Once upon a time, I had a blog. It was a simple thing, built entirely in Microsoft Frontpage and updated maybe once or twice a week. It was a pain to manage, so I eventually dumped it and stopped blogging all together.
Then WordPress happened. And it was a beautiful thing.
I migrated all of my stuff immediately to a server at Network Solutions, set up a WordPress-powered blog, and started fresh with a real content management system. In the first few months I had the site running, I averaged 2 unique visitors per day and maybe one comment each month. It was a bit pathetic, but I was proud.
Then I realized just how bad of a host Network Solutions was. They’d overcharge me, double charge me, spontaneously take my site down for unannounced “scheduled” maintenance that would last a whole weekend, and actually deleted my entire database once in the process. Oh, and they blamed it on me, too. Needless to say, I wasn’t a happy customer. So I purchased a new hosting system with a new host.
The second migration found everything living with 1and1 Internet. They’re actually a great host, but their shared system is a bit too restrictive for me, and their managed server solutions are too expensive. So last month, I finally took the plunge and set up a VPS contract with a reputable host.
And as of last night, all of my personal sites are now living on my own VPS. This is the third migration of my online identity, and I hope to be here for a while. The beauty of a VPS setup is that I can grow, too. I now average 50 unique visitors each day (even when I don’t publish anything new). My plans for this space should increase that considerably, too.
Today, I run three blogs:
- This one, Mindshare Strategy
- My creative writing blog, Prose Painting
- My professional portfolio
Over the next several weeks, this will be expanding. I plan to split out the various categories I discuss on this site into their own micro-blogs. The tech crowd won’t have to wade through my religious essays any more. The camping and hiking crowd won’t have to read through long tech-related tutorials. Everything will have its own home in the network, and each site will be linked to all the others so you can find everything you want quickly and easily.
So keep watching this space. The third migration is finally over … now it’s time to start building a new home!
[...] Some time ago, I posted an update explaining how I would be expanding my personal blogging network. I’m proud to inform you that, as of this week, my latest site is now live, active, and containing new content. [...]