Last Updated on: March 31st, 2021
Image courtesy of Pong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I really need some guidance, and I am asking you for your advice.
By the way, this is officially the 100th post on this blog.
Is it time to get my own site?
Sunday morning sadness has me contemplating life and blogging again. I am well aware that I did not post a Featured Friday post the other day, and this was intentional. You see, I’m torn between blogging for free and getting my own website.
I also wanted to do something special for my 100th post, and was going to post my announcement that I’m going to be moving to my own site, but I need some questions answered before making that leap. I know I’ve mentioned this a few times already, and there are two things holding me back: my fears and my unwillingness to start fresh. I’m used to how things work right now, and I’ve been looking for answers all week long.
I’ve also been doing research for the past week, looking for domain names and searching for possible hosts. I have even been designing a logo and image to use on a new site I want to create. On one hand, I’m really positive, but on the other, I’m really depressed and confused.
I don’t often write posts and then hit the “publish” button anymore; I schedule my posts. Not this one, though. This one is going live as soon as I’m done. I’m really frustrated at the moment and am starting to have a love-hate relationship with blogging.
Some days I simply love it and can’t get enough of it, while other days I dread turning my laptop on. I know you all have felt this way at some point, haven’t you?
Today, I am appealing to you to
1. forgive me for posting on a Sunday.
2. help me answer some of my questions
3. give me a virtual hug. (I really need one. I’ve been recovering slowly from my recent surgery and really hate how my leg looks. I got the rest of my stitches out on Friday and it’s going to take longer than anyone expected for me to get better. Yep, I’m sad and depressed, and I’m not handling things very well.)
What’s really frustrating is that I’m not technical and hate feeling inferior.
When it comes to blogging, I cannot help but compare myself to others. I think we all do that, but don’t ever want to admit it. As a perfectionist, this is particularly hard for me, because I want to know how to do certain things and, despite searching endlessly for answers, experimenting with different programs, testing things out, I still cannot seem to learn random things, even when I ask others for help.
Yep, searching endlessly is really starting to piss me off.
So now I’m appealing to you. Yes, YOU. I need your help.
I’m going to ask you some questions, and if you know the answers to any of them, I’d like for you to either (a) tell me in the comment section or (b) email me privately at lorrainemariereguly@gmail.com with your response.
Here are my questions:
1. If I move to my own site, how are my followers going to know when I’ve published a new post? (Yes, I’m still going to use WordPress as my blogging platform.) I ask this because I have followers via email but more via the WordPress reader.
2. How do I get my posts show up in your WordPress reader?
3. Will you still have the option to “like” my posts? What do I have to do to give you that option?
Image courtesy of cooldesign / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
4. How are images like this one (of the guy holding a stop sign) created? I’d like to learn how to make some of my own for my blog posts, without having to rely on others to do so.
5. If I get my own site, will I have to install a commenting system or does one come with it? Or do I have the option of upgrading to a CommentLuv system, and how much will it cost?
6. If I get my own site, will I have to install sharing buttons or do they come with it? Or do I have the option of installing something like SexyBookmarks or SassyBookmarks, if that’s what I want? Or can I upgrade to something like Share+? Do you have one you’d like to recommend?
7. How do I make things downloadable? For example, say I have a Word document or handout booklet that I have created and want to give to my readers, and instead of giving them a FREE PDF Planner, how can I make this something they can download?
I’m sure I have more questions, but for now, these are the ones I currently need answers to – and I’m relying on YOU to help me out.
I’d also like you to share this post on as many social platforms as possible so that all of these questions get answered. I know that there are helpful people like me out there (I help others whenever I can, out of the goodness of my heart) and we need to tap into their brains and hope that they’ll step up and share their knowledge.
Thank you for coming to my rescue. I hate feeling frustrated and stupid.
I am not a technical person and I have tons of such and many more questions.
I do not know, unfortunately , but the answers have helped me a lot too to learn many things.
