Last week, I transferred my blog from wordpress.com to a self hosted site on wordpress.org. I could not be happier, even with the technical hiccups I experienced. For a while I have been dying to change my domain name so it looks more professional and is more “me”. I knew I would be able to on a self-hosted wordpress.org page.
I am still learning about all the things you can do with a self-hosted website. My blog is back in early stages of development and I’m sure there will be multiple adjustments happening throughout the summer. I would also like to learn how to make full use of what wordpress.org has to offer but that will come later. For now, I am happy all my content from my old blog is there and intact.
There are a five pros I already experienced with a self-hosted site.
1) Google Analytics – this was a major reason I switched. I was tired of using the stats given to me by WordPress. I wanted more accurate information. I have been beyond satisfied so far.
2) My own domain name – I could have a personalized domain name that really connects to the blog instead of me. I foresee great things to come from emilyslifelessons.com.
3) Creative freedom – everything I read said I could be much more loose in my page design. I could customize it better on a self-hosted site than on a free WordPress page. I still don’t fully understand the coding and how to make full use of the customizations. However, I am excited at the prospect of playing around with it.
4) Professionalism – to be honest, I don’t know how far my blog is going to go. I started my blog for me. If it grows and gets a large following, wonderful. If not I’ll survive. At the very least my own domain name sounds more professional and my blog can go farther if I want.
5) Learning experience – coding html sites is something I am not very knowledgeable in. With today’s society being so wrapped up in technology and since so many teachers blog about their classrooms, curriculums or experiences, I have a feeling understanding how to set up a site will be a good skill to have under my belt.
These five things are initial pros I have already seen from the first week of using my new site. I’m sure there will be more amazing discoveries to make my site vibrant and eye catching. When will it happen, who knows? It depends on my patience level to sit inside and read about how to code html sites instead of being outside and active.
5 Comments
this seems like a big change! google analytics is the best so having it on your blog is worth it, plus your own dominian! congratulations and good luck on everything!
xo
Orly
coffeebeansandhighheels.weebly.com
Everything looks great, that’s for sure. and I agree with what you said in pro #5.
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Hi there, i read your blog from time to time and i own a
similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of
spam comments? If so how do you prevent it, any plugin or anything you can recommend?
I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support
is very much appreciated.
Hi! All the time! It drives me mad also! I have been meaning to do research on it but (as you might have been able to tell) I have been neglecting my blog. When I am more on top of things it is better but when I stay away from it for weeks at a time it takes a while. If I find a good plugin I will let you know! (Maybe a blog post might even come from it!)