Signing up for a free blog at WordPress.com is the quickest way to get started. That is how many new bloggers begin. While WordPress.com is a great place to start, it has several limitations that become apparent as a blog grows. If you want to get around these restrictions, you’ll have to migrate your WordPress.com blog to WordPress.org. We’ll show you eight reasons to migrate your WordPress.com blog to WordPress.org in this article.
1. Plugins
Plugins give WordPress its true power, allowing you to do almost anything you want with your website. On the WordPress.org repository alone, there are currently over 30,000 free plugins. Thousands of paid plugins are also available from a variety of other places.
Plugins enable you to do anything you want with your website, including building an email list, setting up an eCommerce store, and more.
When we say something, we really mean it. If you have an idea for a cool feature to add to your WordPress.org site, there’s a good chance someone has already created a plugin for it.
2. Themes
You can only install a limited number of themes on WordPress.com. Some of them are premium themes that cost $50 or more. Despite this, there are only a few hundred WordPress.com themes available.
Thousands of themes are available for self-hosted WordPress.org sites, on the other hand.
StudioPress, Elegant Themes, and ThemeLab are three of our favorite WordPress theme stores.
3. Displaying Ads on Your Website
WordPress.com places advertisements on free WordPress blogs, which allows them to recoup their costs. You have no control over the types of advertisements that appear on your website.
You can upgrade to remove ads for a fee, but that will cost you money.
Third-party advertising programs such as Google Adsense, BuySellAds, Lijit, Vibrant Media, and others are not allowed to run advertisements on your free WordPress.com blogs.
You can include affiliate links, publish sponsored posts, or join the WordAds advertising program. WordAds is only open to WordPress.com users who have a lot of traffic and publish relevant content. There are even limitations on the types of affiliate links that you can use.
You can choose whether or not to run ads on a self-hosted WordPress site. You have complete control over the types of advertisements that appear on your website. You can include affiliate links in your blogs or join any advertising program and place ads on your site (See how to add Google Adsense to your WordPress site).
Using some of the best advertising plugins, you can even manage your own ads. Most importantly, you will be the one who profits from those advertisements.
4. Your Own Brand
You get your own domain name with a self-hosted WordPress.org site. Your brand identity is represented by this domain name.
When you can get your own domain name, you don’t want to share your brand with a web address like JohnSmith.wordpress.com. We’ve compiled a list of useful tools and advice to help you choose the best domain name for your blog.
Most WordPress hosting companies provide you with a branded email address, such as [email protected], which looks great on business cards.
For $13 per year, WordPress.com allows you to purchase your own domain name. However, WordPress.com will continue to host this domain. Your domain name does not come with any email service. If you want an email service for a domain you bought from WordPress.com, you’ll have to pay extra money to get it from one of the email service providers.
5. Monetization Options
WordPress.com’s free blogs do not include any eCommerce features. If you want to add eCommerce features to your WordPress.com blog, you’ll need to upgrade to the WordPress.com Business plan, which costs $299 per year and only offers Shopify or Ecwid as options.
One of the best features of a self-hosted WordPress.org site is the ease with which you can integrate a full-fledged ecommerce solution like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads.
This allows you to sell products directly from your website, as well as provide premium content and expand your business. Even if you’re just getting started with a small blog, you should keep this option in mind.
6. Mobility, Scalability, and Growth
Managing your blog’s growth WordPress.com allows you to export your data at any time and move it to your own self-hosted site. Moving, on the other hand, is a huge pain. Additionally, WordPress.com only allows you to use one hosting provider. Their WordPress.com VIP program is a great option for bigger sites, but it’s also quite pricey.
You have complete control over your WordPress.org site. You can backup an entire WordPress site, including all of your data, and move to a new hosting provider at any time. If your website suddenly outgrows your expectations, you’ll have a wide range of options to choose from in various price ranges.
There are many choices and options for self-hosted WordPress sites, ranging from shared WordPress hosting services like BlueHost and Siteground to managed WordPress hosting solutions like Pagely and WPEngine.
7. Building a Web Property
If you want to attract future investment or sell your web property, building a website on your own domain name is a lot more practical and has a lot more potential.
Your WordPress.com blog can be transferred to another user. However, as anyone who deals with the sale and purchase of web properties will tell you, websites hosted on free subdomains have very little potential.
If you intend to devote significant time and effort to developing your blog, a self-hosted WordPress site has far more potential than a free WordPress.com blog.
8. Customize The Code
You can edit the code and customize anything you want with a self-hosted WordPress site. You have access to your theme’s and plugins’ PHP files and can make changes to them.
You can even make your own child theme and write your own site-specific plugin with it.
You are also free to make changes to the WordPress core files, but this is not recommended.
WordPress.com, on the other hand, only allows you to add custom CSS to your themes in a limited way. You will not be able to modify any PHP file to add your own custom code.
We hope that this article has convinced you to migrate your WordPress.com blog to WordPress.org.