**Just to make it clear, this is not sponsored by WP, and I get nothing for providing this information**
I have long thought about upgrading my blog to a ‘Premium’ plan. At £7 a month, it is not that expensive, but I was not sure I would really need all the extras provided by the upgrade, short of the large increase in storage space for photos, from 3 GB to 13 GB. However, I have just discovered that they now offer a ‘Personal’ plan, a limited upgrade with twice the amount of space (6 GB) for only £3 a month. I should also soon become beetleypete.com, losing the ‘wordpress’ from the site address.
So I took the plunge, and tried it for one year. I now have plenty of space for adding more photos this year, and you should no longer see any advertisements on beetleypete. I am posting this for information, in case anyone didn’t know about this lower priced upgrade. You have to pay for 12 months in advance, by credit card or Paypal. But £36 is the price of a decent meal in a restaurant these days, so not much to find for a hobby that takes up as much of my time as blogging does.
I am also in the process of getting the photos copied from the hard drive on my old Dell laptop, which can no longer be charged up. If that works out, then I should have a lot more photos to post on this blog.
Old photos, and a modest upgrade, something new for the new year. 🙂
Good to know about the upgrade. Everyone keeps mentioning this discount I will look for it, thanks.
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There is a fixed price for the ‘Personal’ plan, Kathy. They have been running a 20% discount on all plans for a while, but it finished last week. No doubt it will return! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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That’s interesting, I pay for my.com and a space upgrade. They keep saying it may be cheaper to upgrade, I’ll look at it now. Thanks Pete!
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Thanks, Gilly. At the moment, the dot-com name is included. I’m not sure how long that will last, but it is good for the one year of the upgrade, at the very least. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Hi there!!
I’ve been scrolling through and reading a few of your blogs this morning!! I LOVE how straightforward you are ♥️ Happy Blogging!! You give great tips and I appreciate those. Reading this particular post made me think about lastnight when I cancelled my Premium plan on here all together. I decided to go self hosted. I’m still using WordPress, just with a different hosting service this time if that makes sense. I’m still getting use to it but so far … I LOVE IT !! Feel free to stop by anytime!!
https://jessierenea.com/
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Thanks for reading posts, and leaving the kind comments, Jessie. I appreciate you taking your time. Self-hosting can be cheaper, and is obviously more flexible, but I have limited computer skills, and like the ‘comfort blanket’ provided by a blogging platform. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Lol it’s definitely a lot more work to it because your working behind the scenes trying to put together EVERY little thing for your site !! I’ll be honest, I was expecting that and it’s been a challenge!! 😂😂 I finally figured out how to add the “follow” and “subscribe” buttons lastnight … took me three days to figure it out because the YouTube videos just weren’t helping me. I’m really looking forward to not having all of the limitations though but WordPress in itself is GREAT. I loved getting started here. Awesome platform!
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I’m happy you’re happy. Me I miss my old theme. 🙂
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I kept the same theme, obviously. I will get used to your new one in time, I am sure. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Way to go, Pete. You get what you pay for. I do the premium plan. The storage and also being able to live chat with a Happiness Engineer is worth the money. I think there is far more available to me than I realize.
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I may upgrade to that in the future, Jennie. It all depends how well I cope with the ‘New Editor’! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I am avoiding the New Editor entirely. 🙂 Best to you, Pete.
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Me too, Jennie. But I have a bad feeling it may well be ‘forced’ upon us soon. 😦
Best wishes, Pete.
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🙁
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This is good to know. As you know I use a lot of pictures on my blog and I know I’m nearing my limit and have been wondering what to do.
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I was tempted to jump straight to Premium, but the Personal Plan will do me for now. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I have had a domain name from the start and it is very helpful for people outside of WordPress to find me by entering my name. I also don’t want ads popping up, so I do pay extra.
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It took me ages to decide if it was worth it. But at the new reduced rate, I think it is. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Ooh that’s cheaper than the plan I am on. Definitely going to look into it when my current plan ends.
