Fear of the Unknown

There have been a few blogs that I follow that have made the transition from site hosted to self hosted. For example, WordPress.com (site hosted) to WordPress.org (self hosted). I’ve been toying with the idea for months. Talking to said bloggers, reading numerous articles, watching video after video.

The articles make the transition seem like a breeze. The videos make the process seem like it can be completed within hours. HOWEVER, whenever I read a story from a blogger that completed the process. It’s never as easy as it’s portrayed which always ends up causes me to pause and not move forward with the process.

I know the major benefit of going self hosted is freedom. The benefit to site hosted is ease, security, and community. I’ve stayed site hosted for this long mainly due to ease. It’s so easy to get live help whenever I’m stuck. I don’t always have time to do research and figure out how to fix an issue.

Also, I LOVE my current theme. I changed to my new theme about a month or so ago. It has by far been my absolute favorite theme. I love how clean and sleek my site looks. The layout gives me online magazine vibes which really speaks to what I’d envisioned for my site. I would really hate to lose my current theme.

The last hesitation that is keeping me from taking the plunge to self hosted is my domain. I purchased my domain name through WordPress.com and am confused how to move my current domain to a new hosting location (if that makes sense).

I would love to be able to just pay someone to research and do everything for me. However, that is currently not an option. If I made the decision to go self hosted I would have to do everything myself. I don’t mind being challenged and learning new things. But I also don’t want my site to be down for weeks because I can’t figure out what I did wrong in the process of attempting to transition my site. I also work 40+ hours a week and can’t honestly say I want to spend my free time tinkering with my site. I spend literally ALL DAY on the computer as is.

With all that said, I can’t help but feel like I’m limiting myself by not being self hosted. I want to put http://www.mjrmorris.com in the best possible position to thrive.

I guess to sum it up. I want to pull the trigger on becoming self hosted but I’m nervous. I enjoy the ease and convenience of being site hosted. I don’t want to lose my theme or my community of subscribers. I also do not want to limit the potential of mjrmorris.com.

What to do? I’m so torn.