How To Go Pro With WordPress.com?
I have a question that I’d like to throw out to my readership and the blogosphere at large. It involves how to go pro/full-time with Graceful Flavor and whether or not WordPress.com is the right engine for me. I know this might seem awfully presumptuous for such a young blog, but bear with me.
I used to be with Blogger Beta, but I gradually grew annoyed with the sporadic downtime issues, lukewarm themes, funky formatting, and a few other issues that made Blogger Beta just seem unpolished (hence the beta tag, I suppose). I had read nothing but good about WordPress.com, so I made the move. And I made the move incredibly easily. Since the move, I have been thrilled with the pageviews I’m getting, and the WordPress.com interface and management options are just stellar. Same for the blog stats reporting. However, there is a rub. Keep reading.
As a rule, Graceful Flavor is primarily an Apple blog, but I also cover technology as a whole and the occasional Boing Boing-esque curiosity. I’m a diehard believer in content first, revenue mechanisms second, and I support blogs that subscribe to the same philosophy (see my blogroll for examples). Eventually, I’d like to entertain the idea of going full time with GF, similar to what John Gruber and Jason Kottke did with their excellent Daring Fireball and kottke.org blogs, respectively.
Let me reiterate that: I believe 100% in attention to content and readership first. I see no other way to long-term success.
The rub, however, is this: WordPress.com doesn’t yet allow users to put ads on their blogs, which, unless I’m missing something (and it’s been known to happen), relegates WordPress.com (not to be confused with WordPress.org, where one can download the open source WordPress software, host it on a web server somewhere, and run it himself) to a hobbyist blog engine. It eliminates most, if not all, direct revenue opportunities and leaves only indirect revenue as a commercial option.
I understand that WordPress.com wants clean, content-rich blogs that are free from SEO gaming, PayPerPost tricks and ad spamming. I get that. But is a strict no-ad policy the answer? There’s a great discussion about this over on Scobleizer — check out the comments.
I started blogging with Graceful Flavor in earnest on November 18, 2006 with my goals very clear in my mind. Since that time, I’ve received 4003 hits, cracked WordPress.com’s Fastest Growing Blogs three times, and four times have had a post make it into WordPress.com’s Top Posts list. I’ve been thrilled with the activity I’ve received so far, and I can safely say I never saw this level of exposure with Blogger Beta.
So traffic notwithstanding, how can one go pro with a blog and WordPress.com? If these are my goals, is WordPress.com not the right option for me?
The way I see it, I have the following options:
- Move to the WordPress.org software that I would host with the provider of my choice at my own domain name. I assume, then, that some variety of ads would be allowed.
- Move to something with a more professional/commercial focus, like Six Apart’s TypePad.
- Stay with WordPress.com because there are viable ad/revenue options and I’m just spacing out.
Am I missing something? I know WordPress.com hosts outstanding blogs like Robert Scoble’s Scobleizer, but I believe Robert is part of WordPress.com’s $250/month VIP package, which is something that, right now, is just cost prohibitive for me. Scoble also has left Microsoft to become a VP at PodTech.net, so blogging doesn’t seem to be his primary job, at least as far as I can tell. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, however.
So, if you’re me, and you have my goals that you’d like to see happen, in, say, 24 months or so, what is your blog engine? Is WordPress.com enough, or eventually would I need to step up to something with more of a commercial focus?
Technorati Tags: Blogging, WordPress.com
Hey, I found your blog using one of the tags I posted.
To answer your question, I feel WordPress is only a stepping stone in one’s blogging existence. It’s good for people who want to get their network up and running, and it’s not LiveJournal. Eventually, I’ll have to get my own website, but you bet it’s gonna have a WordPress blog!
But anyway, it looks a lot better if you have a blog on your own site, and your own readers. It’ll show that people take you seriously, and that you have some form of credibility. Still, you should at least show more expertise in areas outside your blog.
I write a blog called Blogology101, and I just wrote an article on developing one’s network. Perhaps you can start with a network. The more you know, the better chances of landing a VP job.
Just so you know, I didn’t notice this blog until after I posted the network entry, so don’t think I’m using my own trick on entries before posting, lol.
Hey JT — thanks for your comments.
I like that WordPress.com wants to keep it’s signal:noise rightside-up, because there are too many people out there who want to game the search engines and spam with ads for a few bucks a month. Those blogs suck, and as the owner of a blog network, I appreciate what WordPress.com is trying to do.
