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Comment by hnauz | Hacker News Reader

>If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later.

Terrible advice. If your blog proves popular, it'll be impossible for you to move away without losing your position in search engines. Lock-in.

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I think that's reasonable advice, it's one of the easiest platforms to get started on and to migrate off. Also Wordpress.com allows you to add a domain, meaning that if you change your blog platform, you have the same urls, and the same search engine links... Not locked in at all...

Their pricing is insane, if you want a custom theme or to install a plugin (which is something you will need) you're looking at 25€ per month and you have to pay year by year (300€ upfront).

Starting with a cheap shared hosting is a no-brainer.

They have a truckload of great themes that are free and usable on the free plan.

It's true that plugins are not available except on the business plan, however the most common plugins are already embedded out of the box, you don't have to set them up. It's a great experience as far as not having to manage wordpress. An apprentice blogger absolutely does NOT need any additional plugin.

The pricing is both insane and cheap. I looked into upgrading and alternatives after my blog had above 100k visitors and almost 1 TB of traffic in a month. Believe it or not, there was nothing else cheaper.

The point is not to focus on a theme. Just get a wordpress and focus on the content. Then write.

The point is to write.

If you are successful enough to need a custom domain, you can certainly afford it.

Not true. You just have to pay wordpress to get a custom domain. That will conserve all the links.

You are not going to get popular overnight.

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