Should I stay or should I go?

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As with regards all things cushty and uncomplicated in my life, the little crazy in me feels an uncontrollable urge to mix things up a little!

And so my friends, I am toying with the idea of going self-hosted. Why? Well I am still asking myself the same thing, really. But mostly because I like the sound of more control!

I am planning on leaving the safety net and support of WordPress.com to go it alone with WordPress.org.

I want to have more fonts at my fingertips and mix my own colour palette. Can you hear that frustrated graphic designer banging her head against a brick wall! I did a coding course a year or two ago and it seems a shame not to put my hard learned knowledge into practice too. Perhaps a little online shop further down the line. . . Really getting carried away now!

This isn’t an imminent operation but I am close to pressing that export button. My massively main concern is that I may loose some of my wonderful WordPress followers in the process. Not the Email subscribers among you, you are safely nestled in my adoring arms. But apparently there is no function that will export the WordPress followers list which is such a shame. I so don’t want to leave you behind.

It is of course the comments and support of you, my fabulous followers that keep these posts coming, that inspire new work and encourage me to take on bigger challenges, learning so much more in the process. And for that I can never be grateful enough.

So just as a heads up, if you would like to hang on to your ooobop! notifications (unless of course you want me off your back!) then please add me to your Bloglovin’ list or whatever other blog reading service you might use or indeed subscribe by Email as I believe that will transfer.

And please, please, please, you got to let me know, if you have any advice or wise words of experience to spur me on… or put me off!… please do. I’m going into this a bit blind and so worried I’ll ruin everything.

Thanks in anticipation for sticking with me, kids! I’ll keep you updated as and when I press that button (this indecision’s buggin’ me!) xxx

47 Replies to “Should I stay or should I go?”

      1. You are such a smooth operator that I don’t doubt it 😉
        (Please excuse the terrible pun, I had a stressful couple of days a too much coffee 😉 )

  1. If it feels RIGHT do it! dont regret anything better to say “well at least I tried” rather than “I wish I had tried” all your army of ‘fans and followers’ will always be with you. GOOD LUCK

  2. I would say go for it. You have so much flexibility self hosted, and the customisation possibilities are endless. Been thinking of doing that too. And lets face it, your readers live to read what you post,so they will follow you no matter the platform. I certainly would.

    1. Sorry about that. I can’t see either because I’m logged into my own page! Will look into it and get back to you. However I must say that my new url will be exactly the same: https://www.ooobop.com so hopefully it won’t mess things up too much. Thank you for being such a loyal follower x

    2. Just under the search box, top of the right hand column, there should be a box that asks if you want to subscribe by Email. If you input your Email address that should do the trick!

  3. I have been irritated by the same issue:-/ There really should be a way to keep/transfer followers from this basic wordpress to self hosted wordpress. Grrr….but that would make our lives too simple! Good luck, I will still keep up with you even if you “move”.

  4. I would definitely go. The only thing stopping me is lack of knowledge in the coding department, and the issue of I’d rather spend my free time sewing than nose-deep in an Idiot’s Guide book 😛 I follow you on Bloglovin anyway, and you can get them to ‘transfer’ all your followers when you switch by sending them an email with your old site and your new site. Too easy 🙂

  5. I’m also thinking of the same thing. The little adds WordPress tacks on to the end of posts are driving me bananas. Plus, I think it would be fun to get behind the scenes and gain a bit of control. Please do share your experiences. Or, if having a buddy along for the ride would help move you forward, let me know, and I’ll motivate to make it happen for my blog in parallel!

    1. Thanks Amy. I am probably making mountains out of molehills like I usually do. But I so don’t want any aggro! Will defo keep you posted. Happy to hold hands and jump in together if you are!! x

  6. Janene, I couldn’t bear to lose you, so I am following you on Bloglovin. I cannot give you any advice on the transfer otherwise I would have my own blog. It is all to hard for this middle aged Aussie girl. It wasn’t that long ago that I learnt how to turn on the computer!!! Good luck with the transfer of blogs.

  7. Hello! I’m really glad I moved to self hosted but it does have some downsides:

    Pros
    -It feels more real as a website and proves its importance to you.
    -Full freedom of design.
    -No wp ads put on your blog.
    -You can offer sponsorship if you like.
    -You can add a shop if you like.
    -Bloglovin will move all your followers for you if you email them so your readers aren’t impacted at all!

    Cons:
    -After it realises you’ve switched you can’t comment with blogger openid as wordpress any more. Have to use a Google account. SUCH A PAIN!!
    -Wp make you pay for a redirect setup, even if you know how to code one yourself.
    -You lose the wp followers unless they go into wp reader and add your new url. There is no follow + button on .org sites. But you can’t make them move with you.
    -Similarly feedly and newsify followers have to manually update to follow your new url. Chances are some people won’t.
    -If you forget to pay just one hosting bill someone can steal your site (see Miss Make).

    Act fast and buy your dream domain. Someone got mine and wants paying loads for it.