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It will certainly do me for this year, Abbi. I think it’s very reasonable. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Makes sense to me! I’m looking forward to more pictures from you! 🙂 I take lots of pictures so I upgraded to Premium soon after I started blogging. I saw the Personal plan when it came out and considered it, but decided to stay with the larger media allotment. I’m wondering about whether the .com domain name (without wordpress.com) will stay included in the price? I got an email from WP last year that indicated it would no longer be included in my plan, which bugged me, was going to cost an extra $26 per year. Have you heard anything about that? Maybe just a ploy to get me to renew early (it worked.)
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I don’t know about the domain name price increase, but it sounds like the sort of thing they would do. If this plan stays stable, I may consider upgrading to premium in 2020. I started reducing my file sizes by 50% in 2017, and that saved a huge amount of space.
I hope to take more photos when the weather improves, and also get some from my old laptop hard drive too.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Great! Looking forward to seeing more of your photos!
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I’m thinking about an upgrade since a while, but obviously I am not ready for a decision yet. 😉
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I waited six years, Kerin. I was never sure that I needed the ‘Premium’ upgrade, but the cheaper ‘Personal’ plan seemed like very good value. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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As you know Pete, I post a lot of photos, so an upgrade plan was always better for me – looking forward to more photo essays!
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Thanks, John. I am hoping for the old photos to shape up, and better weather for some new ones. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I think I’m a long way from needing an upgrade for more storage space—perhaps a few hundred parsecs away from the threshold at which I should consider it. I’m still blogging at Warp Factor 1.
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I have over 30% space left, David. But that extra amount, and no advertisements, is worth the small monthly fee to me. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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My Universe blog is a premium one but my other 2 are just freebies, I don’t need a lot of space as I can embed my Photo’s from the smugmug site I host them on, but if I do get close to the limit I’ll be considering the plan!
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I got an email from Flickr recently. They are going to charge for photo storage soon, above a certain limit. I hope that Smugmug doesn’t follow suit. 🙂
(I have nothing on Flickr, I only joined to look at other people’s photos)
Best wishes, Pete.
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I used to have a subscription to flickr but gave up ages ago, rarely post on there, and it’s still free if you have 100 pictures, doubt I’ll reach that anytime soon. I do have a pro smugmug account as opposed to the free one, but it’s worth it for me.
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Aha! Definitely worth it for you. 🙂
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It makes a good deal of sense. Enjoy the more spacious bolg accommodations. 🙂
Warmest regrds, Theo
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Thanks, Theo. I finally realised that I didn’t know why I was waiting so long to upgrade. It’s not as if I am still 40 years old. And I don’t spend such a small amount of money on anything else. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I think they have to drop the price as there are so many hosting companies that offer a very similar deal, hopefully the price will stay low. Beetleypete.com sounds so much better 🙂
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There are some great deals with companies that offer self-hosting, with full tech support. I was tempted by one that offered the first year for just £1, (£40 a year after that) but I worried about getting it connected to the WP community that we have built up. As long as no one company dominates the blogging market, I am guessing prices will remain ‘reasonable’.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I have plenty of space still but I rather like th eidea of not having ads.
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You also get the choice of domain name, email help, live support, as well as the removal of the ads.
I wanted the extra 3 GB of space, but also like to have no ads. Some followers thought I got paid for having them. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I bought premium several years ago. I pay just under 100 dollars a year, every year. I like the freedom to be creative with my template, the color scheme, the unlimited space, no ads, etc. It’s a luxury item, but since I use it all the time, every day, it is worth the price to me.
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I agree completely, Cindy. I haven’t ruled out the ‘Premium’ option, for next year. For less than $2 a week, it is very good value. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I’ve tried to sure most all my photos are reduced a bit and so far, so good!
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Since I started reducing file sizes by 50%, my use of space has slowed down, GP. But I like to have that ‘buffer’, and think this is a very reasonable amount. It works out significantly cheaper than buying a daily newspaper every day, or a coffee in a place like Starbucks.
Best wishes, Pete.
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You got me there.
