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Paid or Free: The First Choice When Building Your Website

The first choice you need to make when building a website for your side hustle (or soon-to-be side hustle) is whether you want to use a completely free website, a free site hosted on a paid domain, or a hosted site on a paid domain.  There are pros and cons to each choice, and while you can change your mind in the future, the transition isn’t always easy, so you want to research your options first.  Changing your domain name (from free to paid or in reverse) will also break any links you have to pages already on the internet (think Pinterest, social media, etc.).  

  

FREE SITES

Selecting a free website option is a great place to start.  We’re going to focus on WordPress.com because I think it’s one of the more comprehensive, customizable (and totally free) options.  The web address for a totally free site will look like SallysDirectSales.wordpress.com.  

PROS

CONS

  

CUSTOM DOMAIN REDIRECTED TO FREE SITE

This is one of the options for using a custom domain.  In this option, you buy a domain for an annual fee ($3-25+) and then re-route it to your free site.  So, when someone types in SallysDirectSales.com, they’ll be redirected to SallysDirectSales.wordpress.com.  They’ll still see the wordpress.com web address when they land on your site.  

PROS

CONS

 

FREE SITE MAPPED TO A CUSTOM DOMAIN

An easy way to enhance your free site is to map the web address over to a domain you purchase.  Every page will now appear with your custom domain name, instead of the WordPress.com address. You’ll pay three fees for this:  One monthly fee ($4) for domain support which also removes the ads on your site, one annual fee ($13) to map your free WordPress.com site over to the domain you purchase, and a second annual fee ($3-25+) for the domain itself.  

PROS

CONS

  

HOSTED SITE ON A PAID DOMAIN

This is the most expensive, and most feature rich option – and the costs can really add up.  You’ll pay an annual fee for your domain ($3-25+), plus a monthly fee for hosting ($10-50+).  There are some free theme options, but most people going this route also buy a theme ($30-120+) and other paid plugins to build out their site.

PROS

CONS

Most bloggers or small business owners will choose one of the free options with a paid domain to start, then transition to a paid, hosted site if they find they’re generating a lot of traffic.  Using a mapped domain to start makes the transition easier and ensures the links you’ve created aren’t broken.

But, ultimately it’s up you and what’s best for your business.  So which will you choose?  

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