Free Blogs!
We’re really pleased to annouce that we are launching (right now … this is the launch!) a ‘Free Blog Plan’ as part of our hosting services line-up!
The features are straightforward - the plan comes with Wordpress and K2 as default (K2 has a hosting365 logo and link to our site … but you are free to change the theme or customise the existing one as much as you like, and at no cost), 100mb of web space and the ability to use your own domain name.
So what’s the big deal? There’s already a number of companies offering free blogs - but to my knowledge we are the only one to offer totally free hosting, with no ads (our logo is there by default … but you can change this) AND at your own domain name. Using your own domain is probably the most important feature and key differentiator for the plan - as it’s a premium service for most other offerings.
You have to register your own domain name (plug: register365.com!) or change your DNS settings to our nameservers if you want to use an existing domain (all this information will come in a mail after you sign up)
Now … to pre-answer some of the questions. Why are we doing this? I’ve persuaded the CEO that providing this kind of service to the blogging community is a far better use of the marketing budget than print advertising etc. How can we do this? We’ve got this great data centre and infrastructure. Okay … if we suddenly get 10,000 signups we might have to hold new plans until we get more hardware to support it.
And I’ll pre-empt any questions about the signup process now - after you signup you will recieve an email with your account details (control panel access) and DNS settings. This using our existing hosting system and not a custom designed solution - so when you login to the control panel you need to install wordpress. It’s a one-click install that’s as simple as the normal Wordpress install so don’t panic!
The only real restrictions are that this is a blogging plan only. You can hack it to provide free web site hosting … but if you do that we’ll disable the account. Business Blogs and Personal Blogs are most welcomed!
So … without further ado … signup for a free blog ! 
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Sweeeeet! You guys truly rock! Was thinking about using one of the free blog services … but none of them let me use my own domain … sorted now!Â
:) Thanks!
Nice one, to provide hosting with a WordPress theme, but with domain hosting - one up on Wordpress.com! Two questions: 1) any bandwidth limitations; 2) what’s the rationale for restricting to the US and EU?
Thanks Des !
The plan includes 5GB per month of transfer and we want to restrict access for now until we guage the signup rates.
It was Karlin Lillington’s article in the Irish Times (’Bloggers find a host looking for business’, Business This Week, Friday April 14, p6) that led me to Hosting 365.
I work for what you might call a semi-statutory agency (ie, a non-profit government-created body with a modest budget but no distinct institutional presence). To give this organisation a modern, recognisable and public face, I want to register a domain name, set up a small number of email addresses, create and publish a website, and make our publications and other information available to the public. Hardly an original idea of course, but a little challenging for someone not familiar with establishing an effective ‘corporate’ identity on the web.
I’m wondering whether a blog, such as that now provided free by Hosting365, would be an appropriate method of publishing occasional updates for our members and the general public. We won’t be producing enough information or other material to justify calling our output a ‘web feed’ but it strikes me that a blog would be a better way of publishing updates than changing the content of pages on our website.
Does anyone have anyone have any words of advice to offer regarding (a) setting up a state-of-the-art not-for-profit website, and (b) using a blog for publishing information updates of a formal Public service nature?
By the way, Karlin Lillington’s own blog is at http://weblog.techno-culture.com/
Sounds like a fantastic idea Simon! Your visitors can use RSS to keep in touch with the site, and you can use any of the thousands of wordpress templates (or even design your own) to tie in with the look and feel you want!
