Hello everyone,
This is to let you know that, after a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided to move to a self-hosted solution.
I apologize in advance if this causes a temporary inconvenience to any of you.
Normal service will resume on the 31st, with my Halloween short story!
Ohhh good luck! I was thinking about doing this too so would love to hear how it works for you. Do you keep all your followers? I actually don’t see that little follow button at the bottom right, so can’t tell if I’m still following you on wp or not? You’re in my feedly though, so I saw your post there!
I did keep all my followers, and the happiness engineers did a great job with that. The only thing was, I had already bought and used the name nicholasrossis.me right from the start, which helped a lot. That way, everyone who had subscribed, had already subscribed to the correct domain.
I’ve now made the original (and largely unknown) nicholasrossis.wordpress.com domain private and that was that.
** fasten’s seatbelt** … ready … π
Lol – ignition! π
“Engage!”
Make it so π
I’ve been self-hosted for a year and have never regretted it π
Thanks, good to know π
That’s so cute; thank you! π
But why Nick? Why is it better? Hope we dont lose you, this WordPress community is such a great one. Anyway, best of luck with the transfer, hope it all goes well for you.
Believe me, I completely agree. I love wordpress.com and delayed moving as much as possible. The main reason is that I wanted to take my marketing to the next level, by adding pixel tracking. Also, plugins. π
I’m still as active as before, as I’ve kept my wordpress account, so hopefully it won’t make much of a difference to you guys π
Glad to hear it! Yes, it would be nice to be able to sell your books from your own website. I guess you will have more freedom to do things like this on a self hosted site. Good luck!
Thanks! Don’t worry, I’ll let you know how it goes π
Oh and I have no idea what pixel tracking is, but it sounds cute! Oh, you mean it is nothing to do with looking for pixies? Shame…
Oh, no, it has everything to do with pixies. You capture one and make all her friends buy your books in order to free her. You can only do this on a self-hosted site, though, as WordPress.com frowns upon the practice :b
Good for you Nicholas, although I thought you already were self hosted as your site doesn’t have ‘wordpress.com’ in the url.
The freedom is great! Although, if you’re still using wordpress.org, be prepared for some occasional snafus. I presume you’ll be redirecting this site for awhile to the new one. I just went through stuff with that. You’ll have to occasionally remind readers to sign up to your new page in preparation for the time you will no longer have the redirect. WordPress was very wonky with me on that. And if by some miracle you find a ‘reblog’ button to install, do let me know please. If you don’t find one check out one of my few posts on ‘press this’ tool, in my search bar. Good luck! It’s a job, lol π
Having my own domain name was the best decision I took when first setting it up. This way, I hope not to lose my followers with the move π
Thanks for the tip! I hadn’t thought of that, but I’ll add a notice on the front page. Mercifully, no one even knows that the “real” name was nicholasrossis.wordpress.com, as I had started using the nicholasrossis.me one right away.
As you say, reblog is performed through the “Press this” button. Sadly, that’s the only way know of, to repost something.
Sure is a job – and a never-ending one, at that π
Well at least you were one step ahead by already having the domain name! This should help your followers from straying. π
Yep. Or I’ll have to send Meli to fetch them. She’s enough of a shepherd dog to round us up every time we try to leave without her π
LOL so cute. π
There are definitely a lot of pros to going to a self-hosted blog; especially, if you want to monetize your blog. One point though: Two bloggers that I know found out after the fact that their followers did not automatically transfer over.
That’s my main worry. I’m already asked to approve comments by people who’ve been following me forever π
It was the best move I ever made. Good luck with the move! I’m sure yours will go smoother than mine since you’re in that field (sort of).
Thank you for the vote of confidence! Yes, so far everything looks fine. Phew! π
Hope it all goes smoothly for you Nick – a treat and not a trick! π
Yes, I did pick the worst possible time of the year, didn’t I? π
Good luck. I did the same a couple of months ago. No problems (I have kept the .com sites available to keep my account alive and because of existing search rankings and bookmarks).
Good luck with the move. I hope that you can move your followers smoothly (I have heard so many stories on that). I will just have to remember to check if you still show up in my reader.
good luck – don’t be a stranger π
Hi Nicholas. We will still be able to follow your site? Please let me have the details when it is up and running.
Best wishes, Pete.
See you then. What is a self-hosted solution?
Good luck with the changeover Nicholas! π