All I can do is to send you a BIG HUG…
Andleeb, this post was written before Wording Well was born, back when my blog used to be called Lorraine Reguly’s Life, and so I know the answers to these questions now!
First, don’t be sad you posted on a Sunday. Studies show weekend traffic is much higher! Second, I apologize I am only addressing a few of your questions since I am typing this mobile. Yes, definitely get your own site, keep using WordPress, and think about how you want to get compensated for blogging. Do you want to earn income from your blog? Ghost blog for others? As for images…I always recommend MorgueFile and Pixabay for free stock images. Happy blogging and Happy New Year!
Tara Lynne, thanks for your comment. I’ve learned that experimenting with different days of publication is good.
I’ve also been earning money with my blog/site, too.
I’ve found a way to create my own images as well, but I appreciate your attempt to answer some of my questions!
Happy New Year to you, too!
Hey Lorraine,
I read your post and in my opinion it is always better to have your own website because having your blog on wordpress.com has a few limitations when it comes to disk space, adwords, plugins, themes and on and on. I am a WordPress Theme Developer with almost 2 and a half years of experience and i think you can and you must move your blog to your own server or hosting because it gives you some advantages and it is way to flexible.
If you have no clue about setting up a self hosted WordPress Blog, you must learn about how things work on live server and how to manage it. I am really sorry that I don’t have any topic to provide on this this but still you can become a WordPress expert within 5 days by just Googling. Trial and Error is the secret. I hope this works :). God Bless You 🙂
Thanks for your comment, Mithun. I’ve actually just purchased hosting and am moving my blog! 😀
I’m not sure if you’re over or under 21 questions at this point!
First let me say that I know a lot of technical people who get intimidated by all this stuff, especially since it changes every second blink. I’m pretty sure 94.73% of people feel inferior about tech.
So, while my not-so-hidden agenda is to sell you web hosting, I’m not sure if you should move off wordpress.com or not. This is from another hosting company, so it has a pro-host bias, but I skimmed it and it has some good information http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordpress-org-vs-wordpress-com/
It looks like the people who found you via WordPress Reader might be the biggest challenge: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/moving-to-self-hosted-what-happens-to-followers-and-subscribers I noticed you set up MailChimp. They have a way to push your posts to mail (via a RSS feed, which is what WordPress Reader will be using), but you will need to ask people to subscribe. Personally if I went this route, every time I posted on my self-hosted blog, I’d post an article here on wordpress.com with the same title and a link to the new RSS feed.
There are some decent sources for free clip art. My favourite is openclipart.org. You can download .png files, which are raster images, or .svg (scalable vector graphics) files, which you can edit with Inkscape (inkscape.org), an open source program much like Corel Draw. For images, I rely on Flickr (flickr.com). It has a search option where you can look for images that are provided under a Creative Commons licence. For the most part all the creators require are credits (I usually provide a back link to their Flickr account).
Most of your other questions have either been answered or are things you can plug into WordPress. We don’t run Fantastico because it is notorious for being out of date and the last thing you want is a brand new blog with a security hole.
What nobody has mentioned so far is security. The last thing you want is to wake up some morning to find that Google has de-indexed your site because hit has been hacked and has bogus pharma links on it. We’re really big on backups and security. Every file in every website is scanned once a day for viruses and hacks (malware), and if something is found, it’s moved to quarantine right away. We’ve stopped innumerable hacks this way. At the same time you can be pretty sure that the wordpress.com people are equally vigilant.
Another thing is performance. People have already mentioned some inferior cheap hosting companies on this post. They can be great places to register a domain for cheap, but despite the race cars in their ads, they can be slow to serve web pages. Fast sites get better Google rankings, and more readership, so that’s the other thing we pay a lot of attention to.
I feel for you, it’s a big step and not an easy decision.
Thank you for the information, links, and your heartfelt feelings. It is NOT an easy decision, but one I feel I must make.
I’m not going with any of the hosts mentioned on this post, by the way. 😉 In fact, I’m in the process of writing a post about hosting!
