How to Export a WordPress Website
So you’re thinking about exporting your WordPress website to take your blog to the next level? You’re not alone. Every week, I receive questions from solopreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners who want to know what is the best way to export their WordPress blogs so they can bring their storytelling skills to bear in a different market.
I want to help you figure out the best way to do this. Let’s discuss the most common ways to export a WordPress website.
The Classic Way: The One Most People Know
If you’ve ever exported a blog before, you know how frustrating it can be. You might have had a beautiful blog with a ton of content. You exported it to take a stab at making some money off your content. Or, you might have done it as a quick and dirty way to get your content in front of as many people as possible.
The problem is that when you hit import, all of a sudden, your content is gone. You no longer have control over the content that you created with so much hard work. And, the truth is, a lot of the content you created might not translate well into the new market you’re trying to enter.
The Automate Way: Make It Easy To Publish To Multiple Locations
If you’ve ever tried to run a business and publish content from multiple locations, you know how challenging it can be. You have to ensure that all your publications are consistent and that they live up to your quality standards. Trying to do this by hand is terribly tedious and prone to error. Thankfully, automation makes this fairly simple. You can use tools like WP Migrate to make the process of exporting a WordPress website as smooth as possible. With this tool, you can choose the publications and the design of the publications as inputs. And as a result, you’ll get a fully equipped WordPress website that can be published live to any other location you select. This is a fantastic option if you decide to do a rebranding and want to keep the same format as much as possible.
The DIY Way: Do It Yourself
The DIY way is all the rage right now when it comes to creating content. And that’s a good thing. More and more people are deciding that they want to be in control of their content, rather than have a faceless corporation exercise control over their work. So if you decide that you want to do this yourself, the first thing you should do is define yourself as a publisher rather than an author.
This way, you’ll have the freedom to pursue whatever publishing strategy makes sense to you. You can decide how and where you want your content published. And most importantly, you can ensure that your quality is preserved throughout the entire process.
If you decide that a blog is the best vehicle for your content, you have a couple of options when it comes to exporting your blog. You can use a free tool like Exportator that provides you with all the templates and information you need to get started. Or, you can hire a developer to create a simple WordPress plugin that will allow you to export your blog to another location with a single click. The choice is yours.
No matter which option you choose, ensure that you back up your content properly before you start the process. This way, you’ll have something to fall back on if you run into any problems. And one more thing, take your time. Do this right and you’ll be able to enjoy the rewards of building a successful publication. Good luck out there.