Blog and Domain Effective layout

[Stasher]

I've been doing the blog thing for a couple of years now but recently my networking and outdoor pursuits have led me to want to really step up the streamlined and professional aspect of things.

I am working on expanding my network thus I did a bit of research and purchased hosting via Bluehost and acquired my own domain http://chrisistace.com . I then followed another blogs instructions and installed the Wordpress infrastructure to it. I proceeded to go to wordpress were my existing blog was and export my blog files, went to bluehost and uploaded them into wordpress there.

Well once I did this things just didn't flow nicely and for some reason my existing theme is no longer available therefore I had to try and select a new one. I did this and it didn't have the widgets I wanted and tried a few others, coming to a conclusion to delete the wordpress install on bluehost.

I went into the domain settings , changed the name servers to point to Wordpress. I went into wordpress and paid for their domain mapping and basically just have chrisistace.com routing to my existing blog. So I guess my monthly payment for hosting at bluehost isn't needed and just the payment to get my domain is.

I guess this will work good but curious on others thoughts. I also just heard the comment that hosting on wordpress allows them to ownership of you content, any truth to this.

Also, one hold out is that if I start fresh at BlueHost I will loose all my page stats and my followers and email followers. Do I just pull the pin and hope they follow over there?So many questions when you are bumping your page up to the next level.

FYI My blog isn't a finance site, it is more about inspiring positivity and about getting people back into the outdoors.

Have a great day and thanks for any insight you fellow MMM can provide.
Cheers

[GrowingTheGreen]

You should be able to export a list of your email subscribers and re-upload when you've got your new site up and running.  This is a fantastic way to do things--you'll be rocking and rollin on a brand new domain in no time.  Mail services like Mail Chimp allow you to upload lists via a csv file.

PS... You just got a new follower!

[lizh]

I just went through this for a client.  The only way you can move your followers was to  export out and import in via jetpack.  However, it seems to work.  The stats aren't that important to keep

I would review carefully the restrictions on wordpress.com before you commit to stay with them. You could just bite the bullet and choose a new theme for the bluehost account or hire someone to match the theme from wordpress.com on bluehost.  You'll probably be happier in the long run with running your own domain on your own host.
Here's some of the limitations:  http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-are-the-limitations-of-wordpress-com/
Liz

PS ...Feel free to PM me if you want to hire me to redo your theme on bluehost

[Stasher]

Just quickly checking in ...
Thanks Growing Green , appreciate it (cheers to the twitter hello)
Thanks Lizh, I will check out that link tomorrow (sleepy from a long MTB ride today)
Have a good night

[Tyler]

I also just heard the comment that hosting on wordpress allows them to ownership of you content, any truth to this.

From the terms of service (emphasis added):

By submitting Content to Automattic for inclusion on your website, you grant Automattic a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing, and promoting your blog.

Basically, by using their platform they have the right to use your content to spread the word on their various feeds and tools, but they don't own it.

I personally really like Wordpress.com for its extreme ease of use and rock-solid performance with no hassles.  If I was running a commerce site or wanted to run custom code obviously I might choose differently, but I'm pretty happy so far.

Nice blog, BTW!

[arebelspy]

Nice blog, BTW!

+1! 

Spent several hours today reading the whole thing, beginning to end.  Well worth it!

[Stasher]

I have let the blog cruise along happily for the last bit here with domain currently parked on the wordpress blog.
At this point I am unsure how to move ahead with rebuilding my site completely on the bluehost server and not hosting on the wordpress site. I will get there but when I do I think I will do a full new theme and step the professionalism of the blog up a bit.

I also watched the little video over at Minimalists and it talks about the child theme and the main theme, need to understand this better.

My goal and overall theme will be to share my thoughts on life but to also share my explorer/adventurer/photographer aspect that I can hopefully monetize in the future. I love getting people into the outdoors and if I can't do that then I bring it to them via my blog.

I am meeting a blogger I look up to today, very excited to get her take on things and the mistakes she made and the good choices to make with website construction.

Thanks for the input everyone and I leave you today with a photo I took for my last blog post.

[Stasher]

Nice blog, BTW!

+1! 

Spent several hours today reading the whole thing, beginning to end.  Well worth it!

Simple sentences like this mean so much to me and are not taken for granted. Thank-you for that :)

[arebelspy]

I have let the blog cruise along happily for the last bit here with domain currently parked on the wordpress blog.
At this point I am unsure how to move ahead with rebuilding my site completely on the bluehost server and not hosting on the wordpress site. I will get there but when I do I think I will do a full new them and step the professionalism of the blog up a bit.

You should be able to google some tutorials.  Worst case message the blue host tech support.

[Stasher]

I've got the website chugging along and happy to see consistent traffic, the key will be to be consistent on my part with content. No I have not fully shifted to Bluehost at this point, the site is working well right now and happy with it. I am thinking about changing up the theme possibly a bit so at that time I will look at the relocation.

I also created a Facebook page to compliment the website as social media channels for interaction and drive readers to the blog seems like a wise choice. Plus I also wanted to separate myself from the blog on my personal Facebook page. I will keep my instagram and twitter as is , I have no problem with them being both me and my blog.

https://www.facebook.com/Chris-Istace-1536882339974757/

Put up a new post last night and this time had a MMM spin to it.

http://chrisistace.com/2016/02/28/8-tips-to-fund-your-next-adventure/