I will have to check out the “art” links you mentioned, too. Thanks for that. Creating images is something I would like to learn how to do – other than using limiting sites like Picmonkey!
Hi Lorraine, {{hugs}}
I’m so glad that you posted this. I’ve been considering the same thing. I have been looking at how others have done it. I have found videos on youtube about how to go from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. That is what I want to do since I would know some of it already. I’m not the most techie person either, but I like learning. I learned a lot over the year and a half.
I am thinking of going with bluehost (one of the ones that wordpress.com recomends)
(http://get.wp.com/hosting/) at this link it mentions a service to transfer everything for you, and a step guide for doing it yourself at the bottom of the service page link.
The reason I am thinking of Bluehost is they also have an affiliate program which could (potentially) help with the costs of self hosting. I plan on purchasing the domain name form wordpress.
That is as much as I understand.
If you want to learn about creating graphics there is a free program called Gimp which has some of the same capabilities as Photoshop. I also use morgueflie.com and other free sights most of the time for pictures.
I don’t know how to create ones like in your example.
Again, thanks for this post. {{hug}}
Before making any major decisions on hosting, wait for my post about this to come out. I actually have two coming: one on this blog and one on Dear Blogger. They will be posted simultaneously and link back to one another. I’ve been doing research and have even obtained permission from several places to post answers to the questions I asked them! So, be assured, these posts will be good.
I’ve actually got Gimp on my laptop now, but it is confusing. I’ll check out the other image creator you mentioned. Thanks for the hug, too. 😉
I’ll look forward to it. Not making decisions just yet. Oh, and morguefile.com is only a free photo site, not a program. Sorry for the confusion.
No problem, I can always use another resource site for images – the more, the merrier!
I haven’t missed this post have I? I see you’ve announced your move.
I have announced it but not have moved yet!
Oh yes, I see you haven’t moved. I was referring to the post that you’re working on about hosting options.
Oh, no. I’ll be publishing it on the new site, which is up but is still being customized. Sneak peeking is allowed but not much there yet. Turns out, starting over really means starting over. From scratch. Ugh. 🙁
Don’t worry about that 😉
As long as you post consistently, it doesn’t matter what day you post 😀
These are some great questions and some of them can probably be answered in different ways…well, here are my suggestions:
1) There are different ways to do this…if you just want to continue the way you are doing it right now….then all you have to do is install Jetpack.
Jetpack allows you to replicate many of the features available in .com (including share buttons…although there are really good plugins that can help you with that).
2) Same as #1….Jetpack email notifications.
There are other ways of course..RSS (the most popular one). You can setup a feed via Feedburner (well, you don’t need to do that, as WP automatically builds a feed for you…..but feedburner allows further customization).
3) Jet pack…there are also other plugins that can do the same thing (star rating and so forth).
4) Most people don’t create any images..they use other resources to find good ones (I do the same).
I wanted to create my own images with my new blog (take photographs and/or create in photoshop….PS isn’t viable since I don’t have the time for that. Photographs – well, I need a memory card for that. I am planning to buy a camera though).
5) WP has a built-in commenting system. Comment luv has two different versions: a free version and a premium version (starting at $69).
6) Answered in #1.
Digg Digg, Floating share bar, WP Float are all good options.
7) You can do it in two different ways (as far as I know).
You can either upload it directly to your root folder or you can use the media uploader (in the post editor).
Media uploader will result in longer URLs (plus, there is a limit on file size).
Uploading directly to root folder gives you access to the URL……I think it also improves the speed..since it is loading directly.
That’s it 🙂
Do let me know if you have any further questions 😀
My suggestion would be to buy the domain…setup web hosting…and deploy it (while maintaining this blog).
Test out the design and everything else before you redirect this blog to the domain 😀 (PS: Don’t forget to setup a sub-domain for further testing….).
Jeevan, thanks for your answers. Many people have recommended Jetpack.
Can you explain your last two sentences further? I have no idea how to take out the design (or what that means) and am lost when you mention sub-domains…
I am planning on taking my posts in this blog with me when I move. But now I have another question: Can I still post to this site once I’ve moved? (I might want to add a couple of posts to encourage others to join me on my new site, and to sign up to my newsletter/email list…)
Help, please, again!
