When was the last time that you needed to migrate WordPress blogs either to a new host, or to a new owner? Its an annoying, long and drawn out process, isnt it? Heres the thing. For a fairly lengthy period of time, I had resorted to doing this manually, but when push came to shove, I just couldnt keep up.
Anyway, I ended up becoming somewhat of a master of this whole process. If you were to ask me today how many times I have had to migrate wordpress blogs from one place to another, I honestly wouldnt be able to tell you. I have become that familiar with the process.
Let Me Show You How Its Done
In late 2010, I was introduced to an extremely powerful standalone script (grab your copy here) that can create a carbon copy of your WordPress blog, ready for migration to a new domain or server, plugins and themes intact. There is beauty in this, and I will get to explaining why plugins (rather than scripts) that help you migrate WordPress are a super bad idea shortly for the moment however, check out the info-graphic below to see how the script works:
That is how simple it is. Nothing else that needs to be done, you just simply copy the script to the root directory of your domain, access the script, and execute it. This creates a file that you can transfer to the new location, and expand within a few seconds. If you wanted to actually see it in action, just check out the video below (opens in a new window).
For those of you who are more tech savvy, you will also understand the benefits of this plugin being Ajax based. As all other plugins and scripts that claim to be able to do the same job are most often written in PHP, this puts much more strain on your hosting account, which results in a much lower success rate.
Now, I dont know about you, but especially if I am using a script like this to be able to run backups, reliability is a big factor for me. That is why I only use WPtwin to migrate WordPress blogs (get your copy here).
Why Shouldnt I Use Plugins To Do The Job?
Sure, there are a handful of plugins out there that do allow you to migrate WordPress (WPtwin is NOT a plugin mind you) and create copies to install on other hosting accounts or domains, however, you need to remember that there are massive issues with 99% of these plugins.
This is nothing to do with the quality of how they are coded or pieced together, but more for the fact that in all cases, you are going to need the functionality of WordPress in order to be able to run both the copying and the migration stages.
Not only that, but if you are trying to migrate a blog that is of a fairly decent size, chances are that you are going to see some issues as the plugin is actually running inside a software package (WordPress) that is already using a fairly large amount of resources, leaving very little for a plugin to do its job.
This is not just an odd case here and there either. This is across the board with every single plugin that I have used.
This is why I only use standalone scripts to migrate WordPress, and recommend that you do the same (Check out WPtwin here)
Will It Work On My Server?
The good news is that because of the fact that WPtwin is the most popular tool used online to migrate WordPress blogs (click here to see why over 3000 copies have sold worldwide!), it has been tested on the largest possible variation of server configurations known to man.
As a result, you can rest assured that you will be able to easily migrate WordPress blogs using your hosting account, or any other hosting account that you may be migrating to in the near future.
But I Dont Want To Buy A Script!
Thats fine. Remember, I detailed how to clone a wordpress blog manually at this post, you are more than welcome to follow that process yourself.
That said, to be able to effectively migrate WordPress blogs either to a new host or a new owner is a skill that everyone simply must have. If you dont need it now, chances are you will discover that you need it again down the track.
I know thats how it worked for me.
What I do recommend however is that you grab yourself a copy of WPtwin today and save yourself the trouble down the track.
Again, I am not just someone who knows about this plugin. I am an owner, and I use this plugin on a day to day basis.
You can get your copy at www.WPtwin.net
