Write a guest post for I Will Teach You To Be Rich

This is a detailed guide to writing an effective guest post for high-traffic bloggers. These tips work because I’ve used them myself to write on sites like The Four Hour Workweek blog andGet Rich Slowly, resulting in hundreds of thousands of new readers, tens of thousands of new email subscribers, and thousands of books sold.

While many new bloggers write content and pray for others to come, proactive bloggers reach out to others in their field, write amazingly good content, and quickly build a name for themselves.

I’m surprised why more people don’t do it: You get exposure to new readers on massively popular blogs, create tons of links, and get new subscribers to your blog’s RSS and email subscriptions. When done right, traffic increases in a powerful step-function, and when done regularly, guest posting is one of the best techniques for getting more and more qualified readers.

An overly simplified visualization of how effective guest posts drive traffic.For example, I did this when I launched I Will Teach You To Be Rich in 2004, and even with a readership of over 250,000/month, I used extensive guest posts (linked below) to help make my book a New York Times bestseller.

So here’s the deal: Each week, I get multiple pitches for guest posts, and most of them are absolutely horrible. They’re often “me-too” posts that contain nothing new, list-y articles that make everyone’s eyes glaze over, or weird rants about Ron Paul and gold.

What I’m looking for

I’m thrilled to send lots of traffic to people with interesting ideas — especially up-and-coming bloggers. I’ll speak for myself, although many high-traffic bloggers will tell you the same thing: If your guest post is simply a rehashed old point, it’s dead in the water. Here’s what I look for.

• Original content that tells my readers something new. This is simply the most important factor of all.
• Posts that are backed up by research, charts, data, and expert quotes, not your opinion. It’s easy to write what you think. It’s much harder to produce data that backs up an argument.
• Substantive discussion. Short posts usually get rejected (though there are exceptions).

Common mistakes with guest posts

• Writing the guest post before you pitch me. Please send me multiple story ideas, with bullet-pointed sub-points, and let me suggest the best one for my audience. See sample pitch below.
• Not doing your research. Here’s a 2-part suggestion: (1) Note how I format my posts, then copy it. When I submitted to Tim, for example, I noticed that he uses a large image with a small caption, then long, detailed posts. Here’s my guest post for him. (2) Writing something called “Credit cards are evil!” also reveals that you’ve never read my site and its key messages. Educate yourself. Here’s an over-the-top example of doing research before submitting a guest post — and it works.
• Not sending writing samples. Bloggers are lazy and risk-averse. I don’t want to invest a bunch of time in back-and-forth email exchanges if the end result turns out to be a crappy post that I can’t use, and I don’t want to disappoint you by saying “no” after you put in all that work. If you don’t have writing samples, get some — start by guest-posting on smaller blogs. Always include writing samples — preferably ones written on other blogs — so I can see if your writing style is a good fit.
• Limiting yourself to guest posts in your domain. There’s no reason to. My site isn’t just about personal finance, it’s about entrepreneurship, optimization, lifehacking, etc. If you have an interesting guest post on how you altered your car to make it drive longer, or how politicians get policy wrong, I might be interested.Check out Tim Ferriss’s take on this:
  

  “Trackbacks from diverse leading blogs and guest posts on popular sites like Huffington Post. To the first point, I write on a diverse range of topics, so I can get linked to from more social circles. From muscle building to ultralight travel, I tie it all into a larger concept of ‘lifestyle design.'”

  This is a classic application of the Kevin Bacon game, who was the most-connected actor because he had acted in high-value movies, low-value movies, and everything in between (whereas Tom Cruise mostly acts in high-value movies only).
• Submitting trite linkbait. Here’s an example of a post I will never run: “23 reasons equities are doomed!” 99% of list-y articles are idiotic link-bait and will be forgotten by the next day. High-traffic sites, for the most part, want great articles that will stand the test of time.
• Making the blog post all about your opinion. Nobody cares about you. Use research, charts, and expert quotes to back up your argument, and create an interesting thesis. Not convinced? Witness the citations in the back of any Malcolm Gladwell book as evidence. And he’s Malcolm Gladwell. Yeah, it takes work.
• Underestimating how long it takes to write a good post. My post on Tim’s blog (see below) took over 18 hours to write. It sold hundreds of books in 24 hours.
• Including your affiliate links. Just don’t do it. In fact, if you’re linking to another Amazon book, you should add myAmazon code (see next bullet point) to make my life easier.
• Making me do additional work. When you submit the final guest post, it should be fully ready to be inserted into WordPress and it will just magically work. This means you should write your byline, format your post, add images on your own server (but also attach them to the email), and otherwise make it 100% ready to go. More on this here.

