Latest posts by Rob Rubin (see all)
- Why Licking a Skunk is More Enjoyable than Blog Promotion - April 23, 2012
- What I Learned About Moving From WordPress.com to WordPress.org - March 27, 2012
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March 17th was a busy day. In addition to being St. Patrick’s Day and my 2-year-old son’s birthday, it was also the day that I moved my blog off of WordPress.com and onto my own host. Why did I decide to jump off the WordPress.com train? Several reasons.
- I’m a perfectionist, and being locked into a boring theme with little room for customization was driving me crazy
- I wanted an elegant, professional magazine like look-and-feel
- I wanted to sell blog related merchandise in my own online store
- I wanted to incorporate great plug-ins, like Comment Luv
I announced the move back in February to give my subscribers ample time to prepare. In the 4 months since I started The Mainland, I had amassed 150 followers and was getting about 4,000 page views a month. Retaining as many readers as possible was my number one concern. I even put out a survey to see how many people would be willing to resubscribe once the site moved and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. That made me feel better about my decision.
And so, after a month of warning and begging people to subscribe to my FeedBurner feed, I am now off WordPress.com and on my own. Here’s a few things I’ve learned about the process.
If you (re)build it, they will come”¦just very slowly
So far, the positive reception to the move has not translated into a cavalcade of new subscriptions. As of right now, only 12 people have re-followed my blog. I had expected some attrition, but was quite shocked by how low the conversion rate actually was. One thing I will give WordPress.com credit for is that they make it very easy to follow blogs via the Follow button. Having to re-subscribe outside of WordPress.com and go through the process of validating your email address seems to be more than many of my readers are willing to do. So, now I am working on other strategies, like guest posting to attract more
Google seems to take its time when you’re not on WordPress.com
One of the arguments against moving I kept hearing was that no amount of SEO tinkering on a self-hosted site will match the SEO power of a WordPress.com site. And to be honest, they may have been right. On WordPress.com, published posts often got indexed by Google within minutes, many landing on the first or second page. Since the move, I have published 2 new posts, and in addition to taking well over half a day to get indexed by Google, they rank quite poorly compared with all of the other posts on my blog. I have checked everything in Google Webmaster Tools, and there are no indications of anything wrong that I might be penalized for. Interestingly enough, I do not have this same problem with Bing. In fact, the first new post I wrote after the move appeared as the #1 or #2 link on Bing for certain keywords. It’s too bad more of the world doesn’t use Bing.
Having the power to change everything can be dangerous, especially if you have OCD
As I said earlier, a big part of my desire to self-host was for the ability to design the site the way I envisioned it. This is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to WordPress.org functionality. As someone who suffers from mild OCD, I have spent many long nights tweaking and re-tweaking. I burned through 4 different themes until I finally settled on one I really liked. I must have tried at least 20 different plug-ins for everything from generating XML sitemaps to displaying products in my CaféPress store. Ultimately, I finally got the site to look the way I wanted and am very happy with it. It is far superior to anything I could have done on WordPress.com.
The bottom line
While there still are a few bumps on the road, I am pleased I made the decision to move to self-hosting. I believe there are far greater opportunities for me to attract new readers and maybe even make a few bucks. WordPress.com was a great way for me to get into blogging and learn the WordPress system. But now that I’ve been doing it for several months, it was time to take the training wheels off and see if I could ride on my own. I think I can.
Twitter: hmmwv
Well, as there are millions of sites on wordpress.com, the google spider comes by every other second to index new stuff. As you probably won’t update your own blog that often, he doesn’t. But if you update regularly, like every day or every other day for example, google bot will learn that fact and come back accordingly! So just give it some time and you shouldn’t have any trouble getting your new pages indexed.
Andreas recently posted..Haarausfall bei Kindern
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
The speed of indexing has improved dramatically since I wrote this. Guess I just needed to wait for Google to realize the site had moved.
Rob Rubin recently posted..I Have Officially Run Out of Facebook Status Updates
Twitter: GeekandJock
Glad you got all things working, Robin.
