Primary versus secondary free WordPress blogs; can only one be upgraded?
-
I have a secondary blog added/created recently to the primary blog using the same account. I know I can make the secondary blog stand alone, completely separate from the primary blog, only if I make another wp account, with a different email address and username, and move/transfer the new blog onto it, but apart from that, for the moment I would like to know:
1) why doesn’t the secondary blog (Starry Steps) appear as primary (for the readers, when they click on my Gravatar) even if I switch between them in the Account Settings?
I noticed when people click on my gravatar, it automatically takes them to the primary site. I would like for it to direct people to the secondary one. That would be useful, I thought, in order for the new blog to appear to my followers when I like and comment (instead of the older blog), so that they can follow the new blog too, or in order for me to be able to follow other bloggers and they to land on the new blog, instead of the old. Otherwise I have to link and/or invite new subscribers to the new blog from the old one continually.
2) if I decide to upgrade later, can the upgrade be done for the secondary blog separately, on its own? And I mean… after the upgrade, will I be able to like, follow and comment without having my subscribers sent to the old, primary blog?
Thank youThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
Hi there!
1) why doesn’t the secondary blog (Starry Steps) appear as primary (for the readers, when they click on my Gravatar) even if I switch between them in the Account Settings?
On my end it shows as your main site:
If you are talking about a different view could you send a screenshot or URL?
2) if I decide to upgrade later, can the upgrade be done for the secondary blog separately, on its own? And I mean… after the upgrade, will I be able to like, follow and comment without having my subscribers sent to the old, primary blog?
Yes, the sites are totally separated and managed individually. The subscribers are attached to the site, not to the account.
You are welcome to upgrade. May I ask what are the goals for the site? We will be happy to suggest the best option.
-
Hello, and thank you for your answer.
Yes, I think to me it shows a little different, although.. not sure what to send a screenshot of. For instance, the numbers of comments and stars for the latest post do not show on my home page.
I checked again now, and I noticed that if I click on my name/ avatar in the list of likes for a blogger’s post available in the Reader (next to the number of stars, I mean, without opening the respective post) it redirects me to Starry Steps, but on the other hand, if I click on my name/ avatar when actually opening and entering on the respective blogger’s post, next to a comment I make for instance, then it redirects me to Doar Nicole, which is the old blog made secondary now.
That is my query.
I wasn’t aware, before making this second blog, Starry Steps (on the same account as the first one, Doar Nicole) that I wouldn’t be able “to follow with it”, so to say (that it would be somehow like a ramification of the first older blog), that is why for now I have posted invitations to my new blog on the old one, to invite my subscribers to follow the new blog too. But if I made it somehow primary, then I thought that when I at least follow new bloggers too, they would land first on the new blog when visiting, instead of the old.
Another query lately has also been if my subscribers can also be added/ moved to the new blog too, from the old (without them having to follow my new blog themselves after being invited). And here, yet another thing I could not do on Starry Steps was to add the “Blogs I Follow” widget in the sidebar, like on the old blog. That widget does not seem available in the block editor used to set up the new blog’s side bar.
Therefore, I am not sure now if to leave things as they are or if to transfer this new blog onto a new WordPress account completely…. and only then to upgrade to a Personal or even Premium plan, my hope being to make my blog a bit of a “hub” for both my photos and poems and for my other creative endeavors, so to say.
This story goes a little back in time too. I have also purchased a hosting plan and a domain name with Bluehost. After I started setting up that self-hosted blog (bynicolesara.com), I realized there are quite a few things I still do not know or understand. For instance, there is the fact that with bluehost, wordpress is in fact wordpress.org, which was all the more confusing or misleading as I had wordpress installed on my pc already, and being in the same browser… so when setting up the self-hosted blog, it connected, or tried to connect, to my wordpress.com account?! I was able to see the Reader, the comments and likes on the free blog (doar nicole) in the black bar at the top, while being signed-in on the self-hosted blog, which was fine… but also wondering how that is, to be honest.
Now I wondered if I should have made that self-hosting attempt but to have had another wordpress account ready, separate… to use for the self-hosted blog. Although with bluehost it is wp.org not wp.com… so now, I really hope you understand my confusion.
