Self-hosted Site to WordPress.com?

Barbara Custer included lots of zombies in When Blood Reigns.Too often, I read about people buying balloons, dogs biting people, and people migrating from WordPress, BlogSpot, etc. to a self-hosted website. So this year, I’m writing about balloons that chase humans, people who bite dogs, and what it’s like to move from self-hosted to WordPress.

Three years ago I was in a big hurry to go self-hosted, so you must wonder why I’m contemplating going back. In a word, cost. This past summer I racked up steep charges – not just for hosting and SEO, but virus protection, file backup, spam filter, and SQL certificate. I crunched numbers and got the cost at $600 a year. You can get a similar website, same capability using WordPress.com’s business option for $360 a year. I believe that includes a premium website. WordPress does the back-end work for you and they offer options now that were previous available to self-hosted sites.

You can do a heck of a lot of promotion for $240 a year. Now if you have a lot of tech savvy, you can do self-hosted for $300 / year or even less. I grew up with a B&W TV and radio, so anything techy has a steep learning curve. It comes down to knowing where your strength and weaknesses lie. Frankly, I’d rather spend that time writing my next book or running from balloons. Dat’s wight, wabbits, the balloons chase me when I go to the supermarket for food shopping. And they always catch me. 🙂

WordPress leaves you on your own for the most part with the migration process but they provide a step-by-step way to do this. It seemed easy until I realize I had more blogs than I had balloons. So one question loomed: do I upgrade first or do I migrate first? They also talked about domain mapping. To my consideration, a map is what I download from GPS when I’m traveling. I put that down as a question to ask.

I had planned to do this on my vacation, but I chickened out. Then the opportunity to run this promo came about, so I felt the time wasn’t right to make the switch. I’m keeping an option mind in case the option for a cheaper version of wordpress.org comes about.

Oh, by the way, when I mention people who bite the dog, I’m referring to the zombies in When Blood Reigns and Steel Rose. Basically, they’re people whose brains were altered by a chemical which renegade aliens, the Kryszka, concocted. So these folks will bite anything that moves, including dogs and other people.

Has any of you ever from a self-hosted website to WordPress or BlogSpot? What made you migrate, and are you glad you did it? What made you decide to continue with self-hosted? I look forward to hearing about your experiences.

Commenters are eligible to win a copy of When Blood Reigns.

About Barbara Custer

Author of: Twilight Healer Steel Rose Life Raft: Earth City of Brotherly Death Close Liaisons Infinite Sight When Blood Reigns Infinite Sight Publisher / Editor of Night to Dawn Books & Magazine
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