Introduction
Blog Server Migration Part I was the first of a three part series which is meant to provide you with insight into our server migration effort which occurred on New Year’s Eve and launched on New Year’s Day 2009. My hope is that others can use our information to their advantage as far as the decisions making process, the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, our results and lessons learned. In Part I I outlined the difference between the commonly confused WordPress server (wordpress.com) and wordpress.org which we are using as our blogging software on our private server. In addition, the advantages of migrating from wordpress.com to wordpress.org were provided and our rationale for making that decision. Today’s discussion will continue with the challenges associated with this approach and the results we have seen thus far.

Drawbacks Of Migrating
Despite the advantages of a private wordpress.org server configuration there are a number drawbacks you should be made aware of, none of which in my opinion are very significant, however they should be mentioned nonetheless. The disadvantages include the following:

1. Loss of WordPress featuring
2. Higher cost
3. Widgets are a mixed bag
4. Broken URL repair
5. Traffic Interruption
6. Clock reset

When migrating to a private server (wordpress.org) you will lose WordPress featuring. This includes being included in the WordPress directory for readers to click on your blog from other WordPress articles, or being listed in such features as the top 100 fastest growing blogs. As being independent from the standard wordpress.com server is an advantage, you are also truly on your own. Depending on your perspective this could be an advantage, but it is there nonetheless. For us we had a good foundation of followers, so this was not a big issue when making the migration, although it did have a slight impact.

Second, the cost is higher for a private server (wordpress.org) configuration. A standard wordpress.com server configuration is free – and this price is tough to beat, especially for those starting out with scarce resources! However, do not be dismayed, the private server cost is low and depends mainly on your site traffic and storage space required. Prices begin at approximately $60 for one year. We pay $1,000 per year, however our needs are more complex than most, we run multiple businesses and websites, your average blogger will not require this capability or expense and therefore be able to keep costs low.

Another disadvantage is that widgets are a mixed bag in a private wordpress.org server configuration when compared to the standard wordpress.com server configuration. For those unaware, a widget is basically a chunk of code that automates a task on your system such as stat counting, linking, Twitter updates, etc. The more tasks you can automate, the more time you have to actually write content, so automation, and therefore working widgets are a good thing. When using a standard WordPress server configuration there are a wide variety of widgets that have been tested by WordPress and basically used and refined over time by the user community. With the private wordpress.org server configuration there are many more widgets available from the open source community, however the quality of these are mixed as there is not a standard quality control process or central governing authority. Finding widgets that will meet a given need will require a good deal of trial and error. As mentioned earlier, good widgets can automate time consuming processes and in effect, make your life easier, conversely, widgets of poor quality can make your life difficult and can prove time consuming to weed out – in the end however we have found this process to be worthwhile, although admittedly a bit frustrating.

A fourth disadvantage of migrating from a wordpress.com server to a private server (using wordpress.org) is that broken links will need to be repaired when making the migrating. All links to past articles will be broken as the established uniform resource locators (URL’s) or web addresses will no longer be valid and must be reestablished for the new server. At the time of migration we had 23 articles, reviewing each article and re-establishing links was a significant task. I could not imagine if we had hundreds of articles in the library, so obviously the earlier you migrate, the better off you will be.

A fifth disadvantage is that an interruption of traffic will be experienced. How much of an interruption is difficult to determine, however some interruption will undoubtedly occur. Any type of migration from one system, or way of doing business, to another is essentially a disruption in an individual or business operation or day-to-day way of doing business. Because of this there was a learning curve to overcome for both us and our readers. The key is to make the migration as painless as possible to minimize this operational hiccup and accompanying interrupting in traffic. Remember, traffic = money, so interruption of income is a bad thing and should be minimized.

The final disadvantage of migrating from the standard wordpress.com server to a private server with wordpress.org, is that after migrating the clock is essentially reset on web traffic. Since the blog is migrating to a new website, the traffic, or stat counter, is essentially set to zero. This can seem demotivating, especially in the beginning when the perception of a high traffic website is critical and early motivation is based on high growth traffic. All is not lost though, and migration is not completely equivalent to starting from scratch. If the proper precautions are taken, such as redirecting traffic from the previous server and notifying existing readers with a message posted on the previous website, a faster increase in traffic will be witnessed.

To Be Continued…
Now that the complete picture of the good, bad, and ugly of migrating from a standard wordpress.com server to a private server using wordpress.org has been drawn I will conclude the series by providing you with our results and some key lessons learned from the migration project.

Despite it’s advantages there is some short term pain that must be taken in order to realize long term gain when migrating from wordpress.com to a private server!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding