I have left wordpress.com! If your wordpress.com is about to expire or you’re considering moving to self host, please hear me out.
Prior to my move, I found nothing on all the loose screws and dirt on migration. All the self host sites make it look super smooth and easy / anyone can do it etc… My experience differs significantly.
Website mentioned in the video:
- WordPress.com https://wordpress.com
- WordPress.org https://wordpress.org/
- Blue Host https://www.bluehost.com/
- OVH https://www.ovh.com/
Ben, the fabulous sweetheart who helped me with the move mentioned in the vlog. http://mekalab.fr/ Ben is a professional and his company offers various services e.g. migration, e-commence, customised website, graphic design etc
disclosure, Ben is a personal friend
Please be a sweetheart & my social media xox
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13 Comments
This vlog was interesting (I somehow got hooked into reading your old posts! 😊) I’ve often wondered about self-hosting – particularly if you have to know coding and what to do with problems and how do you back up, etc. I have the free version, as you can see by the wordpress ad in my blog’s url, but other than that I’ve been so happy with it that I think I’ll just stick! Apparently, getting rid of the word “wordpress” in my url (ie paying) would improve my SEO, but never mind, it’s just a hobby! 🙂
Thank you so much for the support!!! 😀 xox
It is good that you know what you want for your blog. The free version is totally fine. Look at your blog! So much growth and tons wordpress follows 😉
Don’t worry about SEO, it honestly brings hell to enjoying your own blog. SEO ruins life, I swear. My blog is my hobby / self-education project haha. I learn so much by running my blog.
I have a blog here on wordpress.com, wordpress.org and blogspot. Different blogs are hosted in different places. I know how to use blogspot so I tend to stay there but now as everything is changing I feel like taking my blogspot and switching to wordpress.org but I know it’s a nightmare trying to convert everything. However starting from on scratch on WordPress.org is SO confusing! Plug ins, themes, oh goodness! I think which is why I’ve been waiting for years to import my blogspot to wordpress is because I feel like I’ll get a month long migraine lol.
I use DreamHost and I’ve been with them since 2004 they don’t have a phone number but their email support is amazing! Any questions I have are answered in a very quick manner!
Wow! You’ve tried 3! You’re a brave soul.
I have made an recent attempt to start from scratch on WordPress.org. It wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. The migration was a lot harder LOL
Oh gosh! Are you saying I can skip a migraine if I just start over?! lol
I’m finally watching this! 🙂 Sorry about the challenges you faced with this process! Helpful to have this message as a cautionary tale for others. It’s not ALL bad, I know – you may likely reap the benefits further down the road.
I’ll never move off WordPress because I’m too lazy! I actually know some coding and even I won’t bother. This blog is a hobby and not worth the trouble / work. Like I said, most people read on their mobile – they don’t see any of the fonts or layouts. It’s about the content! 😀 I have a premium plan now and probably after this year I’ll downgrade to basic since I don’t even really take advantage of all the perks. I recently only learned that I have access to the premium layouts, I’m still using a free layout LMAO! I’m such a dork.
Please please, I implore you, do not add all those annoying plug-ins – they’re so distracting from a reader perspective. Especially the big ass image that swings down when you hove the mouse to close the tab to bug you to sign up for the blog via email. I wish I had a blocker to block that…
Anyway, I’m glad things have settled down, it looks like!
I hate those pop up subscribe box too!! No worries, I’ll never add them 😉
That premium plan thing, I didn’t know about the access to all theme until it expired. They didn’t do a good job of informing people. I paid for my zuki theme on top of my premium pack 🙁 sad.
The biggest change is probably google analytics and having google adsense. That thing is so confusing though. The wordpress stat is sufficient for me. I don’t know if adsense is annoying for my readers, but they are keep on showing stuff that I love. It is more bad for me haha
Joyce, I am so sorry to hear your experience was so stressful. Thank you for sharing your truthful thoughts and experience. When I started the blog I decided from the get-go that I will not deal with all this self-hosted stuff (unless my blog attracts hundreds of thousands of readers which is unreal at the moment), because I am not tech-savvy enough AND I don’t have time to figure it all out. I do consider moving to the premium package though (waiting for a discount), I think you have a little bit more flexibility in terms of themes and also ads, right? The biggest plug-in I want to install is Google Analytics 😀 I don’t care about the rest 😀
Hey, Nano. Thanks for watching / reading. You’ve made a wise choice.
Premium doesn’t change the theme options. It is only the business one where all premium themes are for free.
In terms of advert, premium users can add WP advert any time (even if they have zero traffic). Whereas, non-premium users can apply for adding WP advert if they’ve hit critical traffic *I have no idea what the traffic requirement is.
I enjoyed your video. I was thinking that someday I would pay a bit more money and get the premium package–but that hasn’t happened yet. Your video gave me a lot to think about. Thank you.
Thank you for that, Anthony! 😀 It is always pleasant to receive feedback. Well the main draw (Premium WP) for me was the storage 13GB, zero advert & support team. I pretty much don’t use anything else LOL At the moment with the self host, I’m paying EUR23.88 per year. It is a lot cheaper. There is no auto backup any more though e.g. wordpress.com has this thing where you can go back to very old versions of your previous saved versions. Also if anything goes crashing, there’s virtually zero help in sight. After the first year, I’ll have to pay EUR7.99 on top for the domain.
Hello Joyce, I’m glad that you find it smooth the moment you migrate to a self hosted one. I’m not really good when it comes to a technical side in blogging. Anyway, I wanted to migrate though, but what hinders me is the struggle that I’ll be facing if ever I do.
Oh by the way, since the moment you migrated to a self hosted one, I’m no longer updated with your new blog post. I have to really go to your site and check your new blog post in order for me to read your new post. When you were still connected with wordpress.com, I’m always notified whenever you published a new blog post. Anyway, this is mostly what happened when you migrate to another hosting which some of my blogger friends are experiencing this as well.
Cheers to more travels and blog post!
Aw, thanks for letting me know, Lai!
Yes 🙁 the whole losing traffic from WP reader thing is super sad. It is super weird. Some of my WP reader sub can see my updated posts and some cannot. While others told me that it only loads text (zero featured photo). sigh I guess I’m not tech equipped either.
Yes, cheers to more travel and blog post 😉 xox