    Don’t be disheartened to lose followers. You will lose several, it’s unfortunately inevitable. You CAN rebuild your numbers. And when you get new followers you know it’s for good. I have now passed the reader figures from what I had before even though I have clearly lost some people from the early days.

    I say do it. You’re in a stronger position than I was with a wide reader base. They’re more likely to move with you!

    Good luck x

    1. Ps. One more pro/con… its 11.30 at night, you’re freaking out because you’ve realised on mobiles your site is rendering insanely because a tweak you made to the main site code isn’t working for phones. You can’t figure out how to undo or fix the issue. Your developer friend isn’t answering his phone cos cos he’s asleep. It feels like a DISASTER! Then you stay up until 12.30 combing the web for an answer. You figure it out and the EUPHORIA IS AMAZING!!!! You will feel likw a superhero.

      1. My heart was racing at the prospect but I know all too well that feeling of pure chuffness when you crack it all by yourself! Gluttons for punishment! xxx

    2. Oh you are so brilliant Amy. Your site is so clean and lovely and I am so grateful for your comments. You might regret being the experienced one. Bagsy sit next to you at the next meet! xxx

    3. I have a self-hosted wordpress site, and while those “con” things dont come out of the box. They have now implemented jetpack in the selfhosting service, and amongst those things there are a google+ follow button (and any other you can think of) you can use openID AND wordpress.com logins (all through jetpack!)
      And what? redirect setup? all i did was export my old blog, point my url to the new blog and import all the old stuff, no need to pay.
      Regarding hosting … I pay a yearly fee, most places also allow you do automaticly pay it each time it’s about to run out. You can also choose to buy like 5 years in advance. (Atleast where i have my hosting)
      and the following thing, i dont know about merging your old, but there are great tools for it in jetpack.

      And, jetpack also includes a tool for making the site work for mobile.. just like that 🙂

      I abandoned blogspot/wordpress/etc years ago, and it’s only gotten better and better these last few years.
      And the documentation online is massive, so if there’s something wrong it wont take long to figure out. If you only know how to use google.

      Good luck on your move! I look forward to it 🙂

  8. I am thinking of doing the same thing so will be following your adventures with interest. I am terrible at graphic design and useless at coding, but I use a WordPress.org site at work and it’s so much better – all the lovely plugins you can use! Full Google Analytics!

    Good luck, and I’ll still be following your blog wherever it’s hosted 🙂

  9. If you’ve got those skills, I think you should go for it. I am ‘safely in your adoring arms’, as an email subscriber, so you won’t lose me either way.

  10. It makes little difference to me (that’s not meant to sound harsh)… what I mean is I’ll still be reading whether the colours, font or layout changes. What you need to decide is whether this move is for you or your readers?

    1. Most definitely for me initially, with the changes I have in mind, and when I can master how to incorporate more functionality, ultimately for my readers!

  11. Haha, as a designer, I totally understand the frustration with design limitations, but I’m definitely not a programmer so I’ve left mine in template mode for the time being. If you are motivated enough, you can do anything, though, so don’t let the fear of losing followers deter you – the good ones will always be there 😉

  12. Oooh, well I say STAY simply because it is so easy to follow, comment and receive notifications of your comments, being a fellow WordPress blogger, but it certainly does not allow the same freedom and options as self hosting. I’ll still “follow [you] wherever [you] may go”. What song is that from? (quiz question).

  13. I just moved from Blogger to WordPress and that was daunting enough!! Good luck, I follow via Bloglovin so probably won’t even notice. I emailed Bloglovin when I changed and they changed all my followers over within about 45 minutes. Good luck!!

  14. Super polished photo’s Janene, your GD skills are shining through, gorgeous make too.

    I’m self hosted I agree with Amy if anything goes wrong I have to fix it myself. I’ve had a few issues, but have managed to sort through them, Phew!. You need to constantly back up your blog via your c-panel. I once had all of my monthly data stolen by spammers and my blog went off line because I had no idea what the hell was going on. The problem was solved with the help of my host that’s been my only major hick-up. I wouldn’t change a thing, I’ve learnt so much about CSS, HTML coding etc.
    It really is a learning experience. Once you pick a slick template, just keep things up to date and you should be cool. Good luck.

    I’m pretty sure you can use Google fonts on Blogger http://www.keylimedigitaldesigns.com/2012/12/how-to-use-google-web-fonts-in-blogger/
    Have a look around there maybe something that suits your design style.

    Your colour palette you can change here too in the markup, look up the web colour chart and select the colour number #cccc etc and change it in your markup. If you are unsure of where to find the markup to change and you use Google Chrome you can right click and choose Inspect Element that should show you where you need to go to change things. Good luck lady, I don’t know a lot but what I do know could help…just holla.

    1. Thanks so much, lovely. I did a course in xhtml and css some time ago now so I am seriously going to have to dust off those skillz! I think I am going to continue to use the WordPress software. Better the devil you know an all that. But I will definitely look into how I back up the blog as a priority. Sound advice, especially coming from once seriously cool designer as your good self, thank you! xxx

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