This week I’m talking about the next step of the WordPress self hosting journey; when you decide to actually do it. There’s also a great deal at the end of this post for anyone that’s considering going self hosted.

If you’re still not sure if self hosting is for you check out last weeks post on the reasons why people are doing it here . In summary, I’m ready to run my own show and try to take blogging to the next step which, judging by last weeks comments, is the same for a lot of you.

Do you need someone to help you go self-hosted?

Ok, the short answer is no, you can definitely do it by yourself. In preparing for this article I spent about 30 minutes on google and managed to get several detailed references that took you through how to move from WordPress.com or blogspot.com to a self hosted WordPress.org site. I have also, however, used google to figure out how to take apart a mac book pro (that is no longer with us), fit new mountain bike brakes (that have never stopped squeaking and occasionally not stopped the bike) and plait my daughters hair (which is a blog post in itself).

The point I’m trying to make is that yes, you can do it yourself however it’s nice to have someone there who knows what they are doing. For example, my research didn’t tell me much about;

• The different ways you can set up worpdress.com or blogspot.com to refer to your new website. This is really important because it can impact the your google rank and stats
• How to move all the images from your old blog to the new one
• Making sure any internal and external links still work on your new site
• Making sure all your comments are moved
• Keeping down time of your site to the absolute minimum
• What DNS and MySQL is and why it’s really important

As I said, you can do it yourself but if like me you’ve spent time and effort in building content, an audience and traffic you’re going to want to hold on to them

Who is out there that can help?

Again, check Google and you will get a long list of businesses that can help you transition to a self hosted wordpress.org site. You can even purchase a transfer service from within wordpress.com. In deciding to make the move I knew that I wanted;

• Someone I could talk with, either online or on the phone. I didn’t want to be filling out support tickets and waiting 24 hours for a response
• An Australian based company. Part of this is a timezone thing with the likelihood of being able to talk to someone increasing if they are awake when you are. The other part is a trust thing. It’s probably subjective but I think it’s easier to research a company that is based in Australia than overseas
• A self hosted wordpress specialist. I didn’t want to work with someone who was simply doing the same googling I was doing. I wanted someone who had genuine experience and could show me sites previously migrated so I could check links and images myself.

There were a few companies that seemed to fit my criteria above. The ones that were recommended to me were;

• Little Hero Hosting (that I chose)
• Castle Design
• Web Babble
• Ozbloghosting

A look through the comments on my last post shows a lot of people have a lot of good things to say about Michelle over at  Little Hero Hosting & Little Hero Designs. In my experience Michelle has been great. So far she has already made things quicker, easier and less risky than if it was in left in the hands of someone who had no idea of what they are doing (ie – me).

How much should you expect to pay to move to self-hosted wordpress.org?

Costs vary. WordPress.com charges $129 US for a guided transfer where you still need to do some of the leg work. Others charge between $150 and $450 with the level of interaction and support varying within that as well.

But do I have a deal for you…

Michelle has a great offer available for Illiterate Infant readers who are keen to go on the self hosting journey with Little Hero Hosting & Little Hero Designs . Michelle is offering anyone who signs up between now and the 30^th of June 2013 25% off migrations and the first three months hosting free (if you pay for an annual plan) . All you need to do is;

1. Like illiterateinfant and Little Hero Hosting on facebook
2. Follow this link and enter the code IlliterateInfantgoesSelfhosted when it asks you to. (just remember to select an annual plan)

If you have any questions about the plans drop Michelle a line here.

Next up we’ll talk about getting ready. What you need to do, what you’ll need to pay for and what to expect on moving day. In the mean time, are you considering moving? Have you had an experience, good or bad with going self hosted? Have you worked with anyone you would recommend?

Like what your reading? Can’t risk missing another post? Want to see how this crazy adventure turns out? Then why not keep up on all thing Illiterate via the Facebook page, twitter or bloglovin?

Sharing my Tuesday with Jess over at  EssentiallyJess.com for I Blog on Tuesday