How to Transition to a Self-Hosted WordPress Site

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self hosted wordpress

After having your website hosted by other sites for some time, you might want to move it to a self-hosted platform. A self-hosted website gives you more control of your content. You can quickly start a self-hosted WordPress blog for just a few dollars a month.

WordPress.com is the most commonly used free hosting platform. For self-hosting services, website owners are advised to use WordPress.org. It powers over 31 percent of the sites on the web.

This is a figure that shows you how popular self-hosted sites are, mainly because you can make money from them. They allow you to put ads, which are a primary source of revenue for bloggers.

Having a self-hosted WordPress site is an efficient and secure way of using a web analytics tool. With a self-hosted platform, you can keep track of your data concerning its storage and usage on the servers you appoint.

Here is how you can transit to a self-hosted WordPress site.

1. Get a Hosting and Domain Name

Web hosting refers to the place you store your website. The domain name is the website address, which people use to access your site. If previously your domain name was myblog.wordpress.com, you can now have myblog.com site.

Get a hosting provider that will store your website. Just like with the free hosting sites, self-hosted service providers will also offer you a domain name. You need to pay for the domain name.

If you already have a custom domain on WordPress.com, you can send it to your new hosting platform. If you registered your domain name in the last 60 days, however, it might not be available for transfer. You can change the domain name servers and point the domain to the new host.

Take note you might not be able to transfer the registration.

Choosing the wordpress.org platform presents you with several benefits:

  • It is an open source, and free to use.
  • You have full control of your website, unlike the hosting service providers that limit what you can do.
  • You own all the data on your website. Never will your site be turned off for going against a set of rules by a third party.
  • There are no limitations to the plugins that you can install.
  • The design of your website is free for customization. You will have a wide range of themes to choose from, whether paid or free.
  • It is possible to monetize your website as you wish. With WordPress.com, you can hardly make money from your site. By creating an online store to sell physical or digital products, you can accept credit card payments and make deliveries right from your website.
  • You can use Google Analytics for tracking your site performance.
  • It is possible to create membership sites where you can sell premium content, training courses and also build a community online.

2. Export Content from WordPress.com

This is the step where the real move happens. Before you install WordPress:

  • Ensure that the web host has the minimum requirements to support the running of WordPress.
  • Download the newest version of WordPress.
  • Unzip the downloaded file to a folder you can easily access on your hard drive.
  • Come up with a password for your Secret Key.
  • Keep the webpage open to easily access it during installation.

With WordPress.org, you will have a one-click install for WordPress. If the option is not available, you can download WordPress from wordpress.org for free and manually install it.

The next thing is to log into the WordPress.com dashboard and go to the WP-Admin. Click on Tools” and “Export.” Select “All Content” and click on the button to export the file. All your content will be downloaded and stored on your computer.

3. Import the Content to the Self-Hosted Site

In your new WordPress site, go to “Tools” and click “Import.” Click on “WordPress” and select the XML file you downloaded from wordpress.com. Click on “upload file and import.” The next step is to “download and import file attachments.”

This will ensure that all images from the free hosting site are copied to the self-hosted site. WordPress settings will upload your content into your new blog.

4. Load Your New Blog

On a new URL tab type in your blog address. Your new blog should appear, with nothing fancy on it like it was on the hosted platform. WordPress is created to use a generic theme by default. The beauty of it is that you can easily customize it.

While still on the home page of your blog, scroll to the login link and enter your login details. The page will redirect to the dashboard backend. From here, you can control the content your readers see.

5. Install a New Theme

If you have successfully imported content from wordpress.com, the next thing is to install a WordPress theme. You now have full control to install paid themes from other sources if you so wish. The flexibility that comes with a self-hosted website lets you connect as many plugins as possible.

You can also build an email list which will help you digitally market your business. For a higher success rate in developing an email list, you will need an external solution. The solution comes in the form of plugins, most of which are paid services.

Some of the plugins that you can choose from are the following:

Optin Forms

It is a free plugin that allows you to do the basics but in a way that makes your site attractive. It comes with five designs that you can customize to attain the look you want for your website. The plugin allows you to place opt-in forms at the end of your content or in-between.

Subscribers only have to fill in the forms to sign up on your mailing list. The plugin has shortcodes that make it possible for you to place the forms where you like. The plugin is devoid of pop-ups and slide-ins but performs its functions very well.

The plugin is compatible with the following email service providers

  • Aweber
  • iContact
  • MailChimp
  • GetResponse
  • Mad Mimi
  • Interspire Email Marketer

Bloom

Bloom is a product of Elegant Themes and offers several nice features. It contains over 100 templates that are variations of a few major styles. You can customize them to achieve the colors and text that match your preferences.

The plugin allows you to target specific pages, categories, or pages. You can do A/B testing to establish the best opt-in form for your website.

The Bloom plugin is compatible with many email service providers. It will cost you about $89 per year to use the plugin plus all of the plugins from Elegant Theme. Alternatively, you can opt to pay a one-time fee of $249 for the whole set of plugins and themes from Elegant Themes.

MailMunch

The MailMunch plugin has both a free and a paid option. It offers popups when a visitor gets to your site or attempts to leave. Other features are an inline embedded option, a slide box, and a top and bottom bar option.

The themes from the plugin are customizable. You will have access to as many or as few themes as you want, depending on the payment plan you choose. With the plugin, you can show the forms or hide them on specific pages.

MailMunch is only compatible with popular email service providers and does not connect to those that are less known. Before installing, ensure that your email service is compatible.

The four different payment plans are

  • The free option: A limited option that comes with a MailMunch name, no premium themes, and has no analytics.
  • The $6.30 a month option: Comes with no MailMunch logo and can be used on three different sites. It also allows you to get analytics.
  • The $13.30 a month option: Offers premium themes, a content gate, and all other features of the lower level plans.
  • The $34.30 a month option: The highest level that gives you all the features plus priority support and free installation.

Other plugins for email buildup include

  • LeadPages
  • SumoMe
  • Hello Bar
  • Ninja Popups

With all these plugins and others, you can customize your site just like you did with wordpress.com. You are ready to write posts, put up ads, sign up subscribers and do a lot more. You now have a self-hosted WordPress site, and it is up to you to make it what you want.

Take Away – Self-Hosted WordPress

Having a self-hosted blog has more advantages than having it hosted on service provider sites. There is a lot of work involved in managing a self-hosted blog. However, there are more advantages than disadvantages in hosting your own site, which make all the work worthwhile.

Transitioning to self-hosted WordPress site is not a lot of hard work. Once you have a hosting account, transfer your domain name, download WordPress, and import your content. If you have done the transfer the right way, taking control of your site is easy.

Having previous experience with WordPress, you should not find it difficult to manage your own site. However, remember that it is up to you to take care of the updates, backups and hosting costs. There are thousands of plugins you can install to make your work easier and manageable.

If you have any ideas or thoughts, please share them in the comments below.