[Hidden-tech] Looking for Free or Low Cost Blog Platform and Thoughts about Jotform for Registering New Subscribers

[Greg Perham]

Hi Roger,

+1 for WordPress. 

You might want to consider MailChimp's free plan for managing your subscriber list. No need to bring JotForm or another third party into the mix.

Looks like you're hosting on Network Solutions. My experience with clients who were on Netsol has been that they were paying 2 to 4 times above the norm and the performance and control panel were so poor they moved house when they upgraded. If the pricing is good and you can easily install WP, I say stay; otherwise, definitely move on.

A few things to keep in mind when moving your site to WP (or any other platform):
1. Make sure redirects <https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/> are set up for your .html pages to help search engines index the new pages and keep your rankings.
2. Do not just copy and paste your current code into WordPress. It needs to be cleaned up and modernized. You will want to make use of heading tags etc instead of spans with inline styles. This is for accessibility, SEO, maintainability, and portability. It's just how HTML is meant to be used.
3. Avoid opening links in new windows as much as possible. It's pretty common to do so for external links and PDFs, but should be avoided 100% of the time for internal links. Trust people to use the back button.
4. Use a simple SEO plugin <https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-seopress/> to improve your page descriptions in search engine results.
5. As others mentioned: backups and updates. They're simple enough to do yourself, or cheap enough to get someone to manage them for you.

Setting it up and moving your content over can be done in a few hours. A number of people on HT have lots of experience with this and could help out, myself included! Feel free to contact me directly if you want assistance.

Greg




Greg Perham
Swing Graphics | Swing Hosting
PO Box 1436
Northampton, MA 01061
greg at swinggraphics.com <mailto:greg at swinggraphics.com>
413 570-0881

LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregperham> || Twitter <https://twitter.com/swinggraphics>




> On May 26, 2020, at 4:50 PM, Roger Magnus via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi all, 
> 
> I am long-time reader but first-time poster on this discussion list. 
> 
> I am hoping to start a blog soon as I transition my business into a new area. I am trying to find a free or low-cost blogging platform that I can synch with my website domain,  rogermagnusresearch.com.  Does anyone have any suggestions? I realize my website is very simple and I hope to upgrade it eventually as I have more clients.  
> 
> Also, I want to sign up clients to the blog and wonder about Jotform to capture a name and email address.  One thing I like about it is it replies with a thank you message when someone signs up.  Is that something you would recommend, something else,  or is a link to my email sufficient?  
> 
> Many thanks!
> 
> 
> Best, 
> 
> 
> Roger 
> 
> 
> Roger Magnus
> Roger Magnus Research
> Amherst, MA 01002
> Phone/Text: 413-687-8466
> Web:  http://www.rogermagnusresearch.com <http://www.rogermagnusresearch.com/> 
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