Benefits of owning own site?

[evkl]

I've long debated picking up my own site for imagehosting, a blog, and a repository for my writings. But then I see the pricetag tacked on every year, and it's always a pretty penny to own one's own site and domain name.

Where does the benefit fall? Is it worth it? And are there costs outside of the obvious?

~Evan

 

[Zhen Lin]

When you own a site, then you become a lot more involved in the technical maintenance of it all. That shouldn't be a major problem.

When you own your own domain name - you can keep your own email address the same for a very, very long time - you can keep it after your first, second, or tenth host goes bust, and keep on pointing it to a new host. (You have to keep your own archives, of course.)

It's possible with the website itself, but it's more effort, since you have to put in on the server.

There aren't many hidden costs - the one that everyone worries about is paying for extra transfer quota/disk space.

 

[Koroku]

A sense of belonging is what I find is the biggest benefit. ^^


And when you see hits raise and raise, it can also be a big self-esteem booster. ^^;

 

[DarkCircuit]

It's also fun to know that people from around the world can enjoy the stuff you put out there =D That's one of the bigger thrills for me.

Free hosting is always an option too...even as just a "trial" to see if you like owning a site. www.mihopa.com is one I'd suggest.

 

[smog]

If you don't expect too many hits, you can always host it yourself. Apache is free

 

[FalconriderX]

Major benifit: You are the leader.

That would have to be the biggest one.