Google takes many factors into consideration and it may have been things like URLs changing, for example.
I mIgrated my 3 year old Drupal based site to WordPress just last Christmas and, thankfully, it didn’t miss a beat. Lots of planning there. Lots of freaking headaches too
Still, it’s better to own your own home than to rent it, never knowing when you’ll be kicked out.
Martin Cooney recently posted..Lasting Longer in Bed is a Team Sport
This is exactly why it takes so long to get any search engine progress on your own and without WordPress hosting. WordPress hosting is like a popular friend that knows how to get you all the inside deals but you kinda gotta follow his way of doing things. When you host yourself it’s like never having that friend to begin with, and having to build up the reputation to get all the inside deals yourself.
Joshua recently posted..Sites that pay
Twitter: drkavitashaikh
You did the right thing Rob! The only sad fact is that you did not realize the benefits of getting a self-hosted site earlier. You will have to give your new site some waiting time before you get the rankings and links. Anyways better late than never. All the best on your new site, hope it does extremely well for you!!
drkavitashaikh recently posted..Business Blog- What Why and How of Business Blogs Made Simple
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Well I wanted to see if anyone would read my stuff before investing in the cost of self hosting. I don’t regret my decision on that front as I think the WordPress.com community is great when you are just starting out so you can build a following.
Rob Rubin recently posted..I Have Officially Run Out of Facebook Status Updates
Twitter: internetdreamof
Moving away from WordPress.org is definitely the way to go. Although wordpress.org is great because it promotes traffic and is quickly registered by google, the inflexibility and the fact that you can’t monetize your site are definite draw backs and definitely make the move worth it.
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Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Totally agree. Thanks.
Rob Rubin recently posted..I Have Officially Run Out of Facebook Status Updates
Twitter: BlogSEOLady
I think you mean WordPress.com.
Blog Lady recently posted..8 Great Ideas for Adding Content to a Facebook Page
Twitter: aidacarbone
Great article Rob! That was a brave thing to do! Most people, if they had your views and traffic, they would not dare to move and risk spoiling all these accomplishments. In my opinion you did good, because a self-hosting site is unique and differs from all the others; plus the opportunities as you said are so much more!
Thank you for sharing your experience!
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Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
I haven’t seen a drop in page views but I have seen a dramatic increase in spam. So not sure what to think right now.
Rob Rubin recently posted..I Have Officially Run Out of Facebook Status Updates
Great post. I never thought about how much the wordpress.com update rate would affect your traffic once you moved. Did you end up setting up a 301 redirect? Or did you just tell your readers that the blog had moved?
Also…do you think it’s worthwhile autoposting everything that you have on your blog to your wordpress.com blog? Or does this hurt SEO?
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Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Yes I did do 301 redirects. And once the name severs changed ,all traffic was routed to the new server anyway.
Rob Rubin recently posted..Proven Ways to Make Your Spouse Stop Snoring
Twitter: vineetsaxena4
Hi Rob,
Your experiences are really interesting. Didn’t you redirect your old feeds to new one? As for indexation by Google, this is definitely a negative point of wordpress.org. But I guess the usability and features like plugins are enough to ignore this one negative thing.
Vineet Saxena recently posted..5 Ways to Improve Your Blog Using Twitter
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
I probably wrote this a little prematurely because my posts are now indexed very quickly. My site ranks as a PR3 and I have over 200 sites linking in, several of which are PR5 or above. And I’m getting on page 1 of google for my keywords more frequently.
Rob Rubin recently posted..Proven Ways to Make Your Spouse Stop Snoring
I remember moving my very first blog from WP.com or org a few years back. Wish I would’ve come across or read something like this back then.
Now, I really dont see the point of having a blog on wp.com. Well unless you’re REALLY broke and want something for free. WP.com doesnt let you put ads (and hence earn money), no theme customization, slow indexing, yadda yadda.. A self-hosted blog can do all that, and then some! Plus its not very expensive either, domain and hosting can be as cheap as 20 bucks. And you’ll probably be able to break even immediately once you start earning – which is only possible through a wp.org blog.
