So, this post is going to be different from what we usually do on Aspiring Blog. We want to share our experience of having a self-hosted WordPress site. Why do we migrate to a self-hosted website and what changes do we see after that.

If you are going to start a new blog or a WordPress website then this post might be crucial for you. Having said that let’s jump right into our little story.

A year ago I thought to start a blog to share my thinking & perspective with the world. And for the first time, I heard about WordPress as the best blogging platform out there. I downloaded the WordPress mobile application, built a free website with a free plan, and started writing.

later, I was accompanied by my friend on this blogging journey. After writing around 12 posts in 3 months we realized that it was actually not going the way we wanted to. I mean something was missing.

First of all, our website name was just a subdomain of WordPress.com which of course didn’t feel good.

The only traffic we were getting was from WordPress itself (from other WordPress users) and somewhat from social media where we shared our posts. But the biggest flaw I saw was with the customization features which are very limited with the free plan and literally used by everyone. So, you can’t even make your site unique and stand out in the crowd.

• How to get more views and traffic on WordPress.com?

WordPress.com doesn’t allow you to sell ad space. It runs free ads on all free websites, but that doesn’t make any difference because you’ll not earn even a single penny from it.

Although Google indexed our site as WordPress.com promised. If you are on WordPress Free Plan and your site isn’t showing up on Google yet then here’s what WordPress Happiness Engineers have to say about site indexation-

After seeing all these flaws we dig a little deeper into WordPress.com hosting service. We found out they have five plans to offer which there’s only 1 free plan and the rest are paid including Personal, Premium, Business, and E-commerce plans.

I cannot say much about WordPress.com paid plans because I haven’t used them yet. But I thoroughly read about them before making a decision to go self-hosted.

WordPress.com says, all your major limitations will be overcome when you switch to their paid plans. Here are the other benefits of WordPress paid plans.

Benefits of Using WordPress Paid Plans

• You’ll get more space. The 3 GB space with the free plan will be extended once you switch to paid ones.
• Premium and Business plan users have better customization options, custom CSS, a selection of compatible plugins, and the option to use premium and custom themes.
• Business plan users can also use powerful tools like Google Analytics.
• WordPress.com will be removed from your domain name.
• Paid plan users can join their advertising program called WordAds and earn a decent amount of money only if they run a high-traffic website. You can also use Affiliate links.
• Only Business or E-commerce plan users can use Google Adsense. It can’t be added to a free, personal, or premium plan site.
• If you want to upgrade to paid plans then you are just a few clicks away, they’ll take care of the rest including backups.
• You don’t have to worry about any technical aspects, they’ll do that for you.

Keeping all this in mind we conclude that all paid plans are offering really advanced and amazing features. But we still found out various flaws like it still won’t give you much control over your site. They can delete your site anytime if they feel you’re violating their terms & policies. Monetization options are very limited.

And, most importantly it still doesn’t feel like ownership.

But you’ll surely have big support from the WordPress team with every aspect as they are providing their hosting service. If you are blogging just for fun or as a student then the free plan might suit you. But if you want to take your content or business to new heights then you need to consider everything.

Why We Migrated to a Self-Hosted Website? (WordPress.org)

Reading more about WordPress.com I found WordPress.org, the real WordPress.

WordPress.org is an open software free for all. Here you just need to buy a domain and need a hosting provider company.

Unlike WordPress.com it gives you much freedom and control over your site. This is the main reason why we migrated to a self-hosted blogging website.

Moreover, it becomes somewhere necessary after some weird glitches which you may have also noticed in your WordPress.com account. Like banning users to follow or comment on other posts. Although they’re just concerned about spamming even the genuine users are getting affected.

Therefore we dropped our previous website built on WordPress.com and built a new one with WordPress.org. Moving away from WordPress.com was a bit chaotic and complicated for us. However the WordPress support team helped us.

We exported our previous posts and followers to our brand-new website. But for the stats, we needed a Jetpack (offered by Automattic) plugin installed on our new website and contacted the WordPress support team to migrate them too. Here’s what the WordPress support team has to say about your old site’s stats if you are moving away from WordPress.com to a WordPress self-hosted site i.e. WordPress.org.