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Thanks for sharing the information. I did this a year ago. I thought £36 was good value and I got a shorter blog name ; bramblegarden.com instead of having WordPress in the name. It’s always difficult to decide what is worth doing. But I decided to take a risk at £36. All the best. Karen
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Thanks, Karen. I had no idea this option was available, and only spotted it yesterday. For double the space, I reckon it’s good value. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I thought so too. I don’t know enough about computers to self host. I’d get in a mess. I thought this was worth taking a risk and I’ve been really pleased so far.
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My lack of computer skills has kept me tied-in to WordPress too. But new companies with full tech support are springing up all the time. Maybe one day… 🙂
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The OH ‘bought’ space several years ago as he wanted to put music files (MP3) on his blog – it costs him £17 a year. Sadly WP took away that option so it is good to see they have brought it back albeit at a more expensive amount. As you say, what can you buy for £3 a month? That’s more than the magazine I buy! I’m OK for space on my Cornish blog, but the other two are probably getting close to the limit.
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I know people who pay almost £3 a day for a coffee. So I don’t think it’s too expensive once a month, for blogging. When I saw this new option, I went for it straight away. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Yes, easy to do from the menu in your blog – by just clicking on PLAN.
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Thanks for the information. It’s a pleasure to read your blog.
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That’s very kind, Alex. I don’t get anything from WP for this, I hasten to add. I just think it’s a good deal for the extra space. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Not at all. It’s a logical argument.
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Probably something worth considering for my own blog. Many thanks.
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Thanks, WS. I don’t think £3 a month is expensive, for twice as much space. The price of a ‘designer coffee’. 🙂 Here’s a very big link!
https://wordpress.com/personal/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=cpc&keyword=%20wordpress%20%20plans&creative=263020595218&campaignid=647897976&adgroupid=58186199651&matchtype=b&device=c&network=g&sgmt=gb&utm_source=adwords&utm_campaign=Google_WPcom_Search_Brand_Desktop_UK_en&utm_medium=cpc&keyword=%20wordpress%20%20plans&creative=263020595218&campaignid=647897976&adgroupid=58186199651&matchtype=b&device=c&network=g&targetid=kwd-75937339784&locationid=9044864&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-f-Hu9j-3wIVSrftCh0_uA1YEAAYASACEgJ3G_D_BwE
Best wishes, Pete.
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A few years back I signed up for extra space, which costs me about $25 a year. I’ll have to investigate the Personal option.
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It’s a little more expensive for you at £36 a year, Peggy. It comes with a domain name included, and other features. I just wanted that extra space. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Upgrading your blog, eh? Dammit man, you’re devaluing my sarcasm if you make it that easy.
– Voltaire
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I like to make life easy for you, Chandler.
Best wishes, George Eliot.
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I encourage any effort which will minimize my own.
-Mark Twain
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Self hosting is cheaper, but being hosted with WordPress helps take away a lot of the headaches that can ensue. Like mentioned above, the only real issue that might confront me is space. But that’ll take a couple of years to occur. The Business plan offers unlimited space – I’d definitely go self hosting than pay that amount.
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I don’t really understand computers enough to go self-hosting. But there are some good website deals out there, and I agree they are cheaper too. As you say, using the WP upgrades makes life easier. And I am all for making life easier. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I think once you upgrade it, it will stay as a premium account Pete and you will pay every year. I have two friends who gave up blogging because they have used up their limits in photos even with a premium acct. To maintain the blog, they have to pay the premium every year. But I guess,it is not a problem with you, you could very well afford it and you have a larger space for photos. Hope to see more of Ollie 🙂
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I have only upgraded to ‘Personal’, Arlene. It’s not too much to pay. If I decide not to carry on, I will just drop back to a free account, as long as I have enough space left in my allowance. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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🙂 Since you have upgraded your WordPress blog, you might as well use it to have fun posting pictures and writing wonderful blog posts.
Do have yourself a wonderful week!
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Thanks, Renard. I hope to take more photos when the weather gets better. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Good luck with the upgrade…I look forward to the photos….chuq
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I hope they manage to recover them, chuq. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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fingers crossed for you….chuq
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Well done, I think it’s worth the price!
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It can’t hurt, Sam. £36 is not that much, in 2019. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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