I’m not sure why your posts arent being indexed on Google. Try using some SEO plugins.
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Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
I think there is value in starting on WP.com as a way to test if your work will be worth reading. It’s good to build up a small following before moving I think so that you know you will have some readers out of the gate.
Rob Rubin recently posted..Proven Ways to Make Your Spouse Stop Snoring
Twitter: stevescott1
The index speed will go up (dramatically) as you have more links into your site (and more articles on it) When I first started my sites it might take a day… now I get indexed in minutes.
Steve recently posted..Free Report: 111 Affiliate Marketing Strategies for a Six-Figure Income
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Yep. Me too now.
Rob Rubin recently posted..Proven Ways to Make Your Spouse Stop Snoring
Thanks for your post Rob. I personally view the wordpress hosting environment as a quick and cheap way to test a market. Before I commit to my own hosting and all the fees that are associated with it I like to use the free hosting services like wordpress or others. Once I verify that my marketing assumptions are correct I migrate the blog to my own hosting environment. so yes I think you made the right choice.
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Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Thanks for the comment!
Rob Rubin recently posted..Scalia Could Probably Use Some Government Broccoli
It gets better. Of course WordPress.com is going to be cruised by the google bot many times more, but with your own blog, you are creating a piece of internet real estate that you own, NOT the wordpress folks.
Josh recently posted..High Gas Prices This Summer? Here’s how to Fight Back
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
My posts are now getting indexed almost instantly again. I think it just took some time for the Googlebot to realize once and for all that my site had moved to a new host. I changed my permalink structure when I moved and I noticed that Google now has the updated URLs in most of my posts. And I am getting page 1 rankings for many of keywords. I think the theme I selected from Theme Junkie has helped with that along with the Yoast SEO plugin.
Rob Rubin recently posted..Scalia Could Probably Use Some Government Broccoli
Twitter: BlogSEOLady
Well, in my experience, new content gets indexed fast in WordPress.org. If anything I’m amazed at how soon Google picks them up. I do use SEO tools and/or frameworks like Thesis and Yoast. I think WordPress.com is far too limiting for the Internet marketer/blogger.
As for obsession with changing themes and plugins and all: That happens with just about everyone who first uses WordPress.org, OCD or none. That’s a common trap in the business we need to watch against. There’s just this temptation to tinker with your widgets and everything even when the only 10 visits you get to your site are your own.
(i.e. the site is new)
Blog Lady recently posted..The Importance of Social Media Reputation Management
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Yeah, I’ve settled in now that my blog is live on the new server. I’ll just remind myself to get some meds before i think about doing major tinkering.
Rob Rubin recently posted..Scalia Could Probably Use Some Government Broccoli
I moved my website http://www.verigoodstore.com over from wordpress.com too beginning of this year. Don’t worry about the traffic and subscriptions-it will come by slowly. In fact when i switch over, the traffic actually doubled! It is true that wordpress.com has good features like reblog etc However, wordpress.org gives you huge array of options. I bet you won’t regret that you move over to wordpress.com.
Try plugins for seo search (i think all in one seo search is nice). I think it will help. Also index your site (sign up for the google webmaster). It is true you need to do more stuff to get your website notice, but i can vouch that it is going to be worth it.
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Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Thanks. I do see an uptick in traffic, but also a big uptick in Spam comments, so not sure what to think. But even if I factor out the spam, I am not losing traffic, which is a good thing.
Rob Rubin recently posted..Scalia Could Probably Use Some Government Broccoli
I agree, there is a lot more customization you can do with a wordpress.org blog where you’re paying separate hosting. I just moved someone’s blog over from wordpress.com to wordpress.org and it was a little frustrating because there aren’t “plugins” on the wordpress.com sites, so you can’t really create an exactly copy of a .com blog to a .org blog. So I’d say, don’t expect the blogs to look identical. But do expect more freedom in terms of the look and feel of the blog.
