Setting up an almost-free web presence
My site has a customised Wordpress install, a custom domain, email addresses at that domain and now a subdomain for my life steam. And other than the domain name itself, I don't pay for anything. It's taken me a while to work out how to get this all up and running. This post will briefly cover the services I use and the downside of going with an “almost free“ web presence.
For the core website, there's a lot of free blog hosting options like Wordpress.com, Blogger and Posterous. I didn't go down that route in part for historical reasons and in part for the flexibility of being able to customise Wordpress. Instead, I went with the free web hosting service Freehostia, which provides basic php and mysql support. Freehostia also gives you control of the DNS config, allowing you to buy a domain elsewhere and associate it with the site. There are other comparable free services if you hunt around.
