Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trial
Cristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsNeed help deciding between making a blog or a website.
For the past month I have had the idea of making my own blog or website. I have been thinking of making such blog/website about video-games, or anything related to them. I have a quite good amount of knowledge about them, but I am not sure when it comes to decide between a blog,website, or even the hosting service. Tips?Ideas?Suggestions?Brief explanation? Anything that would help would be appreciated, thanks.
2 Answers
Hayden Taylor
5,076 PointsYou could do both. Wordpress allows a blog and having a website. It really depends on your content. If you want to rant and rave about games and aspects of them its most likely a blog you want but if you wanna offer content that is typically longer than a blog post like lets say an entire walk through of a game then you should consider building a website.
My guess is you wanna do both. So again Wordpress offers both, offers a nice backend to manage. If you spend enough time on Tree House then you will learn how to code it up yourself and deploy it. If you aren't willing to do that you can pay for a template to be made and at the point Id recommend Managed Hosting. For quality work it will cost you.
Wordpress.com not .org might be worth a look.
Zen Hess
6,700 PointsCristian,
It is important to recognize that, nowadays, blogs are websites. Many people use a blog style website in order to manage their website.
If you want to create a website about video games and regularly update content, post videos, reviews, insights, etc... a blog is the way to go.
Hosting is a matter of preference. Three major hosting websites are DreamHost, BlueHost and GoDaddy. You don't need anything more than the most basic package at this point, because your website won't be high traffic enough to have its speed or performance bogged down (not yet at least! (: ).
I would say your best bet is to go with WordPress. It is quite intuitive to use (plus, TreeHouse has a Deep Dive on how to set up and use a WordPress).
Some hosts (DreamHost, GoDaddy) manage the WordPress installation for you. You could even buy your domain and host your site through WordPress.org.
Further, using a blog style setup as opposed to a static website (unless you're a code wizard) allows for tons of user interaction. They can easily comment, share and engage the content. This is beneficial for developing a loyal following and for generating free advertisement (if someone shares an article on Facebook, they are effectively promoting your site to all their friends).
Hopefully this was helpful in some regard.
Best of luck!
Cristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsYea, I thought that a blog would be a better idea. I heard that bloggers manage to get more traffic and all that because the content is fresh and bla bla bla. I found out today that Kotaku fans get 80% off with DreamHost which seemed like a good place to get started (around $19 instead of $109). Any other comments/suggestion? :) Thanks.
Cristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsCristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsThanks for the information, and by the way, If I know about HTML and CSS I should go for .org right?And do you have suggestions about the hosting service?
Hayden Taylor
5,076 PointsHayden Taylor
5,076 PointsYou need to learn a lot more than just HTML CSS. You need entire front end so HTML CSS CSS3 javascript --> jquery SEO and some PHP and mySQL knowledge.
Like I said Tree House offers all those things. Wordpress.org has the documentation for Wordpress and is very useful when developing for Wordpress.
Now for non managed hosting? I don't know where you live so I can only speak vaguely. Obviously you want something at a good price, it needs to have mysql and php. Do some research and find one that is reliable with good support quick load times and a good backend that has Cpanel or Pleask.
If you live in America.... I currently use hostgator. I don't wanna support either or but I have had no problems with them.
Cristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsCristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsWell I was looking at DreamHost, what do you think about them?
Hayden Taylor
5,076 PointsHayden Taylor
5,076 PointsYea they look good. I haven't used them before though. Make sure you look for online coupons. You can almost always get at least 30% off.
Cristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsCristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsI found one for Kotaku Fans, 80% off..hahaha. Any other suggestion :)?
Hayden Taylor
5,076 PointsHayden Taylor
5,076 PointsDon't go rushing buying a server. Build the website/blog first. Id even recommend waiting to register the domain name unless you think someone will take it.
Maybe well all this is taking place you could start doing some stuff on www.tumblr.com. Get a fan base going so that you have an idea of what kind of rich content to fill your blog. And when it comes time migrate it to your own platform. Just some food for thought.
Cristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsCristian Villalobos
5,099 PointsThanks for all the advice! Now I have a great idea of how to start off! :)
Zen Hess
6,700 PointsZen Hess
6,700 PointsI echo this. Get a solid following before you put money into it. Figure out if you really love video games, or if you are itching to write in another niche. You don't want to throw money into an idea that may end up changing to a point where it looks little, if at all, like your original concept.