For a long time I sat on the fence, wondering whether or not to switch my account from “.wordpress.com” to a “.com” site. In fact, I paid for my own domain long before I actually switched over. I had a few concerns, but my main one was whether or not the links I already had out on the web would lead back to my site after I changed the address. As it turns out, they do. I can still ask people to drop by lindaghill.wordpress.com and they’ll show up here at lindaghill.com. Which is wonderful! But… (There had to be a “but” in there, right?)
When I was doing research for my article about dying before scheduled posts are published, entitled “Blogging from the Grave,” I asked in the forums whether my site would still exist if I failed to pay for it, i.e. if I die. The answer was yes. All of my content will just revert back to my old lindaghill.wordpress.com address and will be here forever as long as no one deletes my account. However, all the links I leave behind which lack the “.wordpress.com” will either go nowhere or they will go to whomever buys the domain after I allow my payments to lapse.
My point is this: if you own your own WordPress domain and you want your links to last forever, don’t leave off the extra part of the address! Just a little thing you might have missed when you paid…
Edit: Now that’s interesting – I added the “.wordpress.com” to my link for the “Blogging from the Grave” post and I didn’t get a pingback on it. Could that explain the mystery of why sometimes pingbacks don’t work? (This edit is also an experiment.)
Edit2: YES! The pingback worked that time. Double the advice in one post – pingbacks don’t work if the address isn’t precise!
April 21, 2015 at 9:43 pm
They lied to you. As soon as https://onefreeatlast.wordpress.com/ lost it’s registration WORDPRESS deleted my account and allow the web address to be bought. They did this because I had made that web address popular. I never shut that blog down, only allowed the domain to expire. Next thing I know the user/pass doesn’t work and my account was “gone.” Fuck wordpress.
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April 21, 2015 at 9:16 pm
I’ve been considering going to just the .com. What are the advantages? Did you notice any improvement in more views, readers or followers? more exposure? I’m just wondering what is the point of changing?
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April 21, 2015 at 3:36 pm
Thanks for the detective work, Linda. I just changed mine this past Saturday while at Press Publish Phoenix (which was an awesome event BTW.)
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April 21, 2015 at 3:31 pm
I am so tempted to start scheduling various and sundry posts well into the future, because blogging from the grave sounds so bad-ass! Never would have considered it… 😉
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April 21, 2015 at 1:46 pm
I just started a new blog with wordpress and decided to pay for my own domain. Then I thought I should go ahead and change my old (other) site toy own domain. The problem with that is: I have business cards that give the WordPress domain on them and I didn’t want to get new cards printed up. Something else to consider if you change to your own domain. So now I have my primary blog that’s on my cards as WordPress and my secondary blog whicj I wouldn’t use on cards as my own domain. Sorta a backwards thing!
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April 22, 2015 at 2:53 pm
Don’t know if this helps but you do know that you can divert all traffic to your site i.e. if someone tries to access your .wordpress.com blog they’ll be redirected to your .com
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April 21, 2015 at 1:03 pm
I don’t have my own domain, but if I ever do then this is good information to know.
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April 21, 2015 at 11:50 am
Haha this was a bit morbid. I pray you or I don’t die any time soon
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April 21, 2015 at 11:30 am
Wonderful advice, Linda… I doubt I will ever own my own domain, but this is useful information to have if I ever decide to do so. Thanks!
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April 21, 2015 at 10:49 am
This is why I have a collaborative writer for my blog. If I die, she can fix all the links. 😛
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April 21, 2015 at 10:51 am
You do? You mean you don’t write all your own posts?
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April 21, 2015 at 10:52 am
On the Paul Davis site, I write all posts, but I don’t own it so whether or not I die, it will not care. On my creative writing one, there is a collaborator, and that I own.
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April 21, 2015 at 10:54 am
Ah, I see. Still, it would be difficult to track down every link you’ve ever left for it, wouldn’t it?
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April 21, 2015 at 10:56 am
That’s why I’ll die first. Then it’s her problem 😉
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April 21, 2015 at 10:58 am
Ha! Good plan.
…wait, what? 😉
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April 21, 2015 at 10:46 am
I do also have my domain address without wordpress and I haven’t had so many problems with this.
Do you every use your domain-address in your Tags? I do every time, which avoid a lot of problems. I use both my blog name and the blog address.
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April 21, 2015 at 10:50 am
No, I never tag my own name or address. I just figure if anyone is looking for me they’ll google me rather than search the reader. But it’s a good idea now you’ve got me thinking about it. 🙂 Thanks!
I haven’t had any problems with the domain links yet, but if I ever stop paying for my site, that’s when the issue will arise.
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April 21, 2015 at 10:51 am
You are right, but maybe the tags could avoid those problems.
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April 22, 2015 at 8:55 pm
If I understood correctly, anybody could add those tags and redirect traffic or claim to be you. That would be a mess!
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April 23, 2015 at 12:33 am
Correct, but then you would also be able to find the cheaters yourself, just by searching for yourself.
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