No problem 🙂
Have you decided on a theme yet?
You can either use a free theme (there are a lot of free themes :D) or you can get a professional theme. I would suggest that you get a professional theme because they come with support (for instance: your theme may not be compatible with a certain plugin…a developer may help to resolve that issue).
With professional themes, you also have frameworks (sort of like a skeleton). You know, our skeleton look the same (let’s just say about the same)….but the flesh itself is different (in this case, themes are the flesh).
Each framework may support different themes – called child themes. Most of the framework comes with plenty of child theme options, but there are a few drag and drop themes (another advantage with framework is that you can design your own themes).
Thesis, Genesis and Headway are all examples of theme frameworks (you may want to check them out!).
So, first decide on the template 😀
Once you have a domain (buy the domain and set it up before theme selection!), you can setup a sub domain (well, you don’t need a subdomain..you can just set it up like this – yourdomain dot com/testsite.
You can use softaculous or fantastico to set it up (depending upon your web host).
Note: Fantastico and Softaculous are one click installers (They support multiple platforms, including WordPress).
You can redirect this blog (so when people type in the address, they will automatically be redirected to the new address).
You need to get the plugin for that (http://store.wordpress.com/premium-upgrades/redirect/ – $13 per year).
The best thing about this method is that you will get the search engine juice (or else…you will lose all the rankings).
If you are okay with that, you can just post an announcement (top of this blog) that you have redirected (a lot of people have done that).
http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-properly-move-your-blog-from-wordpress-com-to-wordpress-org/ << Here is a tutorial on moving the content.
Yes, you can. It really depends upon what you want to do.
Do you want to start fresh? (Keep this site and tell people you have moved)
Or
Do you want to import this blog into the new one?
All this may look overwhelming…but don't worry…Everything is simple, you just have to plan well and do it 😀 (Google is your best friend…use it!).
With email list…well, you can convert it into a newsletter (Send manual emails…instead of just notifying people about new posts).
It would be useful for the future, if you are planning to do affiliate marketing.
Aweber, Mailchimp are all good services (I use Mailchimp….lot of features, plus it's free! A lot of people do use Aweber – it's paid, and it does offer more features).
Yes, I recently signed up to Mailchimp and am working on a newsletter. I would like more subscribers before I send it, but have plans to ask people to sign up for it.
I appreciate all of the links and your help, Jeevan. I know a few things already, but it seems like I don’t know enough. I’m still sorting a few things out.
At least I now know I can ask you for tech help if I’m stuck! 😉 Right?
Awesome (I see that you have already asked people to do so :D). I did sign up a few weeks ago, so it’s all good 😀
Well, good luck 😉
Yes, indeed 😀
You rock! 😀
I think I can answer most, if not all, of your questions.
1. You can make a new post here as a static post telling everyone that you’ve moved and place a link to that URL. To make it a static post, go to ‘Setting’ on your sidebar of your dashboard and click on ‘Reading’.
2. This one I’m not too sure about. Get the ‘Jet Pack’. Your WordPress that you install will probable have it already but if it doesn’t, it is a plug-in. I think your blog will show up on the reader if you have the follow button, which you can get as a plug-in.
3. There is a plug-in to get the ‘Like’ feature.
4. Your editor in the dashboard is the same. You’ll be able to put all pictures in the same way.
5. You shouldn’t have to get a plug-in for the comment section unless you want it. There is a plug-in for CommentLuv. I do suggest you get an ‘upcatch’ (not sure about this spelling) to keep your site safe from viruses and spam.
6. Share buttons are plug-ins.
7. I used 4share.com @ http://www.4shared.com/web/login?sessionUnavailable=1 for my downloads. That way I had an online place to store them too.
Most plug-ins are free and there are several to choose from in each category. Sometimes it’s frustrating trying to decide which one to pick.