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Twitter: jonpaulwade
I have moved a few sites from wordpress.com to a wordpress.org powered site. In fact, I have also moved sites from Blogger to WordPress.org, and found that the easiest way was always to go via WordPress.com to allow URLs to be managed. Always ggod to move in the long run.
Twitter: juliannejtaylor
I shifted to a self hosted (actually HostGator) wordpress.org site from wordpress.com, 1 month ago for similar reasons. I was going to do it the transfer and set it up myself, but I was way out of my depth.
Instead I was put onto a wordpress IT person – who knows wordpress inside out. He set me up in a couple of days with all the plugins needed to get new followers etc. An email list of my old followers so I could email them personally to change. My readership has gone from 30K per month to almost 45K this month! I’m stoked – the next thing is getting ways to bring in money and updating the look of my site – all this is in the planning stage.
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
45K per month? I’m jealous.
Rob Rubin recently posted..Scalia Could Probably Use Some Government Broccoli
I have made 2 wordpress.com sites. It is true that spiders or these so called bots keeps on coming into your site, as I do daily updates with my sites. But they cannot automatically post on my blogs because I manually approve comments, and to ensure everything is going right thus removing to bots around my wordpress sites.
Jervy Ton recently posted..Black Box Technology
Your self-hosted site will do well Rob. It may take a lot of work but the benefits are long-term. WordPress.com is a good training ground. Now that you are confident and want to further develop your site, wordpress.org will definitely meet your standards.
Jeff recently posted..DTS Home
WordPress.com is limiting. Free hosting has me glued to blogger but when I decide to blog on a more serious basis, I will pay the price for WP.org
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Hi Rob
That’s a great site and I am totally envious of your stats!! (I have also subscribed.) When I saw the article on how to wrap presents like a man – I thought, yep this is the site for me! Although I am a female the delicate art of present wrapping totally alludes me. I am all fingers and thumbs and the ribbon is always loose, I have to sticky tape it on so it doesn’t fall off, maybe I have some boy genes in my makeup?
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Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Thanks! And thanks for subscribing!
Rob Rubin recently posted..Scalia Could Probably Use Some Government Broccoli
Thanks for such an informative post. Willing to move my personal blog from wp.com to .org
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Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
I think the decision to move from .com to .org is really based on a lot of factors and if you have a large following on WP.com, be prepared to lose a lot of them which can be a bit deflating.
Rob Rubin recently posted..I May Have Just Freaked Out Tawny Kitaen
Twitter: arjunchauhan24
The only main difference between any other blogging platform and WP.org is that you have the full control on your site on WP.org while you don’t enjoy this freedom on other blogging platforms.
Arjun Singh recently posted..Old Facebook Chat Back on Facebook – Booms This Time
I was also very happy to have shifted to the self hosted version of wordpress. It gives us unlimited power – power to use custom or third party themes and plugins. We also have the charge of our own website and can manage everything cheaper. The most famous wordpress blogs are self hosted!
Ayush Agrawal recently posted..Tune a Guitar with your iPhone
Don’t worry, it’ll be fine, just ping your posts and rebuild your sitemap manually if necessary for the first few posts – the freedom is worth it. I see you write humour, will check out your site, thanks, I need a laugh now and then.
Joanne recently posted..eDog Fleece Dog Harness
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Laughing is what I specialize in.
Rob Rubin recently posted..I May Have Just Freaked Out Tawny Kitaen
Thank you for sharing your interesting experience. It is true that self-hosting offers lot of benefits and you can take advantage of many features. You can improve your earnings as well promoting products in a variety of ways.
Rob, I agree with those who have said you did the right thing. It’s a bit painful at first, but it will pay off. You probably did some people a favor by writing this – they will think carefully about what they choose to do when they get started with their blog. Nice work.
John recently posted..Three Common Website Mistakes & How To Avoid Them
Twitter: TheMainlandBlog
Thanks. I always knew when I started my blog that I wanted to do more than just post a story every now and then. I really want to to write full-time, and being self-hosted gives me the chance to showcase my writing in a way I can’t do on the free blog sites.
