Well, the good news is that my web host agreed to give me more time to get everything fixed before they take my websites down. The bad news is that I don’t really know how to fix it. I deleted all of mine and Matt’s inactive blogs, save for A Sensible Wife, because that’s still getting hits from Pinterest and is redirecting traffic here, so I’m not too keen on taking it down. Bauhaus Online Creative is still up, too, although I’m not quite sure why I’m bothering to save that one since I can’t really do web dev anymore (I no longer have the necessary equipment and I’m WAY out of practice) and I haven’t updated that site’s blog in more than a year. As for my freelance writing portfolio site, the hackers managed to destroy that one.
At any rate, the one I started with was Bauhaus Online Creative, mainly because it’s the smallest. I backed up the database, uninstalled and reinstalled WordPress, then imported the content to the new database, and uploaded the custom CSS file. But none of the content or customizations are showing up, and I have no idea why. I’ve entered a support ticket on it, and if they can help me figure out where I went wrong and get me on the right track, then I’ll have a process for saving all three sites worked out.
If they can’t (or won’t) help, then I’m seriously considering just scrapping the other two websites altogether and moving this blog to WordPress.com. I’d probably have to do a free account there for now, and plan on upgrading when my writing is able to pay the premium fee, which kind of breaks my heart, considering I just got this site the way I wanted it. But, this would force me to focus on the one site and not let myself get spread too thin as I have been in the past. But really, the only reason I’d really need a self-hosted WordPress site is to run an e-commerce site, and I don’t really need Paypal buttons for my freelance services. As for selling books directly, I’d already ruled that out thanks to my state’s pain-in-the-butt sales tax rules.
I may move to WordPress.com even if my host does help me get things worked out. I’m getting really tired of having cheap web hosting crap out on me like this, and I can’t afford to pay for more secure or reliable hosting.
Welp, I keep praying for God to order my steps and supersede my plans with His, so maybe this is all His way of guiding my platform in a better direction. And goodness knows MY way of doing things has never gone all that swimmingly, so maybe it’s time to try something new. For now we’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.
Do you have experience with WordPress.com? Are you happy with it? Does it do everything you need it to do? Oh, and does anyone know if it’s possible to mirror posts to Livejournal without doing it manually? I’d appreciate your feedback!
*hugs* I’m sorry you’re having so much trouble with your site, I know that’s frustrating.
I love WordPress.com, and as long as you own your domain name, you should at least be able to transfer that over. It’s $13/yr for domain mapping with WordPress.com, just fyi.
And looking around your blog right now, you should be able to find a theme that does most of what you currently have. Most of their themes have customizable backgrounds and headers, at the very least.
I know there used to be a way to mirror to Livejournal, but it’s been years since I used it, so I have no idea what it was anymore, though I think most of it was on LJ’s end, so as long as they didn’t make that function obsolete when they upgraded recently, it may still be there. Google would probably be your best bet, or getting in contact with customer support at LJ.
Just start poking around some themes at theme.wordpress.com. If you click on the ‘free’ link on the right hand side, then open the ‘find a theme’ options on the left side, you can poke through for themes with specific functions that you’d like.
Good luck, dear!
Thanks for the info, Rebekah. I didn’t know you could have your own domain without paying for a premium account. I think I’ve finally got things about squared away on this host, but I’m still considering asking them to refund the time remaining on my account (I paid up front for 3 years and I’ve still got a year left) and moving everything to WP.com. If not, that’s most likely where I’ll go when my time on this host is up.
I’ll hate to lose the ability to mirror to LJ, though. I know I can set up a feed over there that people can add to their friend lists, but it’s hard to keep up with comments on the feeds. Right now I still get more comments and interaction on LJ than I do here.