After having my own domain for my blog for 3 years+, I’m glad I went back to WordPress.Com. I lost access to my site I don’t remember how many times and I was with iPage, which has a fantastic reputation. (goDaddy, I’ve heard has a terrible rep right now.) Having WordPress.Com take care of all of the hassles is wonderful for me.
If you feel that you really want more ‘on hand’ control stuff, you may want to look into getting a Premier account at WordPress.Com.
Everything after answering your questions is purely my opinion. If you want to dump them in the nearest lake, I won’t be offended. 🙂
Thanks for the laugh at the end, Glynis. I needed that!
I appreciate your advice, input, and answers. However, in #4, I was asking how to actually create images of that sort…
I’ll just throw that answer into the nearest lake. 😉
I don’t know all the answers, but these are the ones I do know:
3. Install the Jetpack plugin – this gives the “like” option and also gives wordpress.org blogs many of the same features as wordpress.com blogs. It may even sort out some of your other questions.
5. Comments are part of the system. The theme you chose may alter how they appear, but normally they are just there without you doing anything. Jetpack will also help to manage comments and give people the option to subscribe to follow-up comments via email (just like in wordpress.com). I would recommend installing the commentluv plugin though – and it’s free. That will then let people’s latest post automatically appear when they leave you a comment.
6. Jetpack will help you with social media sharing options, although there are many other ways you can do this too – tons of plugins, but some themes will also have their own methods built in. My theme gives me the share options that float down the left side of the screen when you scroll down, but I also use the Jetpack share options that appear at the end of my posts.
I can’t answer 7 because I don’t do downloadable options yet. It’s possible that questions 1 and 2 might be solvable with Jetpack. Check it out here: http://jetpack.me/ By the way, Jetpack is free.
I have heard a lot about Jetpack. Thank you for your many answers! I appreciate that you took the time to help me – and others – Glenda. Thanks for the link, too. 🙂
Oh man, I am soooo in the same place as you regarding my feelings toward my blog. I do have a domain name and stuff but I used professionals for all of that stuff. I am just not that way inclined and cant seem to fathom IT stuff.
I don’t have any answers for you, but I tell you what, I would love to know the answers to each question. These questions are ones I have not thought of and could really help me out even though I didn’t know it previously.
Well, then, Becc, I’d advise checking out the comments on this post. Many people have been helpful and have come to my rescue!
I’m sooo non-techie that it isn’t even funny, so I hear you…
Hey Lorraine,
There is nothing to worry about migration. This is the right time and you are doing it right.
The mistake is then when you realize that self hosted WordPress website provides more flexibility and still you hesitate to move. Glad that you are not the one who do that mistake
So no worries… Everyone starts with free blogging platform like this even me.
Anyway, here are my answers.
1,2. To be honest, I am not sure about the WordPress reader. But as far as I’ve known you won’t lose a single rss subscriber and email subscriber.
3. Did you mean that WordPress like which comes with the star button? Yes, it can be done using Jetpack plugin
4. Media management in WordPress.com and self hosted WP are same
5. Commenting system comes up with the WordPress install. You don’t need to do any extra work for it. In addition, you can turn the self hosting WP commenting similar to the one you’ve been using here by simply installing the plugin JetPack. For e.g. you can look at my blog. I am using it.
6. Yes, yes, yes. To using free version or not is up to you
7. Just upload that doc to media. That’s it. It is similar to the WordPress.com
Did you know that I am leading a team of designers and WordPress developers on our startup and also help people to migrate to self hosted WordPress?
Hey, Shahzad, thank you for your answers! I have another question, though: how can you count downloads? Is there a way? I’m curious because I plan on giving a few things away in the future, and would like to track how many people are actually using them (or taking them).
And no, I didn’t know that. I’ll check out your site.
Most of my followers are through the reader, so this concerns me greatly. I guess I’ll have to ask them to subscribe to my mailing list before I move. Thanks for that info!