Rob Rubin recently posted..I May Have Just Freaked Out Tawny Kitaen
Just hold out for the long one and your stats will bounce back. Moving is easy but the traffic surge definitely disappears in my experiences as well. Do you have any stats now that its been almost a month?
I would love to compare! thanks for posting!
Twitter: raajtram
A teenager (me) realized between 30th March and April 1st that having a self-hosted WordPress Blog brings much pride to you! And more when you do it all with your own money and no paid technical service! I always try new things on the net even if I have to pay for it because if I don’t get anything, there’s one thing which I always get and that is experience. So, my money is never wasted! It’s just spent
To check the result of my realization, please hover over to http://raajtram.com
Raaj Trambadia recently posted..“MyBlogIsMyMoney.com” – Domain Name For Sale!!
Twitter: MichelleChilds2
Hi Rubin,
I’m a relatively new blogger (about three months) and have just moved over to a self hosted WordPress blog too. Am in the phase of downloading plugins, experimenting and finding out what what works best. It’s interesting to read how you and others have found this transition and what works for them.
I’ve checked out your blog and subscribed, lots of interesting posts there, will come back later and read more. Thanks for the post.
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Frightened of moving to .org as I’m a techie dud.
But I really dislike the lack of control over my readership at WordPress.com. I want to be able to delete undesirable subscribers and block individual IPs. I have one particularly persistent and creepy stalker for the better part of one year that I can’t shake. Maybe as harmless as dog poo but it’s still THERE.
Very good post! I loved reading it and it is very useful top me. Thanks for sharing such great details about CommentLuv Premium. CommentLuv is a great tool for bloggers. It facilitates easy communication and visibility. The best thing about this is you can have better control over your blog by avoiding pinging and adding a spam control box. By adding the Twitter link, you can build more social contacts through CommentLuv. One thing I liked about this blog was the video. It was very informative.
Twitter: whoissandymoore
Great move Rob and you have already found out. However, something that many people don’t know as it’s in the wordpress.com fine print.
If you have a wordpress.com website that is attracting a lot of traffic, WP.com will use Google adsense on your site and collect regular revenue without you even knowing it…. A bit of a double standard don’t you think?
You can’t monetize your WP.com website but WP.com can.
Looks like you made the best move for you…. well done!
This post demonstrates every frustration I’ve had with revamping my blog and moving it over to self hosted wordpress.org. I love it and I hate it because traffic was pretty steady and I was gaining a few followers every post, and NONE of them converted over, even after I made a big post about it and how EASY it was to just type your email in to subscribe in my side bar.
The biggest hurtle was all the widgets I lost, like stats and reblog function. Up until recently, I discovered jetpack, which makes the experience slightly like wordpress.com, but Im still trying to find a good “reblog” option. Do you know of any?
Twitter: mavtrevor
Yet another great article….Wordpress.com is for experts they say as WordPress.org is for newbies. I prefer wordpress.com as it gives me the flexibility to tweak my blog to my taste unlike in wordpress.org, i have always hated restrictions in my life though. WordPress.com is a great way to learn the WordPress platform. Thanks
Nwosu Desmond recently posted..WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
Thanks for your post. I just switched from WordPress.com to WordPress.org myself. I was doing a search on how to find your list of followers and somehow found your article. Are you aware that WordPress.com will transfer your followers for you? I’m not sure how this would work for you since you switched over a year ago, but all you need to do is post on the WordPress.com forum with your old and new web addresses. Someone replies and either asks for more info or tells you it’s been done. I’m in the process right now and I only have 16 subscribers. I can’t imagine trying to rebuild over 100 without WordPress.com moving them over for me.
I noticed you mentioned faster indexing of your articles by Google as time went on. You might consider editing your article to indicate that. I was bummed about that and quite confused until I happened to notice you mentioning it in the comment thread.
Anyway, I’m glad you are happy with your move to WordPress.org and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the right move for me as well. Take care and good luck with your site.