Hi Everyone!
I have been in the process of making some changes to the site- the biggest one being that it will soon have its own domain. That’s right, joannathemontrealer.wordpress.com will be no longer. I have already started by changing my Instagram and other Social Media sites but the BIG move will be happening in the coming weeks.
Rest assured, I will be posting the new website link once it is live, but for now, please save www.athomewithjoanna.com in preparation because in just a few days, my posts will not be shown in your WordPress reader (from what I’ve heard).
This change is very scary but even more exciting. I will be using BlueHost and wordpress.org and I will be documenting my experience while doing so for anyone thinking of making the same transition.
Why the change?
Well, pretty much for the same reasons I started a Patreon page. I have been doing this for years now and I have been getting more traffic the more I collaborate with people. While I love doing it, (at no cost to anyone but myself), it takes a lot of time and energy. It is time to invest in my site the way I want to support all of your wonderful sites. Hopefully this will help enable me to grow my site even more and I will be able to work with more of you! As always, I will be open to collaborations. My new site will have contact info for if you want to work together, but for now if you are interested, I can always be reached at [email protected]. However, I will no longer be Joanna the Montrealer.
While it had brought me to exciting places, the name seems limiting. While some readers may be interested in Montreal, a lot of them probably saw the name and thought “I have no need to read about Montreal events” and quickly kept browsing. I am no longer a blogger focusing solely on Montreal, so it was time for a change, therefore At Home with Joanna was born.
Also, I have been doing my research and now that I am getting more companies requesting to do work with me, it is time to look more professional. Having a site that belongs to someone else and therefore has the .wordpress.com in the site url, looks less professional and can be a deciding factor on whether or not a company is willing to work with you.
More plugins, themes… the list goes on to the benefits of using wordpress.org compared to wordpress.com. Yes, you can purchase plans that have extras which enable you to have more options on wordpress.com but they are quite expensive and still don’t offer you as many options. I am excited to see what the future holds when it comes to the new possibilities having more options will offer me. I want to note that wordpress.com has been great for me and I would recommend it for anyone who is beginning to blog. If you have never blogged before and you want to know if it is something you would want to do for more than just a hobby, then it is a great place to start.
Have you been thinking of getting your own site and not just one hosted on wordpress.com? Have you made the switch already? Is there anything I should know beforehand? Please comment and let me know!
I truly hope that you will continue to subscribe to me and the updates I have in store for you on the new site. I am saving a lot of great content for when I do the switch so please, keep following- I would really appreciate it and I don’t want to lose touch with you- so many of you have been immensely kind to me during my time here on wordpress.com and it means so much to me.
Sincerely,
Joanna
