WordPress (Self Hosted), The Best Move I Ever Made
Fourteen months ago, when my blog barely had 2 dozen posts, I decided to leave Blogger (BlogSpot). I barely had readers, I had no type of alexa ranking or page ranking to speak of and at the time I wasn’t interested in the blog making me money.
I was just blogging.
Sharing whatever popped into my head about life and family. Grabbed a couple of freebies here and there in return for reviews.
In the grand scheme of things, what I blogged may not have seemed important, BUT it was important, to me. They were MY words, about MY life but frankly they didn’t belong to me. Oh nooo. When you’re using a free blogging platform, whether you buy your domain or not, everything you do on that blog and for that blog, belongs to the platform.
Even worse, while I was on the Blogger (Blogspot) platform, my site went down and there wasn’t a bloody thing I could do about it. And I’d wait in fear that it wouldn’t return and I’d lose everything.
Why I Chose to Self Host a WordPress blog
I won’t lie to you, at first the idea was scary. Why the hell was I going to put money into something I did for fun? Why did I want to make that commitment? Then I looked at Blogger blogs vs. WordPress blogs.
To be honest, I picked specific mom blogs that I visited and took a closer look at who they were and what was in their sidebars. I even plugged their URLs into Hubspot’s Blog Grader and Website Grader, here’s what I learned.
- The majority of the “big” mom bloggers I followed at the time, had better alexa rankings, some had page rankings and all had the damnedest coolest WordPress blogs.
- The really cool mom bloggers on blogspot, that had lots of comments on each post, had not-so-great rankings, but had page rankings and their blogs were good looking but were missing the bells and whistles I saw on the WordPress blogs.
- The Blogger moms had affiliate links, yes, but no “big” sponsors as the WordPress mom bloggers with the same page ranking and similar comment count did.
Now keep in mind, this is based on the bloggers I looked at, not all bloggers, so don’t go jumping down my bloody throat.
Now, like I said, I wasn’t interested in making money with the blog at the time, but I was interested in one day working from home. So I looked at my blog from a business stand point and realized, I’d been really slacking off. There is so much I know about Marketing and SEO and Self-promotion, but none of it was evident on my blog. I realized that if I could take my blog and transform it into something cool AND marketable, I could use it to make an income.
Since moving to WordPress, this blog and I have grown. I have made some money from it and I’ve got plans in the works to make more. Expect changes in the next few weeks.
Since moving to WordPress, I’ve been able to achieve a much better alexa ranking (which helps my posts be found on search engines), my posts are actually indexed on Google, I have a bit of a pagerank and I now have firms reaching out to me to PAY me, not just give me free stuff in return for a review. I’ve turned down a lot of pitches lately, not because I don’t want the money, but because I’ve either been too busy to even blog or the service/product didn’t fit with my blog.
If you’re looking to do something “more” with your blog, in my opinion, WordPress is the way to go. And don’t fear self-hosting. What I pay Godaddy every month, is less than I’d pay for a Starbucks Frap and a scone – which I’m not allowed to have anyway. Here’s an affiliate link to Blog Hosting at GoDaddy.com
This blog runs on the economy plan from a year ago so my $4.99/month is still locked in, but they now have a better economy plan at $5.99/month that I’m planning to look into upgrading to.
How do you feel about your blogging platform?
Are you a blogger on a free platform who is making an income from their blog?
If you’ve moved from Blogger to WordPress, I’d love to hear about your experience on both platforms and if you regret moving or if you’d happy about moving.
Please share your thoughts in the comments section. By the way, this blog utilizes CommentLuv Premium, so leaving a comment is a great way to self-promote your blog.
Photo Credit: © Dudarev Mikhail – Fotolia.com
Becky are u looking for a widget to display your sponsors? WP125 is a pretty good uncomplicated Plugin. Thanks so much for stopping by.
vanita recently posted..Going from Blog to Biz and Giving Out Freebies
Twitter: beckykid
says:
I’ve been using wordpress for a while now & while it’s been challenging at times, it’s so well rounded & I just adore it.
Do you have a post anywhere about your favorite widgets? I’m trying to expand my blog as well to promote my cookie business & am looking for sponsors/ads to support that.
beckykid recently posted..Cookie by Becky has an Etsy site!
