This post was written for the students of the Columbia College Chicago class Blogging: Beyond the Basics in the Fall semester of 2014. It likely refers to specific software or settings that may quickly be out of date and may not apply to your situation, even in a future semester of the same class.

OK, so you’ve got a backup of your blog, so now where are you going to put it? The good and bad news is that there are a thousand choices.

Another WordPress Installation

If you are comfortable with WordPress as we’ve been using it in class, the simplest transition would be to get a hosting service where you can install WordPress and you can just transition directly over. Most hosting services provide easy ways to install WordPress (usually called a “1-click install”) or, for a little more, they’ll maintain your WordPress backend for you. Barbara and I have used Bluehost and Dreamhost as hosting services. Both have a variety of hosting levels, but you can usually get started for $75-100 a year.

WordPress.com

If you like WordPress, but really don’t want to maintain, your best bet is WordPress.com, a service provided by Automattic, the main developers of the free WordPress.org software. They have a free level, whose main limitation is that your domain will include wordpress.com (e.g awesomesite.wordpress.com) and that they might show ads on your site. Their paid level starts at $99 a year and includes a custom domain name.

Other Blogging Software, Self-Hosted

If you’re hosting your own site with a general purpose host like Bluehost or Dreamhost, then you could also install a variety of other blogging platforms like Drupal or Joomla. If you ask yourself “why would I want to do that?”, then you don’t.

Other Blogging Platforms, Hosted

There are also a ton of options out there of blogging platforms that, like WordPress.com, take care of all the backend work for you. Blogger is one of the oldest such platforms and has a lot of flexibility. Tumblr is designed to be incredibly simple to use. SquareSpace is not free, but a good reputation for being a good balance between powerful and easy to use (they also sponsor a lot of podcasts, so it’s easy to find coupon codes for a discount).