This is my fourth and final blog address. I started blogging last year when I wrote an article for Sun.Star Cybercafe on how you can build your own site using only free services and open source programs and script. Before I wrote the tutorial, I tested and installed Pivotlog, Nucleus CMS, Blog:CMs and Serendipity — that’s why the site is named the Cybercafe Experiments.

I hosted the site on a free 100MB PHP and MySQL account from 100Webspace. After the article was published, I decided to continue posting entries on the blog.

Later, I transferred the Cybercafe Experiments to one of the Sun.Star servers, using Serendipity as a blog engine. I tried to upgrade the site and botched the process because I forgot the password I used to connect to the database. I started a new Cybercafe Experiments blog, still hosted in the Sun.Star servers, and made sure I listed the settings and kept the paper in a safe place.

I later decided to transfer to Blogspot, however, because while Sun.Star did not edit or even review my blog entries, my posts will always be linked to the paper because not only am I one of its employees, the blog is hosted in its servers.

For months, I stayed with Blogspot.

Last week, however, I decided to buy my own domain name and web space. While Blogspot was good enough for me, I missed using a full-fledged content management system to manage my blog. I still think Serendipity is the better blog script but I decided on using WordPress because it is an easier system to use by regular bloggers and I wanted to maintain only one blog script for both my site and my wife’s blog.

In choosing a host, there wasn’t any question – it would have to be Ploghost.com. One of the sites I help maintain is hosted there and I’ve never encountered problems with their service. I requested a quote on Thursday evening and promptly got a billing notice. I paid for one year hosting and the limpag.com domain name on Friday at 1:45 p.m. in the Bank of the Philippine Islands and sent them the payment details by 3:00 p.m.

When I checked at 8:00 p.m., my domain and web space were already up. I suspect that the services were already available earlier but I wasn’t able to check it.

By midnight, the new home of Leon Kilat: The Cybercafe Experiments was already ready and an hour later, I finished installing my wife’s blog.

If you plan to host your own blog, make sure you check on the services of Ploghost.com first. Not only are their packages very affordable, their technical support is great.