Where I write about why I made the change from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

When I launched Daddy Runs a Lot, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted. I had my old blog, but it just wasn’t cutting it for me – everything was workout or diet related, and it’s just difficult to write when you paint yourself into a corner like that.

So, I was going to re-launch my blog, and I was going to write about anything (diet & workouts included), but I needed to figure out where because, right then, Blogger started one of their truly epic screw-ups (I think it was one of their “nobody can comment on your post” spells). Since I’m in the “blog comments are currency” camp, this was wholly unacceptable, so I was going to ditch blogger – and, somehow, I chose WordPress over Typepad or writing my own platform.

But, simply choosing WordPress is just the start. Do I go with WordPress.com or WordPress.org . . . and this was not a matter of semantics.

WordPress.org is an open source blogging platform – the code that allows for blogging. You can pick up the package from wordpress.org, put in on a server, and start blogging from anywhere.

WordPress.com is a website that runs a modified wordpress.org platform. They control the source for you and give you a simple and free entry point.

See, while the wordpress.org platform is free, a website isn’t . . . and you need somewhere to put it. Hosting solutions aren’t expensive, at all – but wordpress.com is two things I love: cheap & easy. Setting up daddyrunsalot.com with wordpress.com cost me less than $20, and that was just to register the domain name.

So, I went with wordpress.com. and started blogging like a fiend. I was quite comfortable with things after a week – I knew the platform in and out, but I quickly realized that I thought it was lacking.

Some of my favorite blogs are run on the wordpress.org platform, and I wanted to emulate their functionality. For example, Kris from Pretty All True, back when she was commenting, had her blog automatically send out a notification every time someone replied to one of your comments. I love interacting with my readers, and I wanted to emulate this – but, since you can’t alter the wordpress.com source, you only have what they give you.

Well, cheap & easy is still . . . well, cheap & easy, so I reply to comments via email and post the reply to the blog – it’s an extra step, but it’s not exactly taking any extra time. When I wanted to change the way things looked, well, since I absolutely refused to spend the money to adjust the CSS layout with wordpress.com, I was stuck with the free wordpress themes. Some of them are great – and since I’m a function over form guy, it wasn’t really “bad,” but it was another limit.

For the better part of a year, that was just fine for me. But, then there were two incidents in near succession, followed by a harebrained plot, that made me itchy to switch.

First, I wrote this silly quiz. When I author a post, I write in straight-HTML. See, I know HTML very, very well. I’m a tad bit obsessed with how “neat” my code looks when I’m writing it (and therefore can’t stand to have a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSISYG) editor render the HTML for me). I’m able to picture how things will look on the screen just by reading the code. Well, I nested ordered lists within ordered lists for that post . . . but, they never came out like I wanted them to. In doing some investigation, wordpress.com was stripping out my style arguments.

Ok, that was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

But then I created my first link-up and I couldn’t embed the link-up code into the post itself – I had to link to a separate site. Why was this? Because wordpress.com stripped out the javascript call¹.

Then I looked back through all of my posts. Any time I build a link to another website, I write specific code so that the code will popup in a new window (I’m all about keeping people “here”). That all got striped out. Well, that’s a pain only because I probably spend an extra 30 seconds putting the popup code in for each link.

So I have some things that border between inconvenience & irritant. There isn’t enough there to actually make me want to switch – but the seed was planted.

And then, as all bloggers are wont to do, I started thinking about how I could make money. I’m not a stat freak, but traffic has been growing, slowly. That said, I think I’m a tad bit too in love with the word “fuck” to ever really pull in money for writing posts. There’s advertising, and I can do that – but, well, I’d never be able to allow advertising for products that I wouldn’t personally use (dear Cadillac, I’ve never driven one of your cars, but if you were to send me a car, I’d gladly offer up prime advertising real-estate for a very reasonable fee). Because I’m able to ignore most all advertisements that I see, personally, and believe that most internet surfers have that ability, combined with the fact that I’d only allow select advertisers, any money from ads would be limited, at best.

But, then I saw what WordPress.com charged to export your site somewhere else – $119. And I saw what that the “premium themes” cost a whole lot more than a $4-5 (most are in the $50-$80 range).

Thinking back to the functionality that I wanted to have, combined with the fact that I know HTML & PHP better than the vast majority of people out there, well – I think I might actually be able to make a half-decent side business offering blog support — custom designs, custom features, import/export, set-up, backup, disaster recovery² . . . all for topless photos less money than most anyone is charging for similar services now (because I actually enjoy this stuff).

But, if I ever hope to actually promise that stuff, well, it’s best to actually go about & do it.

So, I’ve migrated to a WordPress.org installation on a low-cost service provider.

Next post, how I actually went about the migration.