[…] The company is hosting365. The site is for blogs only, either personal or business. As they state: The features are straightforward - the plan comes with Wordpress and K2 as default (K2 has a hosting365 logo and link to our site … but you are free to change the theme or customise the existing one as much as you like, and at no cost), 100mb of web space and the ability to use your own domain name. […]
[…] Innovation is hard .. much harder in a big company .. but it’s worth it, and as you can see (ref: FREE BLOG PLAN !!!!) we’re really trying. […]
[…] I’ve watched with interest over the past couple of weeks how a couple of Irish companies have started to get press coverage off the back of what was written on their blogs. For example, Karlin Lillington wrote a piece on Hosting 365’s free blogs offer in the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading broadsheet, because of what she read on their blog. John Collins also wrote a piece on .eu domain squatting in the Irish Times and quoted another Irish hosting company, Blacknight Solutions, in the piece. Was it just a pure coincidence that the company MD, Michele Neylon, who was quoted in the piece had posted about the subject a few days prior? […]
[…] I’ve watched with interest over the past couple of weeks how a couple of Irish companies have started to get press coverage off the back of what was written on their blogs. For example, Karlin Lillington wrote a piece on Hosting 365’s free blogs offer in the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading broadsheet, because of what she read on their blog. John Collins also wrote a piece on .eu domain squatting in the Irish Times and quoted another Irish hosting company, Blacknight Solutions, in the piece. Was it just a pure coincidence that the company MD, Michele Neylon, who was quoted in the piece had posted about the subject a few days prior? […]
I have bought the domain from you, now how do I BLOG?
Where are the instructions.
Sean Cawley…..
How do you upgrade from the free blog plan to one of the paying plans?
Hi Sean,
Simply sign up for the plan and in the control panel, click on Blog Tools. Click on Wordpress and simply click Install.
Stephen - you can click on the Plan Name in the control panel (there is a little edit icon) and change to any of our standard Unix hosting plans at any time.
When I do that it says “no compatible plans available”
Sorry Stephen, you are correct, I’ve fixed that now, choose any of the Unix 2006 Plans to move to our current hosting plan range.
Is it possible to upgrade to a Windows plan so I can run asp/dotNET?
Not directly, the blog functionality is currently only enabled on Linux, and the Blog Plan itself is a linux plan.
You can sign up for a Windows plan through the website , and we can move your website to the windows servers, but currently we cannot offer a seamless change.
Hey,
Great idea 365, I’ve recently started a weblog and am hosting it on my student account in college. The main problem I have is that I have to use frame based url-forwarding so your plan really appeals to me. However, I plan to base my blog on emerging & established web based technologies and to use the space to show working examples of some ajax stuff, css, php & mysql with a view to (eventually) incorporating these examples into an interactive development site (or something similar). Of course, I would expect to pay for hosting services when the site outgrew the limitations of the blog site.
I guess the question I’m asking is … Could I run php / ajax scripts and perhaps have a small mysql database? Or is that asking too much?
Either way, great innovation, keep it up!
Hi Enda,
The plan is limited to 1 MySQL dbase for the Wordpress install. If you REALLY want you can go in through phpmyadmin and add fields to it for the ajax scripts … but the only rule we had when setting up this free blog plan is that it’s not used for full web sites … has to be a blog.
I’m sure you can understand we have to be careful this plan doesn’t kill our revenue generating business … otherwise we wouldn’t be able to sustain it for long
On the good side … the free plan should provide 90% of your needs and if you need more, it’s only 3.75 a month (one beer!) for our ‘Personal Plan’ that would allow you do all you want.
Look forward to seeing the blog anyway!
[…] I have to praise Ed Byrne and Tomas Kozlowski for making this site a success. Ed convinced me to start blogging and got me hooked on RSS. Tomas and Ed set the site up for me, and Tomas recently did a redesign also. I also have to thank my boss Padraig McKeon for being supportive of the blog. Many thanks to Hosting 365 for their free hosting as part of their new blog plan. […]
Thanks for bringing this to our attention - we’ll include your site in our beginners tutorial and amend our article shortly.
Out of curiousity, is there a bandwith limitation for these free blogs?
Hi Mitchel, the bandwidth limitation is 10gb a month.
Your site is very cognitive. I think you will have good future.:)
[…] I’d better start this post with a disclaimer. I’m good friends with Ed Byrne, the Marketing Director in Hosting365, and I’m also on their free blog hosting plan. […]
Now this is more like it. I have just moved back to Ireland and found very little of this tpye of service here compared to elsewhere.
Great job.
Nice. I absolutely agree with you.
Keep up the nice work. I’ll be back for more!
Hey,
I love what you’e doing!
Don’t ever change and best of luck.
Raymon W.
I’m not quite understanding what all
this is supposed to be about?
Must be me or something…
Just a short note to say I like your blog.
Good job and keep up the great work!
Kenneth
Wow, there is some really nice info here.
I’ll definitely come back soon to see everything.
Way to go!
Joey