1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Moving the Blog

Hey! Big News! I was inspired recently to set up my own domain! http://1969chriscraftroamer46.com is now online.

This Chris Craft Roamer refit blog started as a topic thread on a Roamer forum. The forum admins were micromanagers and rule nazis, which I didn’t care for, and in January 2013 I launched the blog on WordPress.com. The inspiration for launching it was that in 2012, the paperwork SNAFU was finally resolved, the boat was officially mine, I had the interior concepts all worked out, and a set of Cummins 6CTA Diamonds–right proper engines for this boat–were on the way. A lot of good stuff was happening and I wanted to document it. WordPress made it easy to set up, but there are some downsides to not having control over your site.

One of the biggest irritants on WP.com are the ads. I understand they have to get paid somehow, but I personally hate it when admins make sites visitor unfriendly by using a firehose approach to ad scripts, popups, and banners. Commenters on the blog had also mentioned the intrusive ad problem, and with tendonitis limiting what I can physically do on the boat, I decided to do some low-impact work and move to my own site. If you ever decide to do something like this, understand that promises of “one-click site transfers” from WordPress.com to your own hosted server are most likely untrue. The larger the number of posts and pictures you have, the bigger the truth gap on that one-click claim. With that said, this will hopefully be a one-time-and-done effort, so you go through the pain and frustration once and then resume normal operations.

Hopefully.

Another factor in my decision was that I spend quite a bit of time writing each article, and I’ve been wondering if there was a way to monetize my efforts. I mentioned possibly switching to a video format a while back, but none of you thought that was a good idea. I appreciate the input and took your advice. Now that I’ve set up my own domain, there’s a cost for hosting, security software, etc.,  but instead of using ads on the new site I went with a Paypal tip jar. I don’t expect to retire early from whatever tips I receive but thanks in advance to anybody who chips in.

It’s complicated, though, because Paypal, like many online near-monopolies, engages in thought policing, and I’m not a fan of censorship. I looked into some Paypal alternatives, but…what a minefield. Patreon looked good, but it also censors. Venmo is popular with the kids these days, but it’s a Paypal subsidiary. Dwolla says it’s only available in the US, but my blog gets more than 500 views every month from outside the US. I don’t want to lose out on potential tips from international visitors! And then there’s payza, the website of which has been seized by the U.S. Department of Justice, which casts a shadow on the entire field of Paypal alternatives. Then there’s bitcoin…it kind of looks like a lot of work. So…for now, Paypal it is.

I’ve never been on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any of the other social media sites, and I understand that limits my blog’s reach. Then again, it’s a classic boat refit blog…not exactly a general interest topic that has any chance of going viral. But I may add Share links so site visitors who are on social media can put out a blast if they’re so inclined.

I’m taking the final step today and importing all of you email followers into the new site, so you should get blog post notifications that look a bit different than what WordPress.com sent you. Since my notifications include links, some of your email apps might interpret them as spam. To avoid notifications going to your spam folder, consider white-listing emails from 1969chriscraftroamer46.com. Or check your spam folders and click ‘not spam’ if you see a notification there.

For those of you who signed up as WordPress followers (there are 37 of you), there doesn’t appear to be a mechanism for me to port your contact info over to the new site. You’ll probably have to subscribe again using the email subscription feature on the new site.

Pretty much everything else should work the same as it did on WordPress.com. If you have trouble with the new site, feel free to leave comments here and I’ll get you squared away.

See you over at http://1969chriscraftroamer46.com!