Last week, I posted a question that a new reader had for me. She basically wanted to know whether or not to switch her PR3 wordpress.com site over to a wordpress.org. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I asked her permission to post it on here.
Here’s essentially how I responded to her:
First, congrats on your stats!
In hindsight, it would obviously be a much easier decision if your site was newer. If it was me, I would switch over.
Although it may be painful in the short term, I would like my own domain for the long haul. I would look at it as an opportunity to do things better a second time around and treat the first site as an incredible learning experience.
If you’re planning on hanging around for a while, cut over now. The longer you wait, the harder the decision will be.
Many of you were spot on: she should make the switch! Although some hobbyists could simply keep the site and be totally content, it does not make sense to stay at wordpress.com. Among many reasons, you should want to own your own content and showcase your own domain.
She already purchased the domain so she was obviously already leaning toward that decision. All we did was provide an awful lot of reinforcement.
As one visitor mentioned, she should also be leveraging her wordpress.com site to help accelerate her new site’s growth. I would use the wordpress.com site to provide a ton backlinks so it will add related-content support and give it some PR juice. Don’t we all wish we had a head start from a PR3 site when we first started!
I am a business professional
with an entrepreneurial spirit. Although I have an MBA and managed websites and IT departments
for several Fortune 500 companies ... 
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Good choice! I just want to say that this time.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog´s last blog ..Current Hot Topic To Blog About: FIFA World Cup 2010 =-.
I definitely think she has made the right choice. Especially if she is looking to monetize her blog or even just to brand the .org version is much better.
.-= SEO Services´s last blog ..Create Niche Products: eBooks =-.
This should not be a question at all. Although wordpress.com provides all the functionalities, it is always better to have your own domain. It gives you self-defined place in blogosphere, gives authentic feel and if you decide later, also provides platform for money making.
.-= Harsh Athalye´s last blog ..How Good Is Your Browser For HTML5? =-.
Be careful. it’s my understanding that the linking aspect in the TOS is not just against products themselves, but against linking to commercial blogs in general…something ;like that.
.-= Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Oops I Lied-HAHA =-.
She’d simply be creating links to her new site when topics are related. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.
I’m just sayin’, read it thoroughly.
.-= Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..10 Social Share Sites Chosen – Do You Agree? =-.
Great to know for anyone considering switching and the like. PR3 would be amazing to start right from the get-go but we can all work toward it
.-= Murlu´s last blog ..Time Management For Successful Bloggers =-.
Wow this just goes to show I still have a tremendous amount to learn about WordPress, I have no idea what PR3 is vs. wordpress.org. All I know is that I enjoy writing the content I write on my blog, and the responses I get back are encouraging. I do wish I could make some money though.
She did a good choice to switch to WordPress.org, it is more powerful and she will have not any limit, i wish her a good start and hope she will get a good PR even better than PR3!
If you’re going to be serious about your blog or website your own domain is absolutely crucial. You will almost always regret not having one in the long run.
.-= John Edwards´s last blog ..Anne Arundel County Real Estate =-.
I agree, if you’re going to look at your blog as a potential source of income, you need your own domain, and if she has a lot of traffic she throwing money away.
Is there a way to have your wp.com blog url to be redirected to your new own domain .org blog?
.-= Jobs For Felons´s last blog ..Jobs Fore Felons | State to Pass Law Against Felon Job Discrimination =-.
The decision will definitely help her to establish her blog in a better way than the previous attempt. As you rightly said – to consider 1st time as an incredible learning experience.
.-= Techno-Pulse´s last blog ..Microsoft leaps into the Cloud – Office Web Apps =-.
HI,
i have been using wordpress.com for quite a long time now and have many blogs that i manage and update on a regular basis.
Do i need to go for .org? what edge will it give me?
WordPress.org (self-hosted) will allow you to have total control and you own your content.
Gabe:
This post actually brings up a question from me…can WordPress.com blogs actually get their own page rank. I was under the impression from others that the reason they ranked as they did (I’ve only ever seen 3′s) is that they were getting PR from wordpress.com?
Any insight you have on that would be awesome!
Hope you’ve been doing well, seems as though it’s been forever since we’ve chatted.
.-= Michelle Mangen´s last blog ..Hate Paypal Fees? Check out the alternative =-.
WordPress.com sites can definitely have their own PR. I’ve seen some as high as PR7!
As for me, I’m doing quite well. Just really busy with the newborn!
Gabe – thanks so much for teaching me something new on WordPress.com sites.
When did the new baby arrive? Boy/Girl? Mommy and baby both happy? How about the proud papa?
.-= Michelle Mangen´s last blog ..Aweber for Newsletters and Auto-Responders =-.
We’re all happy! Cameron is 6 weeks old already. So we now have a 2.5 year old boy, a 17 month old girl, and a newborn boy!
You and the Missus must be near saints to have three so young and close together.
I’m so happy for you that everyone is doing well.
Definitely a hard decision to make when the blog is older. However, I’ve been there … done that … but have not regretted the move from .com to .org. Skills learned with the older site carried over and the transition was much quicker and easier than I had thought.
.-= Susan Redmon´s last blog ..Jim Rohn: Doing the Remarkable =-.
Great to see a live case study. Thanks for the supporting evidence!
I think she should leave her blog as is, PR3 is a nice thing to have.
She won’t start from scratch, she already has a good start regarding content and I’m sure some of her backlinks will be updated. And like Gabe said, it’s a great opportunity to rerun things and apply changes you were before sceptical about.
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nice blog and thanks for this useful information:-)
Sam sechas thinking to translate your blog to paid hosting, and buy a domain name. But I was very little time to devote to his blog. Time simply disastrous lack. Thinking of automation blogging. Learning php.
She did a good choice to switch to WordPress.org, it is more powerful and she will have not any limit, i wish her a good start and hope she will get a good PR even better than PR3!
Thank you for offering
nice post and I think the most difficult part of the
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I haven¡¦t checked in here for a while because I thought it was getting boring, but the last few posts are good quality so I guess I¡¦ll add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend