscious of the eternal. I must not let good things become ultimate things in my life.

Walking worthy

It is not wrong to encourage someone to “walk worthy of the Lord” as long as we understand that the “worthy” is determined by God and is gauged by the internal and not the external reality. This verse is not a club to be used to bash people into conformity to a list of do’s and don’ts. It is not to be wielded in this way to squelch behaviors that make us feel uncomfortable.

Learning as I go . . .

This is an apology to many of you who get posts from Attempts at Honesty by email. I made a mistake and I’m sorry for it. WordPress (the platform I use to manage the blog) uses plugins to add functionality. I had been using one plugin that provided many functions that I didn’t use so I […]

Thoughts on Prayer inspired by C. S. Lewis

The desperate posts in the great battle often are given to those whose faith is strong enough to weather seemingly unanswered prayer. So says C. S. Lewis in the essay on which this post is based.