Why and How I Went Self Hosted with Lyrical Host*

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own as I share my experience of going self hosted. For more details please see my disclaimer/privacy policy.

Growing up, I always had a written outlet, started many blogs as a teen and if it wasn’t that then you would definitely have found me on websites like Fan Fiction – ah, remember those days? 

Background

I seriously started to consider going back to the blogging world in 2016. After my son died, I thought about starting a blog and sharing my experience but never got round to it. Why? I just couldn’t get myself too. 

However, after having my daughter, I started to feel very alone. You know, being the only one out of your friends to have a baby, not really having the confidence to put myself out there and finding mummy friends. I eventually found some parenting blogs and vlogs whilst searching for breastfeeding tips as I wasn’t getting much help from the professionals.

Eventually, I thought to myself – this is something that I could do too. I have so much to say so why not? Then on January 1st 2018 – I published my first blog post on here and went by the name of The Mum Affairs, remember?

I had a fix schedule of posting twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. This worked for several months until I started working full time and slowly I started to feel my blog slip away. I was definitely not organised enough, not being able to stick to my schedule would get me unnecessarily down. Putting so much pressure on myself ended up with me taking a very long unplanned break.

I would post here and there but then wouldn’t end up promoting it! 

SO, WHAT CHANGED?

I missed it, of course!

I missed having a space where I can just pour my heart out, share updates and talk about whatever I wanted. I know that I could just do that on Instagram and Twitter, however, I don’t own those platforms. I wanted something that’s mine – can you imagine if the big social media giants just disappeared one day? We did get a taste of that when Instagram was down last month.

Nevertheless, I finally made the decision that my blog needed a rebranding and that I wanted to migrate over to WordPress. I was feeling quite restricted using blogger and didn’t feel it was user friendly either. Firstly, I changed my Instagram and Twitter handles to A Little Cup of Us, I was surprised that how indecisive old me quickly came up with the name. 

Secondly, I started looking at host plans. I knew I wanted my own domain but I wasn’t sure where to begin. Buying your domain, migrating your entire website, your hard work and going self hosted isn’t an easy decision. 

It is literally an investment.

LYRICAL HOST

After a lot of research and I really mean quite  a lot, I finally decided to go with Lyrical Host*. Although Lyrical Host is a smaller hosting company compared to others on the market, it is run by and was set up by bloggers. This is what attracted me towards them because I felt that there would be a better understanding of my needs and I was not wrong.

Of course, the company being U.K. based which was one of my requirements was a bonus too!

I am the least technical person out there and had so many questions regarding everything but the team at Lyrical Host* put me at ease. 

What I really loved about their customer support service is that you are able to see when they are available which is nearly 24 hours a day. I don’t think I actually had to wait much long for a response at all and trust me I’ve lost count how many times I messaged the team with a ton of questions!

There are three plans to choose from, The Tiny, The Mighty and The Boss. I went with The Tiny which is what majority of bloggers go for and I found more suitable for us.

It includes:


Host one WordPress site
SSD Web Space 50GB
Monthly Bandwidth 80GB
Email Accounts You@yourdomain email addresses: Six (10GB each)
Subdomains: Unlimited
SSL Certificate: One
Free Website + Email Migration 
Pre-optimized For Speed
Free Theme Installation
Free Malware Scans + Cleaning
Automatic Daily Backups 
Speed + Security Features
Easy Staging Environment
Free Website Speed Analysis
WordPress Preinstalled
WordPress Multisite Compatible 
Full WordPress + Blog Support
Huge Blogging Resource Library
Exclusive Stock Photos/Month: 15
Simple Control Panel
Designed To Go Viral
Active Facebook Community
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
Same Price On Renewal
Anniversary Tree Planting

HOW IT WORKS

Choose your migration date and time – you are only required to be available for the first five or ten minutes once the migration begins. The rest the team at Lyrical Host will do.

Purchase your plan – choose your plan, there are monthly, 6 months, 1 and 2 year plans available, whatever suits your needs. I went for the yearly plan. If you don’t have a domain, you can purchase one at the same time. I first bought the .co.uk and then .com and they are redirected to each other. 

If you already have one, there’s an option for that and the team will sort out the technical stuff for transferring it over.

Raise a support ticket – once you have completed your purchase, all you need to do is raise a support ticket, using the template provided and then just sit back and relax!

WHAT ELSE DID I LIKE?

There are plenty of free WordPress themes to choose from, just let the team at Lyrical Host know and they will install it for you. I initially went for a free theme until I found this one on Etsy.

The Resource Library! Honestly the best thing ever and designed for bloggers, I also love the monthly emails from the team with free stock photos I can use for my blog!

Lastly, as mentioned above, the excellent customer service. For me, this is the most important element. If I have any queries especially a technical one that I don’t understand the Lyrical Host team are always happy to help!

If you are looking to go self hosted, I would highly recommend considering Lyrical Host*, you can use my code SOFFY10 to get 10% OFF! 

Are you thinking about self hosting?