I appreciate that you took the time to answer and help me – as well as others who are reading this! Thank you very much, Shahzad. 🙂
Hey, Lorraine! I don’t have the answers to most of your questions as they are pretty technical and specific to moving a website from free domain to your own (which i have not done!) BUT! There is always a but – this time it’s a good one 😉
Let me give you a piece of advice which i found the hard way years ago.
Do NOT try to do this on your own. You may (and probably will) seriously hit yourself. You say you are not a techie – why then try do this super technical thing on your own? When your car breaks down – do you roll up your sleeves and fixing whatever it is broken under the hood? I know i don’t – i pay someone who knows what’s under the hood to fix it for me. This way i have time to do what i know and make money to pay that guy.
You need to look at this from a different angel. You say you like free things – free blogging, etc. And you do many things by yourself because you don’t have to pay to anyone do them for you. But are those things really free in the end? Have you thought about the foregone profits of your time – if you were editing a book instead of trying to make that thing work? (whatever that thing is or may be).
I think the best thing you can do for yourself and for your blog is to find someone whom you trust and who knows wordpress, explain to him or her what you want to achieve and then ask for a brief plan and a price quote. When they come back to you with that outline and price quote, you do what you do best – blog and work some more to come up with that money they said it will cost you. This way you will skip the whole frustration and anxiety that you have been experiencing.
I know you LOVE blogging – all negative feelings you have about it right now are related to those things you don;t understand (incl. those questions). Let it go – have someone do them for you so you can do what you live and – blog.
And by the way, the free wordpress you blog on – it is a limited version of the wordpress platform people with their own domains blog on. Meaning – chances are whatever you can do with your free blog, you can do it with a elf-hosted one as well (and more).
Hope this helps and makes you feel better! 🙂
Yes, you have made me feel better! Thank you for all of your advice. And I love the car analogy; very true!
Totally agree with Diana 🙂
Yes, Diana makes some good points.
Oh, on the image question–it looks like that’s done with a 3d modeling program. I’m fairly good with Photoshop, but I don’t know much about 3d imaging like that. Try searching for free 3d modeling programs or 3d modelling tutorials?
Good advice! I have no experience whatsoever with Photoshop or Illustrator or anything… I’ll do a Google search and see what I can learn. Thanks again!
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2012/08/31/moving-your-blog-from-wordpress-com-to-wordpress-org-resources-and-tips/ this article may help you! I’m sorry you’re feeling sad. *hugs*
Thanks, Rose. Hugs back!
Hi Lorraine.
First a big virtual hug, but I need to be sitting down as my legs don’t work too well, (which is why I have a wheelchair).
Second: get well soon.
Third: I have my own site with WordPress and many of the things that you want come with it – comments, Like button, and having Downloadable files. Latter I have done by adding a link in post. If you stay with WordPress and just change your site address I suspect very little will change.
Fourth: follow blogs that have changed sites and in some cases auto redirect or worst case I was asked to re-follow. WordPress does have a redirect for a fee – http://en.support.wordpress.com/site-redirect/
Not sure that answers those points but my thoughts. Check out my site at http://www.rolandclarke.com for which I went with a basic theme without adding any frills or whistles… yet.
Another hug.
Thanks, Roland for adding your thoughts here, and hugs to you, too. I don’t think I knew that you were in a wheelchair. Sorry to hear that. As someone who spent some time in one myself when recuperating from my major operation after being in my snowmobiling accident, I can sympathize. But I know you don’t want pity, so I won’t give it. I respect you too much for that!
I’m going to stay with WordPress, but I want to re-design and rename my site. So on that front, once I do move, expect good things! (I’ll let you know more in a future post, I promise.)
Lorraine…Go to Lifehacker.com. They have a ton of Tech-Savvy readers who can point you in the right direction. Just leave a question in the comment section of a post and wait for a reply, then you can communicate with “Helpers” through email or something.
Also…you can migrate all the stuff from this blog to a new domain when you sign up with a new blogging service. I have read many good things about HostGator, they would be my 1st choice. Run as fast as you can from GoDaddy!
Sorry, I can’t be more help.