All in all, not being able to completely decipher that to this day, I decided to simply add a new blog to the old one at wordpress.com, for the time being at least. Until I get to really educate myself technically and understand how to handle the self-hosted blog better.
I am attaching photos regarding that initial issue, maybe if you could explain how to deal with it. How can I connect my WordPress.com account to By Nicole Sara, which is the self-hosted blog with Bluehost? Because I usually end up connecting through wordpress.com eventually, not exactly understanding what that means or what else can be done.
I do not know if it is suitable to add these login photos here. I trust that you would probably be able to delete them, if possible, not sure about that now.
I would grateful if you could try to help and clarify these issues for me.
Thank you. -
Hello –
I want to start over at the beginning because there seem to be some confusion about how this works and also because I’m not 100% clear on the goals you have.
I have a secondary blog added/created recently to the primary blog using the same account. I know I can make the secondary blog stand alone, completely separate from the primary blog, only if I make another wp account, with a different email address and username, and move/transfer the new blog onto it, but apart from that, for the moment I would like to know:
This isn’t true. You can have multiple individual sites on your same account. There’s no need or reason to create multiple accounts for each project.
why doesn’t the secondary blog (Starry Steps) appear as primary (for the readers, when they click on my Gravatar) even if I switch between them in the Account Settings?
Do you want Starry Steps to be what folks see when they click your Gravatar? If so, then we need to update your settings. Go here https://wordpress.com/me and scroll down. There’s an option to manage which site appears in your profile.
if I decide to upgrade later, can the upgrade be done for the secondary blog separately, on its own? And I mean… after the upgrade, will I be able to like, follow and comment without having my subscribers sent to the old, primary blog?
Yes. Each project lives in its own space on your account. You can upgrade any of your projects at any time – and that doesn’t bleed over in to another project.
I think I’ve answered your questions from the original post. I did remove some of those screen shots from your second reply because they contained personal information. No body from WordPress.com will ever need to ask you for those details, we can already see that on our side of things.
Please confirm that I’ve answered these questions sufficiently and then we can get into the second reply. -
Hello,
1. About this part “I know I can make the secondary blog stand alone, completely separate from the primary blog, only if I make another wp account, with a different email address and username, and move/transfer the new blog onto it, but apart from that“, I think i understood well enough the fat that indeed on one wp account, there can be two blogs, primary and secondary, as I do have now, but I only referred to the fact that I aware also of the fact that if two blogs are made on two different accounts (with two different email addresses and usernames), then both are independent and the blogger can follow with them, no need to post links or redirect. ( i had mentioned this aspect in the introduction because I saw in forum discussions that bloggers are generally advised to move one of tw blogs to a different account, if they want their blogs to be completely separate)
2. Then, as I explained in my answer, there seem to be two different ways of redirecting when clicking on my avatar, from the Reader and from post comments, as shown in photos attached above and also explained there as follows:
“I checked again now, and I noticed that if I click on my name/ avatar in the list of likes for a blogger’s post available in the Reader (next to the number of stars, I mean, without opening the respective post) it redirects me to Starry Steps, but on the other hand, if I click on my name/ avatar when actually opening and entering on the respective blogger’s post, next to a comment I make for instance, then it redirects me to Doar Nicole, which is the old blog made secondary now.”
I also went to My Profile – Profile links and all my sites are there, linked. Do you mean that they have to be rearranged in a different order?? Because I could not see an option to do that, unless I delete one an add it again to come first.
3. Regarding the upgrading aspect, yes, thank you, I understood.
On the other hand, as far as my other issue is concerned (the self-hosted blog with Bluehost), I explained it too in my previous answer as follows:
“I am attaching photos regarding that initial issue, maybe if you could explain how to deal with it. How can I connect my WordPress.com account to By Nicole Sara (which is the self-hosted blog with Bluehost)? Because I usually end up connecting through wordpress.com eventually, not exactly understanding what that means or what else can be done.”
So I am attaching a photo from a live support discussion with Bluehost, a discussion about my lack of clarity regarding ways of “linking wordpress.com to By Nicole Sara”, which is the self-hosted blog with Bluehost, as I explained in my previous message (with the help of the deleted sign-in photos). I am interested in finding out what that linking would be about. Would it be about having the self-hosted blog accessible form the wordpress.com Reader too, for instance? Or would it be about the possibilty of giving and getting the follows, likes and comments on and from wordpress.com blogs?? All these besides the single sign-on aspect.
