Have you made the decision to migrate your blog from a free domain and onto your own? If so, you have most likely made the decision based on the fact that you are well aware of the primary benefits of having your own domain. If you need more convincing to migrate your blog off a free domain, be sure to read Part One of this two part article.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your blog migration engines and let’s go!
Assuming you are chomping at the bit to get started, here are some basic steps and a solid strategy to help you relocate your blog onto your own domain.
- Determine which blogging platform you prefer to use.
Let’s just say you choose to go with WordPress, which is the platform I use here. WordPress is only an example, but it’s important that you select which platform you want to use first.
- Select the host you wish to use, and make sure they are compatible
You will want to be sure to choose a host that will be compatible with the software platform you are using. Most hosts will be compatible for any blogging platform, but if you want to have access to the one-click installation script of the blogging platform you wish to go with, make sure the host you choose offers it.
The one-click installation of a blogging platform such as WordPress is easy to accomplish even if you did not have prior website experience. However, if you don’t have access to a one-click install script for the blogging platform such as WordPress, and you don’t have prior website experience you may need to have some extra pain killer at hand.
This is actually the first step some people choose, but it really is best to determine who your host will be first. Some hosts offer your first year of your first domain free, as part of their hosting service package. So again, you may want to hold off on ordering your domain until you’ve made the decision about your host.
- Select the ftp (file transfer protocol) service you wish to use
You will need an ftp program to upload templates and other scripts you will choose to use. Most hosts will provide you with some recommendation of ftp programs to choose. Some are free while others are not.
- As per your hosts instructions, install the blogging platform
Once you login to your control panel with your host you will need to set up a database for the blogging platform, which is fairly easy to do in most control panels. Once that step is accomplished, you are ready to install the blogging platform such as WordPress. If you choose a host who offers the one click installation that is a quick and easy process.
- Select your blog template
When you install the blogging platform, some come with templates preloaded to simply select and click to activate the choice. If you don’t see a template you like you can search for a different template and install it onto your site.
- Migration of your blog posts
Although some platforms such as WordPress offers the ability to import blog posts from other services, I plan to do mine differently. In other words, I’m not planning to do a bulk transfer of my posts, but you could do it differently if you choose.
- What to do about your old blog posts & prior free domain
This part of my article is a very important part, so please read carefully. When bloggers relocate a blog I have to wonder how many of them simply transfer over all their posts and then delete their free domain blogs. Why would you want to do that? Don’t delete your old blog posts from your free domain!
You may have months, or even years of work into your blog even though it was on a free domain. In fact, you may also have a fair amount of traffic, and possibly page rank too, so you don’t want to throw that away by deleting your old blogs! You have all your posts cached on the Internet, and leading people to your blog from organic searches, so don’t throw that away!
Capitalize on what you already have established. If it’s page rank, make use of it for your new blog. If it’s traffic, harvest as much of that as you can from your old blog into your new blog on your own domain.
This is the final step and the most important. In order to capitalize on what you already worked so hard for, the final step of this strategy is that you will revise your old posts on your old blog, rather than deleting them. You may have some posts you simply don’t care about and won’t be relocating to your new blog domain. That’s okay, but again leave them on your old blog.
For the posts you do want to salvage and place on your new domain, here’s what you want to consider. Starting with your older posts first: Copy the entire post onto your new blog and rework and improve upon your content of that post as needed. Make use of keywords and key phrases for your blog post titles. Publish it on your new blog.
Go back to your old blog post containing that same article. Delete nearly all your blog post except for the first paragraph. Utilizing a link with words such as, “read more” link it to your new blog post on your new domain. Do this for each blog post you wish to relocate. By doing so you have left only a snippet of it up for traffic to land on, but then the “read more” or other similar link will bring the reader to your new blog.
Rinse and repeat that step for each blog post at the rate you wish to publish the new ones. This way you will still gain the traffic from your old blog while you also gradually harvest it’s page rank toward boosting your new domains rank.
Finally, for your old blogs location post one last post announcing the fact that your blog has been relocated to your own domain. This will serve as a form of free advertising to your new blog location, and will drive any remaining traffic to your new site.
Eventually you may wish to delete your old blog completely, but at least you will have harvested as much traffic and page rank from it possible before you do so.
