Not sure if I need to migrate to WordPress completely or if a subdomain might work?

picsbydarah

Please help, internet people. I have found that the capabilities of Smugmug are just not enough for me anymore - especially in terms of blogging. I am considering migrating to WordPress completely which I know will be an absolute pain in the ass, BUT I am wondering if anyone has had success with just making a separate WordPress blog and making a subdomain for it?

It's not ideal, as I understand website.com/blog is far more efficient than blog.website.com, but I suppose I am willing to do it that way to save myself the hassle of a complete migration.

I am hosted through GoDaddy/Smugmug partnership which has also been frustrating but I suppose that's neither here nor there, and I know I could go in and create the subdomains and point it in the necessary direction, but I am wondering if anyone else has had success? I do not want to create a blog only to find out that I can't make it work with my current website.

I HATE (Hate Hate Hate!) working with Smugmug's text editor, and it is the primary reason that I am looking at WordPress. Can anyone tell me or show me their websites which are linked to WordPress so that I can get a better idea as to which option would be better? How difficult was the setup?

denisegoldberg

Check Hikin' Mike's site, https://www.imagesinthebackcountry.com/. He uses Wordpress with SmugMug for his galleries.

I use SmugMug for my galleries and Blogger for my blog (links in signature below).

Hikin' Mike

As @denisegoldberg mentioned, my website is WordPress. I created a subdomain for my SMugMug galleries.

SmugMug does a great job displaying/selling photos, but not so much as a blog.

It wasn't a big deal for me. Not going to comment about them, but I'm not using GoDaddy.

BeautifulWorld

Hi,
I use Smugmug and Wordpress too. My galleries are at Smugmug beautifulworld.photography and my blog is on wordpress karthikraja.blog. Within each I have links from one to another and it seems to work seamlessly.

Lille Ulven

I have the setup that you are trying to work with too:
website lilleulven.com
blog: blog.lilleulven.com

You'll still have to do your SEO work to make it all happen on wordpress.
While I cannot say to have millions of visitors per day I also cannot say that I am working on it 24/7 (happen to have a job outside of photography and blogging). But it does help my website to be found - which is always good. And if I someday miraculously find the time to do all the right stuff (newsletters, freebees, lectures ...) who knows where it takes me.

Setup: it wasn't too difficult thanks to a domain host with an amazing support team to help me get it all setup (still own them a cake).

solomodels

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picsbydarah

1. Why would I want to use TWO different platforms for my site? This is a legitimate question. What benefit could that possibly have other than causing me to spend even MORE time on site development than I already do - when my time is strictly budgeted due to having a life and an actual job.
2. Subdomains are HORRIBLE for SEO, people.
3. Subdomains look trashy AF. If I saw that on a business card I'd be asking when the last time was that person updated their site.
4. @BeautifulWorld I hope that you have learned how to use masking for your subdomains by now.

Jeez, I know, it's so crazy to want features for a website that are relevant to the year 2019, rather than some livejournal crap.

...Actually, I take that back. LiveJournal was WAY more functional.