WordPress.com to self hosted

Well you’ve all probably noticed the blog changes by now, a brand new theme and a brand new host. Yes after much debating and worrying my blog is finally self hosted rather than just part of the WordPress.com premium package.

I had the lovely Laura over at Blogger 2 wp take care of the transfer for me which took just a couple of days with zero down time for me. My blog is larger than I thought so probably took a little longer than most.

The recommended site host is Siteground UK who are also recommended by WordPress. That’s who I chose and I chose the medium plan that they offer.

I didn’t really need to do much myself except get my domain unlock code which is easy to do and gave my details to Laura who was amazing at sorting it at every step.

My blog has a whole new theme which I will be jiggling and playing around with over the next week, but behind the scenes not much else has changed really. I can still post exactly the same, and even post from an app just like before. I can install thousands of plug ins too which I was limited before, although I’ll make sure I know what I’m doing before I do this. I will also be able to add competition widgets rather than just a page link. So yes it’s all good and looking much better and tidier.

If you are a blogger and can’t decide whether to go self hosted or if your having doubts then I’d recommend using blogger to WP to do the transfer for you. I would not have had a clue how to do this myself. You keep all your posts, pages, media and even widgets. Your email followers are transferred too. You’re stat counters do restart from the day you go self hosted, but your wp.com site is still there to look back on should you need stat info. The old blog is just made private. I really wish I’d done it earlier.

Anyway I’m just back from a long day at Drayton manor so I’ll leave it here and let you all browse around the new site.

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