All in all, they suggest I have to communicate with wordpress.com about this issue, this being the very reason I am asking you here about it.
I would appreciate it if you could give me suggestions regarding both issues
Thank you
-
Hey there,
Thank you for that detailed explanation and background.
It sounds like you do need to talk to us and not necessarily Bluehost… So I’d just like to nail down what exactly you need here.
Are you trying to make starrysteps.wordpress.com the primary site, on this account that you’re communicating us from?
Let’s take things slowly, and step by step. :)
-
Hello,
Yes. And I think I already have. Only there is this:
“I checked again now, and I noticed that if I click on my name/ avatar in the list of likes for a blogger’s post available in the Reader (next to the number of stars, I mean, without opening the respective post) it redirects me to Starry Steps, but on the other hand, if I click on my name/ avatar when actually opening and entering on the respective blogger’s post, next to a comment I make for instance, then it redirects me to Doar Nicole, which is the old blog made secondary now.”
-
Hello, again,
I am sorry to add another answer so soon. but just now, as I clicked on a link to a post from a comment on someone’s else’s blog, it redirected me to a page that looked like this,
which I think would be quite ok, to be able to choose, which site I comment or like with.
This would be the third variant, almost. Besides the two described in the previous messages. So it seems it depends on where I am and where I click from, for wordpress to pick which site it shows?
-
Hi there,
if I click on my name/ avatar when actually opening and entering on the respective blogger’s post, next to a comment I make for instance, then it redirects me to Doar Nicole, which is the old blog made secondary now
Could you walk us through that in a bit more detail? For example can you share the URL of the page you are on (it’s difficult for us to locate a comment you made on another blog, for example) and what it is you are clicking on there in the blog? It think it may help if we can visit, confirm that we see the same behavior, and then possibly catch where the connection is being made there.
Thanks for the additional info!
-
Hello,
I am sure my explanation and descriptionsm plus images, in the above messages are already in great detail and of great accuracy
Thank you
-
Could you walk us through that in a bit more detail?
All in all, clicks on my avatar or name from other bloggers, be them from the lists of Likes or from comments, still take the respective bloggers to my old blog, even if I made the new blog primary.
“I also went to My Profile – Profile links and all my sites are there, linked. Do you mean that they have to be rearranged in a different order?? Because I could not see an option to do that, unless I delete one an add it again to come first.”
-
Hi again,
I am sure my explanation and descriptionsm plus images, in the above messages are already in great detail and of great accuracy
Thanks for clarifying. I re-read those a couple of times and I think I understand. From what I can see the issue appears to be related to your Gravatar account and the order it shows your linked sites in. You can see that here: https://en.gravatar.com/doarnicol
“I also went to My Profile – Profile links and all my sites are there, linked. Do you mean that they have to be rearranged in a different order?? Because I could not see an option to do that, unless I delete one an add it again to come first.”
This is exactly what I would like for you to try, yes. In my tests, I was able to rearrange this list (which is the same list that is picked up by your Gravatar account) as a way of changing the order. If you remove https://doarnicol.wordpress.com/, and the re-add it, does it affect what site you are taken to when you click on the Gravatar in your comment?
Also I notice you mentioned a self-hosted site as being one of the sites you’ve had issue with (in a previous reply) and that is what I was interested in checking as well. However, as I mentioned previously it’s difficult for us to see your activity on self-hosted sites (since we don’t host them are not able to log activity) so can you share the link to a blog post you have commented on so we can check the comment, click on your Gravatar image and see where we are taken?
Thanks!
-
Hello, and thank you for your explanations and suggestions, I will try to re-add and re-order the sites to see how it goes. And then upgrade to a paid plan eventually.
About the self-hosted site, bynicolesara.com, I have not exactly started “using” the blog yet (haven’t liked or commented with and on it yet), I only published a few posts to see how it all goes (if it appears in the wordpress.com Reader, for instance), not being at all sure about some details or aspects.
I am attaching photos with log in attempts on that self-hosted site, because I am not sure I understand why at some point it tries to connect to wordpress.com, and what that would mean exactly. (I am not sure if it ok to share these, but I would like to understand this issue).