However, there is such a thing as discreet and tasteful advertising, so I’d like to see WordPress.com not nuke everything with ads. I know others have made a similar request, but I also see WordPress.com’s view: it’s a slippery slope once you start allowing *some* ads on *some* blogs. What’s the line of delineation between yes/no? It’s subjective, whatever it is, and that means problems for WordPress.com administration.
I agree that WP.com is most likely a gateway to full WP software on a specialized domain and webhost. I think it’s a matter of time.
The answer is simple. Keep using WordPress, but get your own domain and webhost. I recommend DreamHost, which has one-click installation of WordPress, and a lot of other great software like Forums, Galleries and Stores. It won’t kill you to pay $7.95 per month for hosting, especially when you find out that you can host multiple domains in one account. Moving your blog is no big deal, either.
dreamtiger — that’s great info, thanks.
The $7.95 hosting fee is no big deal at all, and I like the fact that installation is simple and I can move my blog/comments quite easily.
Question — will hosting my own WP instance allow me to use whatever theme I can find/download?
An answer to your question–yes. As long as its free, you can use whatever theme you would like to use on WP. If I were you, with as high traffic as you have, I’d get my own domain from that 7.95 place or GoDaddy (we have a site hosted by them). You could put up Google Adsense and potentially be making thousands. I say it’s in your best interest to get a domain.
I think dreamtiger has given the right suggestion. As your goals are clear and you are getting awesome hits, don’t wait.
If you go with your own domain name/hosting, WordPress is just software you can use however you like.
The options when hosting on your own server multiply exponentially; if you like WordPress now, you will love it when you go the domain name/hosting route
whitepapers — I love WordPress now; I just wish I had more control over:
* themes
* ads
* other things I haven’t thought of yet
As it stands right now, what I’m thinking about is getting a domain and hosting account at bluehost, which is WP’s first recommendation for hosting WP software.
I assume I’ll be able to administer everything via my Mac? Anything local to install?
If you don’t know, no worries. I’m looking at WP.org right now and there’s quite a bit of help available.
Thanks for your comments, and thanks to everyone who made suggestions.
I’ve been asked this question by a lot of people who’ve moved from WordPress.com to Movable Type or TypePad, and I get a lot of insights from working with both of those teams, which might be useful for you.
First, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that BoingBoing, Kottke, Daring Fireball, and so many others that rely on their blogs to make a living use Movable Type or TypePad. WordPress is a great tool, but we’ve really focused on the professional blogger segment, and even something as simple as having a support team to answer your questions can go a really long way when you need to rely on your blog.
Just as importantly, there’s focus on things like letting you have control over your ads and your audience. So on TypePad, for example, enabling text ads is just a checkbox, and we don’t take a cut of your revenues. Same thing with FeedBurner integration, which you can also use to run ads in your feeds. I think it’s telling that, for the professional blog for his book Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble uses TypePad.
As Jeff points out, part of maintaining a serious blog presence is things like managing your design and your ads. On TypePad, you can import your posts, have total control over the HTML of your page (so you can make a distinct design using tools like Dreamweaver), and start blogging for less than $5 a month. Plus you can use your own domain name.
Add to that the fact that 90% of WordPress widgets don’t run on WordPress.com, but TypePad has about 500 widgets available for customizing your page, and you can start to see how people graduate to TypePad once they start to focus on their content.
Movable Type or other tools are an option if you want to run software on your own web host, but honestly, I’d recommend just focusing on your content — you’ve got a great start even in the short time that you’ve been blogging, and you don’t need technological considerations to distract you from the writing. After all, that’s what draws people here in the first place.
Anil — thanks for your post. I’m a fan of your blogs myself.
Also, I am sottozero. I have decided to use my real name instead of an alias, as do most pro bloggers.
I know you work for Six Apart. That notwithstanding, I was looking at TypePad earlier, as evidenced by my post. I didn’t know that DF, kottke, and Boing Boing use either TypePad or MT. That’s interesting.
The one thing that WordPress.com *has* given me is outstanding exposure, and I’ve read in other blogs that TypePad — at least in this one particular instance — didn’t do nearly as good a job.
The appeal of installing WP on my own domain with the host of my choice is attractive to me in that I really control my own destiny — eventually. Not sure that time is not, but it might be.
Anil, do you have any examples of an A-list blog being run on TypePad (not MT)? Just wondering.
Thanks again for your comments. I appreciate you responding to me personally. I’ll let you know what I decide.
How much traffic are you getting from WordPress.com itself? I’m guessing that when you have a post on WordPress.com’s top 10 posts list, a lot more traffic comes in from there. Kind of like a critical mass thing. Won’t you lose that benefit if you switch to WordPress.org self-hosted?
khudari — most of my traffic comes from Macsurfer or WordPress itself.
