Photograph Works

Should you buy a domain and No-Ads

Should you? Well if ‘painless and easy to do’ are all that’s holding you back, then go for it. I did.

After years (yes, years) of not liking ads on this site and even writing about them back in 2011 under the title WordPress Adds the Tackiest Ads – I finally bought the no-ads upgrade.

What tipped me into doing it was a humorous (well I thought so) thread in the the Volunteer support pages here in WordPress in which TimeThief and Auxclass explained the ins and outs of WordPress ads to a blogger.

At the same time as getting the no-ads upgrade, (well, I was in the mood now) I bought a domain.

So now the original subdomain under which I have been blogging here for years resolves to photographworks.me

I also bought the premium theme Cocoa, but only after buying it did I realise it has no sidebar options (only footer widget options) so I got a refund.

And the whole buy/deliver/refund process went very smoothly.

Kudos to the Automattic team.

So now I am looking for a theme again and I am kind of attracted to Broadsheet, but I will spend a bit more time thinking before jumping in and buying a theme this time around.

I know Rebs from ColderWeather likes the Linen theme – good choice – might choose that.

Update 25th July: Rebs is now blogging at Time And Tide.

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Comments

21 responses to “Should you buy a domain and No-Ads”

  1. dg28

    Agree wholeheartedly. I have also gone down the no-ads route and am glad that I have.

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  2. timethief

    Hi David,
    I think everyone who is into blogging over the long term ought to purchase both a domain and a No-Ads Upgrade.
    Congrats! re: https://photographworks.me/

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    1. David Bennett

      I so agree – no buyer’s remorse.

      Thanks for the congratulations re the domain.

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  3. mariafalvey.net (@mariafalvey)

    when I was on wordpress.com I always ran with no ads and found it was well worth the small annual fee.
    As for theme shopping, I’ve always appreciated the way you can test-drive themes with wordpress. Take a few for a spin before you settle. It’s all part of the fun.

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    1. David Bennett

      You are right, I should have spent more time looking at the features (and lack thereof) in the Cocoa theme before I jumped in. I will go spinning with a few.

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  4. Rebekah McNulty

    Wow! I did almost the same thing, but I moved to the self-hosted. It went well, but in the end I needed a little help, and got that promptly.

    Last night, I was sitting there, again, gazing at the Linen theme, but then I found this Box that I’m using now and that’s free. That wasn’t what made me chose it, it does most of the things I want.

    Some time ago, I took Broadsheet for a test drive, but ended up turning it back. Right now, I can’t remember why..

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    1. David Bennett

      ‘The Box’ theme looks good. It’s not available on WP.com – maybe it will be in the future.

      And congrats on the new ‘name’ 🙂

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      1. Rebekah McNulty

        I have to admit that I did buy the Genesis framework. Made a total fool of myself, and turned it back. Afterwards [when I’d turned it back], I saw what was the problem. *hanging head in shame*
        Now, I rather like this little theme. Linen doesn’t support Post Formats, and I like them, for some reason.

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        1. David Bennett

          What was the problem with the Genesis framework about which you hang your head in shame – I promise – no laugh.

          Did I mention that I bought the ‘lifetime access to every theme and every theme we make in the future’ when they were doing a sale. Get on the email list to look out for it, if it comes up again?

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          1. Rebekah McNulty

            Guess I felt too excited when I just had bought it, so I dove in, head first, without reading anything.

            I just didn’t GET it, I fought with that stuff for hours, not realising that I should have used the ‘Sample’ thing there.

            Of course, I could go back and buy it again … just let them think I’m a nutjob or whatever, but then I found this little Box theme, which even has infinite scrolling. I know many people don’t like that, but I do … for some reason.

            I most definitely will go there now and sign up for the emailing list 🙂 That would be something!!!

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            1. David Bennett

              One thing that StudioPress has is a page for each child theme where you can read how to set up the various bits like they have in the demo site.

              I have never used the sample import – just read the instructions.

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              1. Rebekah McNulty

                I’d only bought the basic Genesis, no child theme. Somehow I became like when unwrapping a new cellphone; I wanted to figure every bell ‘n whistle out, immediately so I didn’t read anything. There might be a second attempt some time..

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                1. David Bennett

                  Ah, now I see. Child themes in StudioPress are really good. One thing that makes me glad I opted for StudioPress are the files sizes – both the Genesis framework and the child themes – which tells me that the coding is good.

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                  1. Rebekah McNulty

                    Yes, like I mentioned some time earlier, I was thinking of Mindstream … and that might still be a go, a little later 🙂

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                    1. David Bennett

                      I remember 🙂

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  5. Rob Workman (@robworkman)

    If you’re paying a fee now would you consider moving over to Squarespace, or is that too much like ‘starting over’?

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    1. David Bennett

      Interesting question.
      I like the look of Squarespace, but if it was a question of ‘moving home’ I would set up a self-hosted WordPress site. I have set up several self-hosted sites, so it wouldn’t be a problem to do.

      You’re right about the ‘starting over’ bit. There’s a community here on WP.com and I like being part of it.

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  6. Rob Workman (@robworkman)

    I only ask out of curiosity for moving the other way!
    I have a few sites on Squarespace and for a bit of continuous improvement have been looking at other options, such as WP.com

    WP templates have a very clean, structured look about them but I haven’t looked into the e-commerce options offered.

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    1. David Bennett

      Ah, I see. Forgive me if you already know all this stuff, but only WP.com ‘business’ users can have e-commerce and only with one of the ‘preferred partners’. Normal WP.com users can’t run e-commerce on their sites.

      With a self-hosted WordPress site there are several e-commerce options. The WooCommerce free plugin is probably the best known. For something simpler there is a plugin that works with Stripe. Ask me if you want details. 🙂

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      1. David Bennett

        Ah, I see. Forgive me if you already know all this stuff, but only WP.com ‘business’ users can have e-commerce and only with one of the ‘preferred partners’. Normal WP.com users can’t run e-commerce on their sites.

        With a self-hosted WordPress site there are several e-commerce options. The WooCommerce free plugin is probably the best known. For something simpler there is a plugin that works with Stripe. Ask me if you want details. 🙂

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        1. Rob Workman (@robworkman)

          Thanks for explaining, David.
          Squarespace have a tie in with Stripe which works well, probably in much the same way as WP preferred partners.
          Good to know there are options.

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