Thoughts on self-hosting

I was away for most of this week. Among other things, what kept me busy, was the thought of self-hosting my blog. I was thinking, reading, and researching.

As of now, all that I own is the domain name ‘sajalchoudhary.com’. The blog is hosted upon wordpress.com, the commercial identity, not the free open-source software, it is built upon.

This past week was about that.

I am talking about it, here, now, because among other things, it was the major reason why I was away from the blog. Not being able to actually write anything.

I am struggling with the structuring of this post. And so, I think, I’ll begin with what made me think of self-hosting. Originally, when I was setting up this blog, a couple of years back, I had, like I am now, read up on self-hosting. It had seemed too much trouble back then. From hosting, to security, and backup, it was too much work. And I did not want that. I just wanted to write. And so, I set it up with wordpress.com, and bought the domain name later, to it at least a little professional.

This week, I wanted to add an email sign up form to the blog. I wanted to be able to write directly, and a little more personally to those who had shown interest in me, and the blog. When I decided to add it to the blog, I realized I could not really do that.

That was how it started. One thing led to the other, and I realized there was a bunch of stuff that I could not do. In addition to it, I did not really own my stuff. All of that led me to even more stuff, more blogs, more sites, and everybody suggesting the same thing.

Self-hosting is better.

This continued for four to five days. I researched hosts, I researched plans, and I managed to zero in on a few things. But then, somewhere down the line, the numbers hit me.

Not the money, no. It was about the people reading my content.

Till date, I have not crossed two thousand views on my blog. That figure, made me realize two things. One, I needed to write more. Two, I really, really needed to write more.

With that, we return to the present. I am not wondering anymore. I know what I am to do. It’s what I was supposed to be doing already, writing.

Writing, daily.

Basic mathematics dictates that. Also, passion, and want dictate that. I’ve also decided that the movement will happen, but only when it justifies the spend. That need not be in the way of money earned. No. That can be nothing for all I care, but in terms of reach.

What I want, from this blog is to be able to talk, and not just talk into an abyss. I want to say things, and listen things in response. I want dialogue.

Also, it feels nice when you see the likes at the bottom of the post!