WordPress VIP One Year In
Posted on October 15, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 17 Comments
Not that anyone is keeping track of this but me, but for the last year (and five days) Whatever has been hosted by WordPress.com as part of its VIP program. And now, with one year of that service under my belt, here’s my verdict on it to date:
Love it.
Seriously. Since I switched over I’ve had almost no problems of note with Whatever: no site chugging due to high traffic, no database issues, no back-end build problems because my host provider times out processes after half a second, or any of that stuff. The site just works, which is what I want it to do (and what I suspect you guys want it to do, too). This allows me to do what I want to do, which is write, not fight the urge to murder someone because my site is down from some inexplicable reasons. As I’ve really never before had a year where I didn’t have to wrestle with the backend of my blog in some significant way (and usually losing), I appreciate this more than you might expect.
So, hat’s off to WordPress.com for taking such good care of me over the last year. I really (really really) appreciate it.
Its been such a good year, I forgot all about the old days with its burps and slowness.
Do you actually make $6k a year in blog-associated revenue, or are you just rolling in dough to the point that it’s worth it for the anti-headaches? ;)
I second Joe M. Not that I want you to open your ledger, as it were — just curious whether Whatever earns its keep or is more on the hobby side of things?
Had a good field trip made great by fantastic volunteer staf at Cox Arboretum in Dayton today. Wrote a big old thank you to them. Gotta give proper due when people get things right.
So, when I’m rich and famous and have opinions that people care about, I too will look to the good people at WordPress.com.
(don’t hold your breath guys)
John – Since you didn’t disclose any such relationship in your post, am I safe to assume that WordPress has not provided you with any free benefits or discounts which might cause me to question the sincerity of your glowing review?
Don’t want you getting into trouble with the FTC.
Oh, and that signing thing is such a drag. What’s up with that?
I’m so glad to hear this as I am considering using wordpress. Thanks! You made my decision easier.
There are no advertisements of any kind on the site, so I doubt that the Whatever makes any money directly. (Though it does directly contribute to people buying Mr. Scalzi’s books, at least in my case.)
On the other hand, publicly speculating about how much money someone makes strikes me as a tad impolite. Yet here I am contributing to the problem :)
I totally HEART WordPress. I run my entire site off it and it’s awesomey awesomeness.
Hey, don’t repress that murderous rage; put it to good use! Even if you’ve got less of it now than you did before, I have a lot of suggested targets for venting it… beginning with the Turkish Creationist Nutcase,* K__ H__ (the creationist jailbird vacationing at Club Fed for tax evasion), the pastor of that church with the travelling roadshow that protests the military’s purported acceptance of gays at veterans’ funerals.* Of course, that’s just the top three advocates of genocide on the list; contact me if you need more, umm, “controversial” choices.
(In case you hadn’t figured it out, <sarcasm>. And <vbeg>.)
* Not named due to the tendency of specific identifications to attract unsavoury elements to the places that they’re named.
And who did you use before going with WordPress?
I just published my first short story and have another one coming soon, and I wanted a place for anyone who liked it to go and say, “Hello” and follow (hopefully) future publications.
After researching all the alternatives, I launched a simple blog on WordPress and have been happy so far. It’s nice to hear an endorsement from a reliable source with more experience with the service.
Spring @ 6, William @ 11: The link John provided makes it clear that his VIP package is completely different from the one that ordinary WordPress customers get.
Many bloggers would be less scrupulous.
WordPress should totally pay you for that.
@2, @7: I don’t mean to speculate on how much money Scalzi makes, but—if he was spending 5hrs/week on blog maintanence previously, paying WP.com $6000/yr is basically equivalent to valuing his own time at $25/hour, which would be dirt cheap. At 8hrs/month on maintenance, it’s paying himself $65/hr. Still reasonable, especially when you consider that time spent in tech argy-bargy is soul-sucking misery and aggravation and requires recovery time, and possibly alcohol.
That’s without even considering that high readership here surely contributed to getting the regular paying gigs with AMC and SG:U.
Oh, wait. Also I would assume that there is tax deduction on a business expense, but not on time (?), so that the effective cost is less than $6000.
I remember back when you were resisting WordPress, so I now feel like saying, “I told you so” except, of course, I *didn’t* tell you–others did, and I just nodded in agreement.
Andrew @12. Thank you. I realize that VIP is a different animal from the ‘regular’ package, but I’m not generic either! ;-)