Guest posts I’ve written

Here are some examples of guest posts I’ve written on other blogs. They take me, on average, 12 hours to write each but produce excellent ROI — the other bloggers are happy because they get fresh new content, the commenters get something interesting to talk about, and I get cross-traffic.Spending an extra few hours to make a guest post shine is what makes the difference between a mediocre response and over-the-top success.

• The Psychology of Automation: Building a bulletproof personal-finance system (Four Hour Workweek)
• The Psychology of Passive Barriers: Why your friends don’t save money, eat healthier, or clean their garages (Get Rich Slowly)
• The Best $20 You’ll Ever Spend (Get Rich Slowly)
• Realtors Want You to Time the Market! (Bargaineering…note that I should have chosen a better title)
• Trying to Earn More Money? Stop Wasting Your Time (Free Money Finance)

Steps to writing a guest post on a high-traffic blog

1. Read my blog. Leave several thoughtful comments so I get to know you.
2. Have your own blog. This isn’t necessary, but 100% of my past guest posters have had their own blog.
3. Send me a quick note with your pitch. Here’s an example:

Subject: 3 guest post ideas: Rebalancing, automation, & eating out

Hi Ramit,

My name is Mike and I run mikesfakeblog.com. My site hosts about 25,000 readers/month and I’m trying to grow it by reaching out to other bloggers. I’ve been reading your site for 3 years and I’m a big fan (my favorite post was your $28,000 question on weddings…so true how we all delude ourselves).

I’m interested in writing a guest post for you — something you’ve never posted on — and I have 3 ideas that I think your readers would love:

REBALANCING
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 1
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 2
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 3

AUTOMATION
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 1
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 2
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 3

EATING OUT
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 1
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 2
– Some interesting, fresh sub-idea 3

I know you’re busy, so I can write everything up and send it to you in one document, which you can drop right into WordPress. I’ll handle all editing, bylines, etc (feel free to edit) so this is super-easy for you. Plus, I promise the guest posts will get your readers thinking and talking to each other.

What do you think?

Thanks,

-Mike

If I agree, write up the article and send it completely done. Here’s one of the best guest-post emails I’ve ever received:

The results of effective great posts

There are tangible and intangible results of effective guest posts. The first is traffic, but most importantly, it’s targeted traffic of people who care about hearing what you have to say. Next, you build relationships with bloggers, who’ll be far more likely to run future guest posts of yours. Third, you start to become better-known in your community, whether it’s personal-finance bloggers, fitness fanatics, etc. As you build a reputation, this intangible result becomes increasingly important.

Specific must-dos for guest posts

Be specific: SHOW, don’t tell. Writing a guest post that says “Spend less than you make” leads to two things: Me wanting to kill you, and my readers saying “Tell me something I don’t know.” If you have an interesting technique for saving, earning, automating, or investing money, show us how you did it. Use screenshots, spreadsheets, and examples. Here are 30 tips with tons of tactical content — they are good examples to start with when thinking about writing a guest post.

Create a Catcher’s Mitt. This one gets overlooked a lot. When you write a guest post and it gets accepted, make sure your site is ready to accept new readers. Think about it: If a bunch of new readers come to your blog and see your last 5 posts have been about your cat, microwave, and favorite cereal, they’re never coming back. I like to create what I call a “catcher’s mitt,” or some way to gently receive new readers. This might be a “Welcome, I Will Teach You To Be Richreaders…check out my top posts” box, or something similar. Just remember to engage new readers, because it’s trivially easy to leave your website. This is the last mile.

Ready to submit a guest post idea?

Please contact me and put “Guest post idea” in the subject line

50 sex tips to boost your love life

Rob Mansfield

19th June 2009

10 Comments

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Looking for sex tips? We've got 50 top sex tips guaranteed to boost your love life and put some fun and sizzle back into your bedroom.

1. Be confident
It's the sexiest thing any woman can do to turn on her man - take control and be sure about what you want and how you want it done.

2. Enjoy each other's bodies
Try some of our simple Kama Sutra positions for this one. Give each other compliments, pay special attention to a person's less favourite bits, make them feel desired and sexy. Body confidence is sexual gold!

3. Talk. One of the best sex tips we can recommend is to tell your partner what you're enjoying and why, even what could be done to make the sex better; faster slower etc. The sure-fire way to better sex time and time again!

4. Engage in foreplay
It's easy to forget that foreplay is all part of your sex life. Make sure you have enough foreplay with your partner until you're both ready for intercourse. Prolong it by putting your clothes on, go out for a drink or a meal. Keep the evening going on as long as you can until you have to run home for the most intense sex ever! See our fun foreplay tips for some ideas.

5. Surprise your partner
Put on some sexy lingerie one evening after work and wait for him. Don't let him touch you, dominate and lead him to the bedroom.