Get well soon!
(Hug)
You are not the first person who’s complained about GoDaddy! In researching web hosts this past week, I’ve learned a thing or two, the main one being that I should get a Canadian host (due to privacy laws), and I live in Canada, so this makes sense for me. (I’m working on a post about this, too.)
Thanks for your suggestion. I will look into it.
GoDaddy does what they do well; domain names. I love them for the domain manager, DNS tools, email config all that, but get my hosting elsewhere.
At HostGator.
They can really devote necessary time to a blogger’s needs. Hopefully they’ll be in Canada soon too, for folks with growing businesses like Lorraine’s.
Hostgator is an American host, and I’m going with a Canadian one, which will also become my domain provider. But more about this in an upcoming post!
Hi Lorraine,
I think I can help with some of these questions.
1. I’m not 100% sure if RSS readers will catch onto this, but I do know that you can point your domain (lorrainemariereguly.wordpress.com) to a new domain, so whenever someone clicks on a link that’s already out there pointing to this website, it will take them to your new one.
2. I think people just have to subscribe to see your new posts in their WordPress reader.
3. You will still have the option to use the same sharing and “like” buttons that you currently have if you use WordPress.
4. I’d like to learn that, too!
5. It will come with a commenting system. You can choose a new plugin, and the CommentLuv plugin is free! It won’t cost you anything to change your commenting system.
6. You can install any sharing buttons you want. There are tons of sharing buttons you can install for free. I love my Digg Digg plugin, and I liked Shareaholic when I had it.
7. When you create a post, click “Add Media” and upload your file. You will then see a link for the file. You can then direct people to that link. If it’s a PDF, they can download it onto their computer from that link. I’m sure there are plugins for this, too, but I haven’t used any.
I’m writing these answers assuming that you’re going to be using a self-hosted WordPress blog. It’s going to be similar to the one you currently have, but you’ll have tons more options for plugins. I’ve never paid for a plugin. If you need a web designer to help you get set up, I know someone if you’re interested.
Thank you for your answers, Alicia. I had no idea that CommentLuv was free! And yes, I will be moving to a self-hosted WordPress blog. FYI, there are a lot of other comments to “approve” and so maybe you’ll find the answer to #4 among them!
As for your answer to #7, are you able to download my planner using the PDF link I provided? I did exactly what you just said to get this link to work, so I’m not sure. I guess my question then becomes how do make something downloadable and have the ability to count or track the number of downloads?
I understand your dilemma. I’m assuming you’re referring to WordPress.org, which I haven’t used, so unfortunately I probably wouldn’t be able to answer your questions. But for the first few about following, I think the following system is basically the same so as long as they’re following your blog, it’ll show up on their reader. I’m not sure though. Don’t take my word for it.
Good luck though!
Thanks for your input. I need all the luck I can get!
Christy at http://www.blendedpaths.com may also be able to help.
I’ll check her out, too. 🙂 Thanks a lot.
No problem. Maybe they will help you.
I hope so. I plan on sending Christy a few questions via her contact form.
Cool. She is in NOLA this week refreshing her spirit.
I think that’s what I need to do…
I don’t know the answers but is think http://oceanstarr.wordpress.com will know some of them. She has her own web site at oceanstarr.com.
Thanks; I’ll check it out.
Lorraine – WordPress give you the option of getting a .com site for a small sum each year – I did this and don’t regret it, because I got to keep all my followers, all the WP themes options, the share buttons, the system I was used to, etc.
Contact me by email if you need further help 😀
Yes, but who is your host? Someone they picked for you? (See comment reply to Fearless Leader.
And thanks; I just might contact you. 🙂
Hi,
Well if you want to have your own site, find an host and then install wordpress, (wordpress.org) and use the jetpack.
You can use the tools of this blog,: export and then import them in the new blog. Post and followers and picture.
Be careful, self hosting is very expensive.
You can buy an upgrade (wordpress.com), not so expensive.
Hugs
Esther
Thanks, Esther, for your input. I appreciate your advice.