I have just transferred my blog from florinpopa.blog to florinpopa.eu. The old site redirects to the new one, as you can see in the address bar.

I would kindly ask those who want to keep on seeing my new posts to follow the new site. There will be no more updates at the old blog address.

You can hit the Follow button or register by email right here:

Behind the change in the domain name, which is not that important, there’s something a bit more consequential. I am switching from wordpress.com to wordpress.org, in other words from the turnkey option to the self-hosted option. This means that I have access to many more configuration and customization options. At the same time, I will be responsible for things that were up to now handled by WordPress such as backups, updates, and plugin management.

Beyond the technical aspects of switching to a self-hosted solution, which are not very interesting for the general blog visitor, there are also other considerations. I want to have more control over how my photography and writing are handled and presented. I want to have more freedom in deciding how the site is configured and how each page and section is set up.

This comes at a price. First, I need to spend more time making sure the site is functional. Second, not everything can be imported into the new site. For instance, all posts published on the old site are not showing the likes anymore. Third, the SEO benefits I had as part of the turnkey option (basically all optimizations related to how search engines index and interpret the site content) are gone. This means that, for the next months or so, my site will rank lower and will be less visible online.

It’s a price I am willing to pay. If likes are a sign of interest or appreciation, they will still come. If the posts will resonate with a few people, this will still show. I am not planning to go viral. It’s not my thing to chase the algorithms. It may make sense for others and that’s fine.

On my side, I am still following all the blogs I used to follow.

I want to thank you for visiting, for all the reactions and the kind words you took time to write. I am grateful for it.