Have you ever moved a wordpress.com blog to a self-hosted (wordpress.org)?
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Hey all :) [Prepare yourself, this might be too long a read]
I was just wondering if any of you have ever moved a wordpress.com blog to a self hosted.org one? I’m interested in what your experiences were with the process if you have.
I’ve been mulling over the thought of moving my .com hosted blog to .org self hosted because:
1. I need more control over themes – my blog is really cluttered looking
2, I was told that wordpress could delete my blog without warning if I broke a T.O.S. – I’d like to have a warning first before anything like that would happen.
3. I keep getting emails asking about purchasing advertising space, some even just to link to an affiliate store to share discounts with my readers (no advertising revenue) but neither is allowed in wordpress.com.I’ve checked out all the how to’s, hunted around for hosts, but still quite scared I’ll delete my blog or lose all the google links if I move to a self hosted version.
I also have some additional concerns:
a. I have pictures saved onto my wordpress account (with that 3GB user memory)- when I move to .org, what happens to all my photos/data?
b. Will I retain my categories/tags?
c. How time consuming will this be? My blog is only one hobby of mine and I kinda need to spend some time on my dissertation over the next few weeks.I guess I could just try and answer this myself by creating a new wordpress.com and moving it to .org and seeing what happens. But that seems a little bit too much work.
Cheers,
J
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Been there, done that. Easy.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#moving-to-wordpress-orga) Pictures are moved, but the links pointing to the pictures are not updated, so the pictures will still work but point to the old location. You need to update the links manually.
b) Yes.
c) Depends on the size of your blog, but you should be able to get most of it done in a weekend.
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Question: “was just wondering if any of you have ever moved a wordpress.com blog to a self hosted.org one? I’m interested in what your experiences were with the process if you have.”
Answer: Yes I have. I have posts on my blog about why and how to do this. You will also find instructions in support documentation.
http://onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/how-and-why-to-get-your-own-domain/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/1. I need more control over themes – my blog is really cluttered looking
Yes, you will have complete control over your theme on a wordpress.ORG install. There are more themes to choose from both free and premium themes that you can purchase. if you care adept at coding then you will be able to customize.
2. I was told that wordpress could delete my blog without warning if I broke a T.O.S. – I’d like to have a warning first before anything like that would happen.
That’s nonsense. You agreed to a contract in order to get a blog and hosting for it. That ought to be notice enough, but here at wordpress.COM if you breach the TOS or policies you get a warning notice on your dashboard with a link. You click the link and Staff will tell you what to do to come into compliance. It’s only those who refuse to come into compliance with the contract terms they have breached who get their blogs deleted. Also any blogger who is not backing up their blog contents on a regular really needs to wise up and do that. http://onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2007/10/27/disaster-planning-backups-for-bloggers/
3. I keep getting emails asking about purchasing advertising space, some even just to link to an affiliate store to share discounts with my readers (no advertising revenue) but neither is allowed in wordpress.com.
Yes you can place as much advertising as you want on a wordpress.org blog. You can enter affiliate schemes and you can even fo pay per post, etc. However, do note that most bloggers in any niche lack the quality of content that brings in the huge amount of traffic required to make a significant income.
We all get emails like that. The internet is awash with “make a million blogging” schemes and scams. I have blogs on other platforms and I’m well aware of how much income bloggers actually make from adsense and affiliate schemes. Most only make enough to pay for their domain renewal and web hosting costs.
a. I have pictures saved onto my wordpress account (with that 3GB user memory)- when I move to .org, what happens to all my photos/data?
If there are attachments then they will accompany your files when exported.b. Will I retain my categories/tags?
Yes, the categories and tags are included in the export file.c. How time consuming will this be? My blog is only one hobby of mine and I kinda need to spend some time on my dissertation over the next few weeks.
Do understand that you will be required to update wordpress versions and plugins on your own. You can post to the wordpress.org support forum and get peer support but it’s no where near being as good as the support you get here. Here we babysit and we teach. Here we are patient polite and kind. There you may find yourself waiting for days on end to receive a helping hand and when you do get the information you need it does not come along with “teaching” you anything. You are in the deep end and expected to know how to swim.
Unless you are firmly convinced that you have the required skills to manage your own site, and the time that’s involved in any learning curve situation – don’t do it. Unless you are firmly convinced that you are committed to blogging and frequently producing very high quality unique content then don’t expect to make a significant income from advertising and affiliate schemes.
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Wow thanks for the replies! Thanks for the tip on backing up. I exported a file of some sort and it only comes down to 7-8MB.
And the Support – wordpress.com that I’ve experienced has been fantastic – really fast, at times instant. Quite scary really. :)
[QUOTE]However, do note that most bloggers in any niche lack the quality of content that brings in the huge amount of traffic required to make a significant income.
We all get emails like that. The internet is awash with “make a million blogging” schemes and scams. I have blogs on other platforms and I’m well aware of how much income bloggers actually make from adsense and affiliate schemes. Most only make enough to pay for their domain renewal and web hosting costs.”[QUOTE]
I see. I’m not really looking to make an income from blogging – hahaha, my site doesn’t generate enough traffic even if I wanted to – perhaps just enough to pay for domain renewal/web hosting/ and a “premium theme” of sorts to make it more accessible to my readers.
All I really want is the ability to have a decent theme – magazine type, where my posts are more readable than the single column flood of stories.
Q1. I know it’s pretty much a case of “how long is a piece of string” but is there any general $ per view count?
In terms of commitment to blogging – I’m not an avid blogger, but I do produce fresh/new material regularly plus the odd “news” reporting. It has let me travel to my niche related events across the globe and meet people in my niche’s industry.
My blog is 2 years old although I’ve only been posting properly in the last 7 months; Since May I’ve noticed a steady growth in stats and now make the same views per day than what I used to in my first month. Currently my blog stats is just > 100,000 views/month. Nothing really in comparison with other blogs in my niche but still surprises me that people take the time to read some waffle I’ve put online.
Anyway – thanks for the help. I wish wordpress.com would ease up on advertising and themes.
Q2. on advertising front. Is it plain black and white for wordpress.com? i.e. Any advertising (put by us) is wrong? How is this advertising defined? Isn’t blogging and the whole social media thing simply another form of advertising but spread by individuals with no direct monetary interests – just out there to share something about the subject/product they “love/hate”?
I wanted to link to manufacturers/accessory retailers that I trust – it just so happened that one offered to discount my readers if they purchased via my blog – but apparently even that’s not allowed! I don’t make revenue from sending people over or linking to them, and I don’t actually want to – just wanted to get my readers to know about that company’s great products and also conveniently get discounts by being my reader.
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“Is it plain black and white for wordpress.com? “
Yes indeed it is clearly expressed. It’s my experiences, gained over the last 3 years, that no amount of blah, blah, blah will change that any time soon.
Wordpress.com blogs cannot be used to drive income to third party sites http://wordpress.com/tos/ (see section 2 – 5th bullet from top)From the support documentation:
http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
http://wordpress.com/vip-hosting/
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