Twitter: chelleinmo65584
says:
I’ve been thinking about making the change to wordpress. I’ve been trying to learn a little more. I saw in another post you said something about wordpress.org and worpress.com, I believe. I’m not sure what the difference is. Also, how do you know which is the best company to pay every month?
Chelle recently posted..Monday, Yet Again!! Deja Vu!
Chelle, WordPress.com is essential free (though they do offer some paid services that i feel are a rip off) and not much different from Blogger. WordPress.org is self hosted and free but you’d have to pay a hosting company. If you look at my sidebar you’ll see an affiliate link for the hosting company I use. This blog costs me $6 a month to host and $24 once every two names for my domain name. that’s it! and well worth the investment.
I have been using blogger, I really can’t tell what is the difference because I am new in this field… Thanks.
Twitter: mansasbg
says:
I used to use WordPress I had at least 3 blogs on it. And to be honest this post really intrigued me. Since I live in a Third world country we still have no credit cards so its very hard for me to trying to host a WordPress or to create a website.
Right now I’m just happy to stay on blogspot. I’m not planning to make money through my blog yet. Though it might be a possibility if I am able to support myself in the Future. Its definitely a possibility after reading this.
-From an 18 year old dude. ^^
Hey Jared, thanks for leaving your comment. I dropped by your blog and enjoyed my visit. WordPress.com, though it looks like WordPress.org has more limitations and if I were to stick with a free platform, I personally would prefer Blogger over WordPress.com
Twitter: pattiponders
says:
I so want off of Blogger. I also want to change my blog name. I just cannot think of anything catchy. My blog started off about my life post weight loss surgery, now it is about everything in my life, when I can remember to post. I am trying hard to post more often, but when trying to stick to post WLS it is hard to talk about. Interested in the hosting and owning my own, help would be great!!!
I wish I had someone to sit next to me at my computer that could go through everything and explain it as I do it all step by step. Thank you for sharing..
nicole recently posted..movers in Bethesda MD
Twitter: valselby
says:
I quite blogger back in late 2007. Oct. 9 for my personal blog and Dec. 31 for my scrapbook blog. I moved my last html site to wordpress in 2009. I have hosting and start beginners off by loading wordpress, a free theme, and plugins starting at only $3.95 a month because I want everyone off blogger and OWNING their sites!
It’s way too much work to be posting and not actually own your site. You could be shut down at any minute. While it doesn’t happen very often anymore, it used to. It’s so easy to move and like you said there are so many bells and whistles to play with, why wouldn’t you move? The learning curve isn’t that bad. If you can see the word post and add new then you can get to blogging again on wordpress
Vanita you do very affordable work. Maybe we should get together on a giveaway?! Force some bloggers to make the move!
Val recently posted..Day 5 – Embracing Some Calm
That’s what’s going on next month Val! November 6th to the 16th. Ten days. Along with the giveaway, 25% discount on all services for projects booked in November.
Vanita recently posted..WordPress (Self Hosted), The Best Move I Ever Made
Twitter: MimzyWimzy
says:
I am so glad I came across this post today. I have been reading up quite a bit on blogger to wordpress. I do not understand it all, I’m not even going to pretend that I do. I just recently paid to make my url go from .blogspot.com to just .com I WANT to take the next step I just have a fear of falling off the cliff if I step to far too fast. I wish I had someone to sit next to me at my computer that could go through everything and explain it as I do it all step by step.
Mimzy Wimzy recently posted..Pay it forward with MOMables – only 10 days left!
Mimzy! I’m so happy you stopped by. I’m planning on more posts in the coming days about WordPress, so before you make a move, come by and check them out. And feel free to drop me an email and I’ll share more about what I’ll be doing. Also? Next month, i’m running a giveaway of a free custom wordpress theme. You can still use your fantastic header in the layout. The giveaway only includes the theme with matching social media icons and favicon. It doesn’t include installation, however I will be offering installation and blogspot transfer at a 25% discount. So keep it in mind and come back girl!
Vanita recently posted..Shortcodes Out-of-Whack?