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Weekend Project: Sharing a WordPress War Story

Posted By Darren Rowse 3rd of August 2012 Blog Networks 0 Comments

While we love blogging, we all know there are some aspects that really do seem impossible sometimes—none moreso than transferring a WordPress.com blog to the WordPress.org platform.

We’ve discussed the differences between these two platforms before, because more than one blogger has been caught up by the limitations of WordPress.com (usually the limitation that this platform doesn’t allow you to monetize your blog). But it’s well known that swapping to the .org platform from .com can be a challenge.

This weekend’s project explains the WordPress war story of a blogger who chose to start a blog on WordPress.com, because it required so little technical knowledge. But when she wanted to monetize her blog—and switch to the .org platform—that lack of technical skill proved a major hurdle. It’s no wonder the process has gained such a bad reputation!

Actually, I think this is something that blog platform developers probably want to consider as they’re creating their platforms‚ because any help they can give to users who want to upgrade or switch to other versions of their products is always much appreciated.

If you’re one of those bloggers who’s itching to move your blog from .com to .org, but you’ve been too scared, clear some time in your weekend schedule to implement the process that our Weekend Project sets out. I’m giving you plenty of warning for this project—it starts tomorrow!

For now, if you have a WordPress war story of your own that you’d like to get off your chest, feel free to vent in the comments.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. I will try to do this now.

    I will start in writing it, it will be published tomorrow, I will let you sir know about it in the comments here.

  2. My story is pretty funny. I thought I would be a smart guy and start a internet marketing blog. I knew nothing of internet marketing. Needless to say, I thought WordPress would be easy to get started. Another mistake. Now that I know more about WordPress, I am glad that I did start a WordPress blog…and finally, 2 years later, I am starting to see more and more people get help from my blog through internet marketing. Although I probably should have started something I knew a little about!

  3. If you’re serious about making a business from Blogging, just start off with your own domain and install wordpress. Saves a lot of mucking around for later, plus it’s about branding too. You are better off throwing yourself in the deep end and learning as you go from your mistakes!

  4. Well, if you have goal to earn money than you should start from .org and regarding the technical issue it can be over come with the passage of time using and experimenting certain things but the main point is that you should be clear with your goal and chalked out clear steps to achieve that.

  5. Even today, there are lots of people who don’t know that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two different platforms, with their own limitations. Many people start their blog with WordPress.com (wanting to monetize) and later learn that they should have used WordPress.org instead.

  6. Have just done the move and found it very stressful. Even though I paid someone to do it for me I lost my wordpress.com subscribers (because they can’t be moved). Now I find people can still subscribe to the wp.com blog even though I have it redirected to wp.org. The I can’t move them to the new one. I struggle with making any changes because of my lack of technical skills. I also miss the traffic/subscribers from the wp.com community/tagging. I’m hoping I’ve done the right thing in the long term, but at the moment I’m feeling like I could be out of my depth here!

  7. I’ve written about this more than a dozen times already.

    You’re building rank for WordPress.com when you choose the free hosted version unless you use your own domain.

    Moving to your own self hosted version of WordPress isn’t entirely possible because you cannot backup your files (including your images), only the content in your database. Unless you pay WordPress.com $120 for the migration which you could use to buy 2 years of hosting in the first place and use your own domain on your own server space with the WordPress.org version.

    Build up your own domain authority from the start because the older your domain, the higher your authority and the higher your content will appear in the search results. It ends up being a much smarter choice for your business.

  8. I am so glad that I started on WordPress.org. I saved myself a ton of trouble.

  9. No doubt, .org is far better than .com . If you have ANY ambitions at all you should definetely go with that from the start.
    I don’t see a reason not to, as it is really not that expensive.

  10. This weekend’s project might be interesting and I will inform my blog friends too because people are paying others to move their blog from .com to .org

    If they are going to learn it, It will save their some money.

  11. Thanks for your article. I also feel that laptop computers are getting to be more and more popular nowadays, and now tend to be the only form of computer employed in a household. It is because at the same time actually becoming more and more economical, their processing power keeps growing to the point where there’re as strong as pc’s from just a few years ago.

  12. I have transitioned my blog on several occasions. From WP.com to a BlueHost shared account running WP.org code. Then from BH to various VPS hosts. I documented the adventure, it’s lessons and stresses in a three parts series.

    http://www.mgraves.org/2010/08/blogging-in-transition-a-host-of-issues-act-one/

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