Welcome back to my newest blog series…Book Blogging 101. I am no expert, these are simply things that I have discovered or learned from my book blogging journey. I hope that these tips and tricks I share can be helpful to you.
Tip #5: Switching from free WordPress to Self-hosted
Today I am beyond excited to bring to you a new Book Blogging 101 post. If you are reading this, then you know I switched from using the free WordPress to being self-hosted over the weekend. It was daunting and I put it off for a while, afraid that I would lose my posts and have to start all over again. So, today I am going to give you some information about the process of switching and what I have learned so far. I hope that you all enjoy and can learn from this informative post. By the way…just ignore all of the other tabs that I have open. My husband can tell you how bad I am at having tons of tabs open.
So…you are ready to self-host? It looks scary, doesn’t it? Who do you host with, how do you set up your blog without losing all of your files? There is a lot that goes into this decision. I knew I wanted the freedom of self-hosting my blog. After a lot of research, I chose to use Blue Host. They offer a variety of plans, based on your needs there is one for everybody.
These prices shown are subject to change based on the deals they offer at that point in time. These are also prices good for the term you buy them, once that term is over it returns to normal prices. I chose to do the Plus plan so that I have unmetered website storage. I did not want to run into a problem later where I run out of website space. Each comes with one free domain name registration. The domain name is good for one year and you have to reregister it the following year. If you already have a domain name you can enter that in rather than registering a new one. When you select which plan is best for you, you will see this screen…
This is the standard information you fill out when purchasing almost anything. If you continue scrolling you reach this screen…
This left me confused. being new to self-hosting, I had no idea what any of this meant…so I researched. I found that the only thing worth paying for is the domain privacy protection. This keeps all of your personal information private from those looking it up using Whois. I chose this simply because I do not want anyone to be able to acquire my phone number, address or other information by looking up my domain information. I purchased three years of service along with the domain privacy for $190.00 (I do not remember the exact change amount). It was about $95.00 for one year, it would be silly not to do at least the three-year option and save 50% on pricing. I would have done the five-year option if I had an additional $100, for sure an amazing deal.
Now, there are other host services out there but after much research, I chose to use Blue Host. You might find that there is another service that is a better fit for you and that is fine. I am simply showing how to move from a free WordPress blog to a self-hosted WordPress with Blue Host.
Once you are all set, you can begin creating your blog. Once you have it designed the way you like it, and there are so many great theme options, you will see this when you log into Blue Host.
Log into WordPress to see your admin dashboard.
One of the super nice thing about using a self-hosted blog is the ability to install plug-ins. So, we are going to migrate your files over now. First, log into your free WordPress blog. Go to the bottom left and click on settings. Once the setting tab is open, scroll down until you see this…
Once you see this page you will click on export and export all. This will download a file. Save the file in a place where you can easily access it. Then head over to the new, self-hosted WordPress dashboard and click on plugins. On the bottom left you will see a tools button. Click on that and then click Import. Then it will bring you to this page if you scroll down.
Now click under WordPress and install, I already have this plugin installed so all you see on mine is run importer. Once installed, click run importer. Then add the downloaded file that you kept in a safe place. This will add all of your posts, media such as photos and videos, and all the tags from your posts. It did take a few minutes for all of my posts to transfer over, but they all did without any issues.
And there you have it, an easy way to transfer over all your files without any downtime. Now you can install any plugins you want, add new themes you download, etc. I hope that you learned a lot from this post and enjoyed reading it. If I only help one person, my mission is accomplished. I will post a pros and cons of self-hosting post next week. Until next time, continue your book blogging journey and feel free to reach out with any questions you might have. 
Well, I hope you enjoyed this Book Blogging tip! Let me know what you think below. Do you self-host or are you thinking about it? Do you have any advice for fellow book bloggers?
Great tip! I’m sure it will be very useful to some of you followers. I’m glad you finally bit the bullet and finally went self hosted. Like everything you have to spend money (especially for yourself) you spent a long time doing research. It paid off as your blog is amazing. ❤