BEN LEANDER Design Studio

+43 650 707 9191
hello@benleander.com

I transferred from wordpress.com to .org and surprisingly didn’t delete my page.

Surprise! I’ve redesigned my blog! I was sick at home and had way too much time on my hands. I focused all my energy and spent what felt like an eternity transferring from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. I’m surprised that I didn’t fuck it all up and accidentally deleted my homepage. First, here are all the reasons why I transferred:

  • I hated the ads on my page. I didn’t make money from them. Like what were they even here for.
  • I was looking for more options to design a modern page.
  • I’ve literally thrown money out of the window for a domain (benleander.com) and web space for a year, and wanted to finally use it.
  • Also, I wanted to feel cool and independent. D’uh.

In the end, I successfully transferred all my content. If you’re interested in all the steps I had to take, let me know. However, there are many great tutorials already available. If you’re thinking about transferring yourself, here is everything that will go wrong in chronological order:

  1. The Import/Export tool will crash a million times for no apparent reason other than the universe hating you.
  2. When it finally works, you will have more duplicates of your media files than the NSA.
  3. Your theme will not transfer and you’ll have to do your layout all over again. However, you’ll find out there are much more themes (and plugins, finally!) available for self-hosted sites.
  4. You won’t find a regular follow button, decide to add e-mail subscription until you eventually find this helpful tip.
  5. Your server might cause problems with the PHP WordPress is using. The totally obvious and not at all random solution to this problem is that you’ll have to downgrade your PHP.
  6. You will now have a real Jetpack in your interface and won’t know what to do with all its features. Also, you won’t understand the WordPress.org interface in general.
  7. You will need to take another step to move your followers because who doesn’t love it when things are more complicated than they have to be.
  8. You will need to write a post in a fricking forum to move your stats along with you unless you enjoy having zero views.
  9. You will need to pay fucking WordPress.com to redirect your viewers to the new URL because they didn’t already make enough money from the ads on your page.

I have never done anything like this but with the help of the internet, I succeeded. If I can do it, you can do it too! If you’re still reading this, I’d love it if you could leave me some feedback on my new layout. Please be kind. I spent hours yelling at my computer. Please tell me if the site is pictured correctly, if you’ve received a regular notification of this post and let me know of any errors you encounter. Thanks!

BenLeander

 

Compulsive nonconformist who left the 9-to-5 world after studying psychology and has since then devoted himself to design and writing on a freelance basis. Has at least four different kinds of chips at home at any given time.

Comments

  • 7. May 2018
    reply

    I was so wrapped up in “ME” that I forgot to say that I like your new layout. It all looks rather professional (not that the other one didn’t). I think once I click on a post, the main image takes a few seconds to load (it’s just white space), but that’s ok. Also, I just noticed that the comment conversation between you and Kristi kind of bugged on you. When you open it on the actual site, you’ll see that the last comments are 1 letter per line (i.e. hard/ impossible to read).

    Other than that, I think it looks great.

      • 8. May 2018
        reply

        Of course! The nested comments are the best.

        Actually, I just happened to click on your name and that’s how I found your blog. I don’t like reading things in the Reader.

  • 7. May 2018
    reply

    Thank you for doing this.
    I’ve been wondering about this for a while. In most cases, those who transferred had to undergo a lot of stress before everything started working correctly. I’m glad to see that you were able to transfer your stats (didn’t know that was possible).

    I’m going to have to bookmark all your links (and/or your post) for the future.

    Now my question is: “Why did you switch to .org?” Why didn’t you just upgrade to the “Business Plan” in .com? I’d be interested to know pros/cons.

      • 8. May 2018
        reply

        I think the business plan gets rid of the WP marking, too.

        Your point by point explanation has been very helpful. I should really start making a plan of how I would like to proceed.

  • 28. April 2018
    reply

    Congratulations and thanks for the advice! Naked hugs!

  • 27. April 2018
    reply

    It’s fantastic! I love everything about it! And I wonder if I didn’t have a follow button because of that very little glitch?! Remember when you couldn’t find it? I can’t find it either hahaha. Nice job, Ben. You’re braver than I am! I hired it out!

    • 27. April 2018
      reply

      Wow thanks for the feedback! Glad to hear you like it 😊 true, I couldn’t find the follow button on your blog 🙈 you could try it with the tip I posted so regular WordPress.com members can follow you. its actually pretty easy.
      I wouldn’t say I’m brave – Web design was actually part of my education but I never really excelled at it haha. What was the reason you switched from.com to Org?

      • 27. April 2018
        reply

        I was actually with Wix before I switched to WP.org. I never started with .com because I had read how hard it was to transfer and monetize. So straight to .org I went. And my designer learned just how much of a pain in the ass I really am haha.

        • 27. April 2018
          reply

          A client of mine actually wants me to build a site with wix. Is it not a good provider? I wanna convince him to go with wp anyways now that I know how it works^^
          Yeah monetization would be the next step then 😂

          • 27. April 2018
            reply

            For a beginner, I loved it. It was soooo easy to customize and build. But it was so limited in features etc. I switched to WP kicking and screaming, but I’m so glad I did it. I have a friend whose ex husband is a web designer and she ONLY uses Wix. Unless he’s a novice, I would encourage him to go WP.org!

  • 27. April 2018
    reply

    I think your site looks great! I myself don’t want to invest more money in my blog than I have to, but I know I’m missing out on a couple of great perks (like plugins). Your site is easy to navigate. And that’s what your followers want. Congrats!

    • 27. April 2018
      reply

      Thanks so much for your wonderful comment. It means a lot and also I now know that notifications via the WordPress reader still work 😊 if you ever think about switching you can always contact me. There’s a couple of things that make it easier if you know them beforehand 🤔

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