Welcome to the liveblog of Fitbloggin’11 panel: Move to Self Hosting: Everything you need to know to make the switch.
Have you been blogging with WordPress and Blogger, but are ready to move over to your own domain?
Or are you ready to take the big leap from the very start?
Join Gina Wright of fitblogr.com for the presentation Move to Self Hosting: Everything you need to know to make the switch, and learn to do just that!
Steps to move to being Self Hosted: Cost of Self Hosting; find a webhost; choosing your webhost; choosing your domain; using FTP; installing WordPress; moving posts from WordPress and Blogger; backing up your blog.
Cost of Self Hosting: How much per month can you spend? Be prepared to spend at least $5 month for hosting . Remember you get what you pay for.
Do you want additional domain names? Cost about $15/year. Depending on the plan. You may want to get names, and nicknames etc. For more information: http://www.learnthenet.com/how-to/understand-domain-names/index.php
Where to store your photos?
You can use your hosting space to store photos. Depending on how many photos you take, it may be more costly on a monthly basis.
Use outside sources such as Flickr or Picasa they are usually cheaper if you need lots of space for your photos.
Know your traffic: more traffic & storage = higher cost per month
Find a webhost by looking at reviews and overall cost to determine best fit for you.
Options: Find my hosting website http://www.findmyhosting.com
Web hosting geeks: http://webhostingeeks.com
5 good options:
Webhostingpad: http://www.webhostingpad.com
Bluehost: http://www.bluehost.com
Fatcow: http://www.fatcow.com
Hostmonster : http://www.hostmonster.com
HostGator: http://www.hostgator.com
Be patient after you sign up, it may take 24-48 hours for them to make your site visible.
Choosing a domain name
Do you want to keep your current name?
Check to see if your domain name is available at 000Domains – http://000domains.com (check here, don’t register)
Making domain information private – Anyone could see your information! Most hosting services offer private registration when you register a domain name. It is an added cost, but worth it! For more information visit domains by proxy: https://www.domainsbyproxy.com
If you already have a domain name, but are not self-hosted, you can transfer your name to your hosting plan.
Using FTP (file transfer protocol) is the simplest and most secure way to exchange files over the internet. Whether you know it or not you most likely use FTP all the time.
You need an FTP application to upload content to your site. First download an FTP Application http://cyberduck.ch
Using Cyberduck get your username and password. After you sign up for your hosting plan you should receive an email with your FTP login information.
Connecting and uploading. Click on Open Connection and put in your information. Your server information is your domain name, your username and password should have been emailed to you in the registration email. Either select SFTP connection, or FTP connection. If one doesn’t work try the other one. Web content goes into your public_html file. This is where you upload your WordPress folder contents.
Installing WordPress visit http://www.wordpress.org/download
Unzip and open the wordpress folder. Open the file “wp-config-sample.php” in an HTML editor. Once opened this is where you are going to put the information from your database
If you don’t have an HTML editor you can use notepad in windows or download textwrangler for mac
Adding a database. Before editing the “wp-config-sample.php you need to create a database
You need to access your cpanel if you signed up with a hosting plane they usually email you your cpanel access information after your domin and hosting is setup if they don’t email you contact them. After you add a use (pick any username and password you want, give that user access to the database so they can download and have access to the information
Adding a database. In the create new database field you can enter whatever you want, more common database names are “blog” or “wordpress”.
Select the user name and the database that you just created, add privledges on the privledges page.
Go back to the wp-config-sample.php” file opened in Text Wrangler, notepad, or other editing options
Enter your database name, your user name and your password that you just set up. Those are the only 3 items you need to edit on this file.
Save as “wp-config.php” ßRemember to take the word sample out
Go back to cyberduck, open your wordpress folder, select everything and upload to your” www” folder or “public_html” folder
After everything is uploaded to go your domain name and select everything and put it into cyberduck/. After everything is uploaded to go your domain name and follow the easy steps.
To Install wordpress themes you can browse for themes by visiting: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ or http://www.bestwpthemes.com/
Themes are located under: wp-content > themes. After finding the theme you want, download the.zip file, unzip it, and drag the folder into the “themes” folder. Under appearance select t hemes from the left side panel, and select activate on the theme you wish to use
Moving posts from WordPress and Blogger WordPress makes it easy import posts from your old blog.
On the WordPress dashboard, go to tools, import and select where you want to import your posts from. From there just follow the install steps.
Backing up your blog – This is a vital step and something you should schedule regularily. How often should you back up? If you post daily, once a week is good. For people who blog weekly, monthly backups should do. You should be able to do backups in your cPanel. Just look for the Backup Wizard. It will download a huge file with all your files, pictures, etc. and creates a mini blog on your desktop when you download it. It will put it into a zip file, it will email you to notify you when your file is ready to download. At that point go back to cPanel to get the file once it’s ready. You have a full backup option or a partial backup. Gina recommends doing a full backup because it’s the easiest and you get everything backed up.
Backup destination is just a directory, you don’t need to change that. The last time Gina did it it took about 10 minutes.
You can also use this tool to restore your blog if for some reason a hacker gets in. You will essentially upload the file you download to backup your blog to restore it. It should be fully restored. Your host is there, that is part of the reason you pay them, to help you in these situations, so contact them if you need help.
Question from Google: What if I want to move a whole website and not just my blog?
Gina: To move your entire site, download all your files from your server. Create your main domain name and add your blog to your plan.
Audience Question:
Katy Widrick: How do I redirect readers to my new website/blog? I don’t want to lose subscribers.
Gina: You can have your blogger.com direct people directly towards your new website/blog.
Question #1: I’m not self hosted but own my own domain name. My concern is will I lose subscribers? I use wordpress.com.
Gina: You shouldn’t lose subscribers. You’ll just transfer your domain name
Question #2: I know there are people you can pay to do this for you. Can give a range, depending on what services you need, how much should that cost.
Gina: It would probably take 1-2 hours to do what I just showed. I would think that is would be under $100. It’s not that difficult.
You can contact Gina at fitblogr@gmail.com Download the PDF file at: http://fitblogr.com/fitbloggin.pdf
This session was captured by Lacey of www.laceyquiggle.com/blog
Great article! I think setting up databases is the hardest move for new self hosted bloggers. If you need any other help with web hosting related issues, my site can really help, totally free also..
its really nice article posted by LaceyQ in which there have informatin that he shared is really good . how to set up a blog and move from old to new and backing up blog these are all great knowledgeable information.