When you choose the self-hosted website you need a domain and hosting. The process of finding the right hosting provider company can be time-consuming, so we’ll make it very simple for you by giving you the best recommendation.

We use Bluehost for all our hosting needs. We really have a good experience with them. And moreover, it is recommended by WordPress.org itself. It offers a free domain (for 1st year), a free SSL certificate, and a free premium Cloudflare CDN. You are just one click away from installing WordPress.

Changes We’re Seeing After Moving To WordPress.org

Now it’s been 8 months for us to have a self-hosted website with WordPress.org. Within these months we noticed major changes. Although it will take some more time to clearly see the benefits. But still, there are some noticeable changes:-

Bigger Outreach

This is the biggest change we are seeing with our posts and pages. We are getting traffic not only from WordPress or social media but from search engines too which are considered to be organic traffic. Here’s the screenshot of our performance in Google search results in the last 3 months-

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Honestly, we haven’t been into SEO much before. However, our limited knowledge of writing SEO content and some amazing plugins like Yoast SEO help us boost our SEO efforts.

Due to this some of our posts are now ranking pretty well in search engines like Google, Bing, Baidu, etc.

Better Monetization Options

If you are thinking of earning from your online content then comparatively WordPress.org has better monetization options. It allows you to join advertising programs like Google Adsense or any other third-party services. You can sell ad space and can also join affiliate programs.

Better Customization Options

WordPress.org allows you to upload custom themes. You can customize and modify your website design that suit your work. You can add any free or paid plugins. It gives you a much-advanced feature to build your site more unique than everybody else.

You Are In Full Control

It is one of the biggest advantages of having a self-hosted website. You own your website. You are in full control. No one can raise a question against your website unless you are doing something illegal.

Better Statistics Using Google Analytics

We are able to track our performance more accurately with powerful tracking tools like Google Analytics. The best thing is you don’t need any developer to embed code. MonsterInsights plugin makes it effortless to properly connect your website with Google Analytics.

Along with Google Analytics, you can also use the Jetpack Plugin to look for your stats, visitors, popular posts, and security features (If you have connected your site to the Jetpack Plugin).

Benefits of WordPress.com

Moving out of WordPress.com hasn’t affected our previous capabilities. We still have the facilities that WordPress.com users have, through Jetpack Plugin. Jetpack is offered by Automattic, the people behind WordPress.com.

We are able to connect with the WordPress community because we believe WordPress is the best community we have. We really like reading other perceptions and thinking.

Challenges of Having a Self-Hosted Website

As I said, you have to buy a domain and need web hosting which will obviously cost you. Thankfully, Bluehost offers a free domain for the first year.

As it is said – With great powers comes great responsibilities. Here are some challenges that you’ll face after opting for a self-hosted WordPress website:-

• You need to work harder and consistently to see the results as you own a website.
• You need to make your posts and pages more competitive and of high quality.
• As you have a bigger reach, you are in the eye of Google and other search engines, therefore the responsibilities are big now.
• With the time you’ll start earning from your content, only then you can cover all your initial costs.
• As the site grows so does the cost of maintaining it, but with time your earning also increases to cover your expenses.
• You have to find the optimum way to make your site user-friendly.
• Even if you are not a technical person, still you have to face those difficulties. You own a site so it’s very common to have technical errors.
• You are responsible for site backups and your site security.
• You may feel demotivated sometimes, it’s up to you how you take these challenges. The WordPress support team or forums may help you sometimes.

Surely, you have a lot of work to do. Once your website goes self-hosted your responsibilities become much bigger. I’m telling you this so you already get prepared if you are migrating to WordPress.org. But remember, Toughest climbs always lead to the best views. So, keep blogging and let the wisdom be shared.

• Also, check about Bluehost hosting service and what they have to offer you with the cheapest rates and you can also check your domain availability here.

If you are using any of the paid plans of WordPress.com or using a self-hosted WordPress.org website, we would like to know your experience with that and why you chose to go with that. Drop your views here in the comment section.

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Our Mailing Address – Namaskar@theblogera.com

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