You bring up a good point, though — if I move to my own host, will I lose the benefit of WordPress.com’s blog network stats and marketing. I’ll have to look into that.
Anil is full of it.
Typepad Pro support is unbelievably bad.
Front line is by and large stupid and unhelpful, cutting and pasting canned answers to questions.
Second tier just won’t help at all.
Their system of templates is one of the worst I’ve ever seen.
After over a month of correspondence TypePad support would not enable access to the building block templates I needed to fix my website.
WordPress is a joy to work with in comparison.
One of my stupider decisions (lifetime) was to ever start a weblog on the Typepad system.
Avoid TypePad like the plague if you ever want to do any serious customisation of your site. Or if you dislike corresponding with idiots.
In contrast with the dolts in TypePad support, the WordPress community is supportive, helpful and fun.
Most people’s experiences don’t mirror Alec’s, though I do understand he isn’t pleased with what he’s seen.
On the other hand, to provide some examples, TypePad powers the blogs for Wired News, many of the Washington Post’s blogs (the rest are Movable Type), and on just a quick glance through the Technorati Top 100, I see Steve Rubel’s Micropersuasion, Kathy Sierra’s Headrush, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Wil Wheaton, Cute Overload, and a couple others. That’s not to mention the blogs for Time magazine or MSNBC, which are all on TypePad.
Actually, I hadn’t counted in detail before, but some of our internal company notes show that Six Apart tools like Movable Type and TypePad power more of Technorati’s Top 100 than WordPress, Blogger, MSN Spaces, Yahoo 360, MySpace, Weblogs Inc. and everything else combined. So that’s kinda cool.
Anil — How easy would it be to move this blog to TypePad? I assume all posts and comments would be retained?
Anil, what are you talking about “some of our internal company notes”?
Let’s have a list of the Technorati top 100 powered by Typepad then…
Ah, you included Moveable Type. Well, that’s a legacy win, Anil. Those guys were out customising MT before WordPress even hit the scene. It’s difficult to move an established weblog and a nuisance to learn a new system, let alone reprogram all the custom functionality.
A more interesting statistic would be movement within the Technorati Top 100 over the last year. Plus-minus figures.
Or even a survey – if you had to restart your weblog this year, what system would you choose…Two years ago Typepad/MT arguably offered a more mature environment. Today WordPress 2.0 is miles ahead in terms of speed and flexibility.
Anil, the only thing Typepad could win on at this point is service. And you are losing big in that department as well. You are welcome to go and look at my service ticket record over the last three years – read the whole thing. Ongoing month long nightmares with your people trying to get useful help with domain mapping and now templates.
With the template issue, the final suggestion from your side – if I want to customise my header I need to hire a paid consultant to even enable the template (I’m quite capable of customising any template I have access to myself, thank you). That’s hardly what I’d call “pro support”.
(For those not familiar with the Typepad Pro, it’s supposed to give you access to the templates of your website so that you can customise them – it doesn’t.)
Typepad Pro is supposed to come with competent tech support. It doesn’t. The whole support attitude and department needs to be revamped from the ground up. The focus is on shunting off on second-rate documentation for needless complicated procedures – instead of actually helping the user.
Take for example this lovely explanation of Nested Modules.
In WordPress 2, you just open up your template files in /content/ themes/your template and make your changes.
More often than not, Typepad support doesn’t even seem to read the support tickets sent to them. They cut and paste a response triggered by a single word used somewhere in one’s support ticket.
I have been with Typepad from the beginning. I rarely need significant tech support – maybe twice/year. I read all documentation and fix most problems myself without support intervention.
But when I do need support, I expect help and not:
wrong answers
cut and paste canned responses
confusing answers
clear indication of only skim reading my ticket
refusal to actually help once the problem is clear
Any interaction with Typepad Support – no matter how carefully written the original request – seems to result in four or five notes to get any kind of an answer to the question at hand.
Whether we are talking about Brenna or Doug Bryan, the bad attitude and unhelpfulness in Typepad goes right through the whole support department.
But that might be the point. Provide support so bad that nobody wants to use it. A great way to cut down on support costs.
Jeff.
Havea look at how far you can go with Blogger…
http://the-lastword.blogspot.com/
Just an indicator of how much is possible. [hint: Blogger Beta is getting more like WP all the time]
I don’t know why, but it might work better on your own hosted server rather than blogspot.com.
But I haven’t heard of anyone SERIOUSLY using it on a professional blog. Nope. Not once. Or maybe once I did, but I’ve forgotten now
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