Moving from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

We recently decided to launch a website based upon our Blog about our farm and daily life.  There are some reasons for this, but this post is going to be about the growing pains associated with that move.
Our previous blog, http://www.heritagebreedsfarm.wordpress.com was beginning to get referrals from a few search engines, google.being the largest and main referrer.  The blog was doing well with about 40 followers and 25 views or so per day.  With that as a background, we purchased our domain name through namecheap.com and hosted our site through hostgator.com.  we were up and running for about $30 (we purchased two domains and paid for one month of hosting).  According to several websites, it is not recommended to self host a site until you have 1000 clicks and views per day.  This number is for those simply trying to monetize their blog.  Though that would be nice, we wanted some autonomy and liked the thought of self hosting our site.  We had good success with wordpress.com and thought we could springboard off of that.
Well, so far the jump has been a learning experience.  It seems as though wordpress.com is simple and very user friendly.  It also seems to be a place to build a blogging community.  It was easy to read other blogs and to get followers.
So far, the self hosted site has not been as user friendly.  There is deifintely a lot to learn.  First off, the plugins and widgets have to be located.  We performed a google search to figure out which ones to install to get up and running.  The first that was critical was jetpack.

 

For more on this post go to http://heritagebreedsfarm.com

Kreativ Blogger Award

I would like to thank Nancy Tanner for nominating me for the Kreativ Blogger Award.  So far, I have concluded that this is simply a way to highlight your 7 favortie blogs that you follow.  There is not an actual award per se, other than the recognition by one of your followers.  It also should be a way to push more traffic to a blog site, as my followers will see links to the 7 that I nominate.

So here are the rules as I see them:

Thank the person who nominated you and back link to their site or blog.

Copy the picture from above and paste it somewhere in your post.

List 7 interesting facts about yourself.

Nominate and back link to 7 blogs that you would like to recognize.

Seven Interesting Facts:

1)  I went to Hollywood and filmed a movie with Jack Lemmon, Dan Aykroyd, James Garner and Lauren Bacall.  My Fellow Americans.  I did not appear in the film, but had a good time on the set.  I actually talked with Jack and his French Poodle named Chloe.

2)  I was born at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and was delivered by my father (who is an OB/GYN)

3)  I have performed on the same stage as one of the three tenors (Pavarotti).  I was in a group that was singing in the Choir of the World Competition and he performed later that day.

4)  I spent a 10 week stretch on a missons trip in San Diego, California

5)  I performed in the Ohio State University Marching band.  During that time, I marched in the Holiday Bowl, the Citrus Bowl (twice), and the Rose Bowl (the granddaddy of them all)

6)  I attended the game where Pete Rose broke the all-time hits record that was previously held by Ty Cobb.  I have also attended an All Star Game, A World Series game, and several games where fights broke out on the field.

7)  I am currently trying to decide on whether or not to train for a 1/2 marathon or a sprint Triathlon.

So with no further ado, The seven Blogs that I would like to nominate are:

Call of Men

Tinkerer’s Tool Chest

Growing Grace Farm

The Veterinary Times

Blogging Your Passion

Soulsby Farm

Kinds of Honey