Laureny Loves… 2.0

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Wow! I can’t believe this is my blog. If you’re new here you won’t have a clue what I’m talking about but if you’ve been here before then welcome to my brand new blog. I’ve had a makeover and made some pretty big changes so here’s the new and improved Laureny Loves…

Going self-hosted

So the big news is I’m now self-hosted meaning I fully own my little site and boy does it feel good. I’ve had this space for 9 years and it’s never been truly mine until this day. I’ve always used Blogger which don’t get me wrong has been great and was perfect for me for so many years when blogging was just a hobby. Now felt like the right time to move though, blogging has become a side hustle for me (I mean don’t get any grand illusions here I’m not making a lot by any stretch of the imagination) and this move feels like it will allow me to grow. I’ve been putting this off for months but I’ve finally took the plunge. It was scary, let me tell you that but looking at my site now, I’m so glad I did it!

Getting used to WordPress

Blogging on WordPress is so much different to using Blogger so things may be a little off for a while though I think I’m picking things up quickly so hopefully you won’t notice anything! I feel like I’m at the start of my blogging journey again. I think I’ve got everything looking how I want it so I’m happy with that. I would have liked a little more time to play around but I’m back in work next week for 5 days so unfortunately I’ve had to try and cram the basics in. I’m sure I’ll get there though.

Choosing a host

Choosing a host was a tough decision for me as not only did I have 9 years of hard work to migrate over to WordPress, which the thought of losing was terrifying, but I needed something that worked well for me financially too. As I’ve said I don’t make a lot of money from my blog so I’m not currently in a position where I can put a lot of money back into my blog. I looked at a number of hosts all of which I often see mentioned by other bloggers but nothing felt right. I thought I’d found one but when I messaged to ask some questions about migrating from Blogger to WordPress they didn’t seem very confident (even though said company regularly tweets people looking for business and has since tweeted myself saying they could migrate from Blogger to WordPress really quickly…). First impressions count and I just didn’t feel like I could confidently place my blog in their hands. One host I did keep returning to though was Lyrical Host and after sending them a message my mind was made up, they were beyond helpful and reassured me that the migration would be simple. I’m going to do a whole blog post very soon on using Lyrical Host as my host and how I found the whole process.

The details

So down to the aesthetics because let’s face it, we all judge a book by its cover or in this case a blog by its design! WordPress themes can get very expensive and I just don’t have the money to throw at a theme right now. I also didn’t want to use a free theme as personally I don’t think they look as good so I needed a happy medium. I took to Etsy and found a few beautiful designs all around the £20 mark and eventually I settled on Dreams by Sky and Stars. Lyrical Host actually installed the theme for me as part of my migration which I’m super thankful for as it was just one less thing to worry about! I then played around with the colours to get it looking exactly how I wanted it. I actually kept most of the colours the same as grey and pink is my thing! My old blog design used those colours and I just like how to two colours go.

For my header I decided to go with something super simple as the theme is pretty fuss free so I wanted something that didn’t look out of place. My fiance made the header for me just so it was one less thing for me to do

So that’s it! It’s a pretty big move for me and I’ve taken a risk in the hope that it will make my blog even bigger and better. It’s a scary move attempting to make money from something that has been a hobby for so long but I love that I can make a little bit extra from something I love doing and I don’t think there’s any shame in trying to grow that!

Please let me know what you think to the look of my new blog in the comments below!