A little over two years ago I decided I wanted to start blogging about family history. I wanted to share the stories of my kin and the tools and strategies I use to learn as much as possible about them. I also wanted to honor my 2x great grandma, Hannah, and her “bold and queer” approach to life which seemed to bother her mother deeply.
I was also inspired to start a print-on-demand business/side hustle to go along with the blog. I wanted to focus on comfy t-shirts and mugs, two of my favorite things as well as items that could be priced affordably that might offer fellow family historians a bit of levity and/or joy.
After some research, a steep learning curve (Canva design, printing, marketing, site integrations, Etsy, etc), and a lot of patience, I launched boldandqueer.com exactly two years ago this week alongside its corresponding Instagram page and hit the ground running.
Because I knew I wanted a storefront and the ease of a drag and drop theme, I decided to go with a Squarespace site instead of a WP site. After all the years messing with the back end of my farm blog, I was honestly kind of over it.
I focused heavily on SEO and my devoted Instagram community and felt largely great about it all until about two months ago when I started questioning where all my pennies were going and which Oligarchs I’d allowed to lock me into a place of convenience and complacency.
When I decided to leave Instagram, I knew the traffic to my blog would fall and I accepted it. The shift, however, has led me to re-assess my whole approach and as I’ve noodled around my next steps I’ve come back around to my original intention of sharing the stories of my kin with others who are interested in such things.
Though Squarespace offered a lot of conveniences, it’s comment integration is sorely lacking and what is community without (easy) communication?
And so, after two years of swimming upstream, I’ve just begun the process of migrating my blog/site over to WordPress.
I am fully aware that I will have my work cut out for me in bringing it over and dusting off the formatting issues that may come with the move in addition to figuring out how to navigate WooCommerce, but I’m also excited to breathe new life into this project that is very dear to my heart.
Once I get past that, I’ll just have to figure out how to navigate three WordPress blogs and each of their unique comment needs.
EEK!
I haven’t figured out yet if I can easily toggle between different WP user names/author accounts in order to effectively comment on other’s blog posts. Is that even a thing?! Can I comment on my Under the Elderberry Tree and the author of this blog AND comment on farm blog as the author of that blog AND comment on bold + queer as the author of that blog???
Or is that not a thing? Goodness.
I cannot find any easy answers here on WP nor on Google :-/
Please impart your wisdom if you have it! I will be eternally grateful.
If not, no worries. I’m still eternally grateful you’re here 🙂
Please wish me luck in this migration, I’m aiming for Easy Peasy.
Onward,
Melissa
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My pool of wisdom is very shallow. But dang I love those shirts and mugs. As soon as I am sure that the Orange Cheeto won’t be depriving us of Social Security, I would love to order something. Good luck!
Thank you, Laurie! I am so hopeful that the Angry Mango keeps his tiny hands off Social Security for all.the.reasons. I would be honored to have you as a customer if/when the time arrives 🙂
I expect all will be well with our Social Security deposits. Nevertheless, I am nervous.
I think the nerves are valid. The flip flop of everything is quite a lot. Hope you’re enjoying a calm and lovely weekend, Laurie!
I am sorry, I can’t impart wisdom only good wishes for your endeavours. Do you use TikTok or Instagram platforms? Maybe people who buy your products would model them to share with their followers… see if you could get an influencer in the product demographic to help spread the word.
Thank you for these brainstorms! My Insta community was wildly supportive, though small. Everyone who purchased took selfies of their own accord and posted to Insta, tagging me. It was quite the honor. This is the rub with moving away from Meta platforms, I’ve leaving behind the Insta community. I haven’t deleted it yet, and may go back if Zuck does a 180, but that would be quite shocking. I’m going to place my trust fully in the SEO Goddess’s hands and take it one step at a time 🙂
I like the mugs and t-shirts! Good luck with your business. I’m not sure about the WordPress commenting question, but I know on WordPress you can “add new site” but I imagine it’s under the name you’re logged in as at that moment.
Thank you for chiming in! The answer still eludes me so I will keep searching! Hope you’re enjoying a lovely weekend!
Good luck on the switch to WordPress! Bold and Queer is a beautiful tee. And Chillin’ with my ghosties cracks me up. Like you, not a fan of Instagram.
Thank you so much! I’m so hopeful the move goes smoothly! Thank you for your kind words, comfort and levity can go a long way if you let them.
Good luck! I’ve stuck to Blogger for almost seventeen years, but my one venture into a commenting system resulted in a tiny disaster. Oh well!
Thank you! I’m going to need all the luck I can get 😉