I would like to understand, do I have to (or should I) be logged in to WordPress.com in the same browser in which I log in to the self-hosted site in order to have access to the Reader and its features or options??
I am asking this also because the self-hosted site, on the one hand and the other sites on wordpress.com (primary and secondary), on the other hand have two different email addresses (and are all included in the Gravatar profile). I wondered if maybe that is why this all happens.
All in all, with the self-hosted site I would like to be able to follow other blogs, like and comment independently, of course, as a separate site, but still share the same wordpress.com space if that would be possible. Having the same Gravatar for all the sites, I really don’t know if that is possible.
I apologize if all this is a little messy and hard to follow.
Thank you -
Hi again,
Thanks for clarifying. I did see the connected Jetpack site on your Gravatar, and I’m happy to explain. WordPress (the software) is free and open source, and anyone can use it to set up and manage a website, but from the beginning it was intended for folks that were experienced with server management, and comfortable with installing the WordPress software themselves.
Because of this, WordPress.com was created as more of a turn-key service. No need to configure your own server, install software, deal with regular security and updates, the Reader so you can see other peoples blogs, etc. You can just sign up, enter some info, and without much effort you’re on the internet! We also pre-installed a lot of functionality (contact forms, comment management, social media sharing, etc.) that you would have to install via several different plugins on your self-hosted site, so you had the functionality you needed on day one.
For folks who used to host their sites with us, but may have moved on to self-host, they kinda missed that functionality so we created the Jetpack plugin, so they could have most of our cloud-connected services on their site as well. That is the case with your site now, which is a totally separate WordPress site on another host, but is connected to us via the Jetpack plugin.
I am attaching photos with log in attempts on that self-hosted site, because I am not sure I understand why at some point it tries to connect to wordpress.com, and what that would mean exactly.
Self hosted sites have their own login system, so typically you set your own username and password, and it’s not the same as the one you set here on WordPress.com. Not everyone likes to manage separate logins though, so on your Jetpack site, if you wish you can have us manage the login, so you access the site using the same account you use here on WordPress.com. This would essentially replace whatever other login you set up on the site, and it’s up to your preference.
I am asking this also because the self-hosted site, on the one hand and the other sites on wordpress.com (primary and secondary), on the other hand have two different email addresses (and are all included in the Gravatar profile). I wondered if maybe that is why this all happens.
I do see that bynicolesara.com is not actually connected to your @doarnicol account. So changes you make to your profile here would not be reflected in your @bynicolesara account. So you do essentially have two Gravatar profiles, associated with two different WordPress.com logins. You do have the ability to consolidate accounts, but yes this may be contributing to some of the confusion here.
All in all, with the self-hosted site I would like to be able to follow other blogs, like and comment independently, of course, as a separate site, but still share the same wordpress.com space if that would be possible.
Connecting your site via Jetpack does share posts to the WordPress.com Reader automatically. That is the same as sites you have with us directly instead of Bluehost. There is one key difference in that your blog posts will not show up in tag searches unless you are using a paid Jetpack plan. https://jetpack.com/support/reader/
Having the same Gravatar for all the sites, I really don’t know if that is possible.
I suspect that when you started your Bluehost site and installed Jetpack there, you created a second WordPress.com login without realizing you could have connected the site to this existing account we are speaking under. From that standpoint, you could just deactivate the Jetpack plugin on bynicolesara.com and then reactivate it. It will prompt you to connect again and you can just make sure you connect to your @doarnicol account, then you would see it here along with your WordPress.com sites: https://wordpress.com/sites/
Also, if I can ask, what prompted you to consider a self-hosted site for bynicolesara.com? It is possible to set up as many WordPress.com sites under your account as you wish, and even assign a custom address to them so they don’t have the “wordpress.com” address that is assigned to our free sites. It is even possible to upload plugins and 3rd party themes on WordPress.com sites, though it does require an upgrade.
Thanks for the additional info!
-
Hello, and thank you very much for the detailed explanation, I really appreciate it! I am going to have to reread it more closely though, each paragraph, to really understand how things are interconnected and also to see more clearly what is worth doing next. If I happen to have any other question in the following days, I hope I can resume asking here
Thank you!
- The topic ‘Primary versus secondary free WordPress blogs; can only one be upgraded?’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 