What Not to do When Going Self Hosted

Hoorah finally I am self hosted, but typical, it came with its own set of drama’s. It has taken me a month to go self hosted, why? Because I have made every mistake going, I have frozen my blog 3 times, It has been reset twice and date restored once. So I thought I would share where I went wrong. Hopefully stop others making the same mistakes I made.

1. Read reviews before choosing your host, I did not do this and had to change my host due to poor service. If I had read the reviews I would have known host no one did not always offer great service. They had no patience at all, I could feel their frustration down the technical hotline phone. However I changed to TSO host who were wonderful. And very, very patient, I bet they are more relieved that my blog is working than me.

2. Read step by steps, watch how to videos, get all the advice you can before starting. I jumped in feet first, my usual tactic in life being a kinesthetic person; big mistake. I should have read all I could before starting.

3. Don’t mess and change addresses without getting advice first. I froze my blog and had to get it restored, thus loosing lots of info. Thankfully I had backed it up so in the end only lost 2 posts and a few widgets.

4. Dont change your theme 50 times in an hour, I did this and totally broke my blog. I had to completely delete WordPress and start from scratch.

5. Make sure if you own your domain name that you transfer thee host  first, then redirect your blog server. I tried to do it the other way and guess what? Broke it.

6. Where you can copy HTML’s at source, I cope one from my blog that broke it.

7. Do run your blog on your new platform with a temporary address (in my case WordPress) for a few days, get to know the software before going live. This was one thing I did right, I ran it for over a week so I got to know all the icons and buttons. I still have work to do but am feeling a little more confident now.

8. Use the hotline number  your host provides. TSO host were wonderful, so helpful and talked me through several processes step by step.

9. Stay calm, I got so stressed and probably made mistakes as a result.If all else fails there is always wine.

Hope this post doesn’t make me look too flaky, I am generally very good with IT.  I loved blogger, it was so easy to use. But felt it was time to take the plunge and go self hosted. As a result I have learnt so much  along the way. But us practical people do first and read later, its in the genetics. 

And now that is all behind me, I am loving my new blog. It doesn’t look hugely different. However I do hope it looks a little more professional. All ready for the next stage of my blogging journey.