6. Drink coffee
Research has indicated that a couple of cups of coffee could well boost the female libido. Even if that's not 100% guaranteed, the caffeine will improve your concentration - very important if you're getting hot and steamy in the bedroom.

7. Turn off the TV
You may love watching what Rita and Norris are up to in Corrie, but it's a bit of a passion killer. Hit the off button and pay attention to each other.

8. Do a strip-tease
It doesn't have to look professional, as long as you move seductively in front of him and slowly take off your clothes. Don't allow him to touch either - this will turn him on even more.

9. Choose the right music
Having the right tunes playing in the background can improve your bedroom experience. The right rhythm will make your lovemaking far more enjoyable. Try Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing for starters.

10. Ice ice baby
If you're performing oral sex on your fella, try popping an ice cube in your mouth halfway through - the sensation as it goes from warm to cold will drive him wild.

11. Eat salmon.
Obviously, it's a great choice for dinner, but it's also known as a sexual powerhouse. The vitamins in salmon will help lift the libido, it contains mood-enhancing Omega-3 oils and is protein rich, which is good for stamina.
- Find loads of salmon recipes

12. Turn off the lights
In fact, go one step further and blindfold each other. By getting rid of the sense of sight, you'll be forced to use your other senses.

13. Don't touch his private parts
By not going for the one place he's desperate for you to touch, you'll drive him wild. Delay it as long as possible and when you do get there, make only the faintest touch at first.

14. Text him
Build up the suspense throughout the day by sending him messages telling him what you want to do to him and what you want him to do to you

15. Make noises
Moaning will not only make you concentrate on what's going on, it'll make him feel excited and want to do more.

12 Things That Will Kill Your Blog Post Every Time

Blogging is a lot like fishing. Some people do it all the time and never catch anything…while others catch everything.

Why is that? You know better than to say it is luck.

So let’s call it what it is…when you look around at successful blogs…whatever industry or topic…there are several undeniable basics to success.

And it starts with blog posts that kill it…rather than get killed. But what kills a blog post? Here’s a list of 12 things…ignore them and you will have a tough time being successful.

1. Crafting cute, clever or confusing headlines (or really bad ones)

Your headline is going to appear in many places. At the top of your post…

In search engine page results…

Feed readers…

And subject lines.

The goal of the headline is to stop readers cold and draw them into your post. You can’t do that if you use cute, clever or confusing headlines.

You can stop readers cold, however, if you write headlines that are unique, ultra-specific, useful or urgent. Here are a few examples:

• 6 Lessons You Can Learn from the Rise of DropBox (Unique)
• 100 Ways to Becomes Twitter Power User (Ultra-Specific)
• How to Become the Person Everyone Wants to Interview (Useful)
• 10 SEO Trends You Can’t Ignore If You Want High Rankings (Urgent)

As you can see, headlines can share multiple U qualities. The best ones often do.

2. Never linking to old posts

In the example above I linked to four older posts of mine. I did that for several reasons.

1. They helped me prove my point.
2. Those links drive traffic to those older posts…giving them new life.
3. Those links contain keywords I want to rank high with.
4. Links are one of the best ways to direct Google spiders through your site.

Just because you’ve published a post doesn’t mean you should forget about it. Each post is a valuable asset in which you can give new life to with each link.

3. Never linking to other bloggers

A long time ago I wrote a post without any links. It was an important topic…I was busy and just wanted to get the post out. I actually intended to go back and put in links when I had more time.

However, an influential blogger who had started reading my posts commented almost immediately. He said, “Don’t you want others to join the conversation?”

I immediately went back and put in links.

The value in linking out to other bloggers is three-fold:

1. You draw others into the conversation – By linking to others opens yourself up to discussing the topic at hand. This allows you to listen and trade ideas with others, learning things you didn’t know before you started…and creating relationships.
2. You give credit where credit is due – If you write something that is based on an idea that you got from somewhere else, you must link to that blogger. Its proper manners on the web.
3. You get the authority juice – Inbound links no doubt have high impact on your search rankings. But so do outbound links…especially if you are linking to authority sites. Read myThe 10 Golden Rules to Attracting Authority Links to learn more.

4. Forgetting to fill out your page title and description fields

You’ll screw any chances of your post ranking if you forget to fill out the page title and description fields for each post.

That meta data is critical to search engines crawling and indexing your site. And when you use keywords properly, it tells those spiders what the page is all about.

To make life easier on you, use a plug in like All-in-One SEO pack. In WordPress you’ll see this form at the bottom of each post:

That’s by far been the best plug in I’ve used. Here are some tips on creating good meta descriptions.

On top of that, your titles and descriptions have to be social friendly. For example, Jennifer from SEOmoz tried to share Nutella Day on Facebook and here is what happened:

If you want Facebook to pull in the right title and description, follow these steps.

5. Creating clunky URLs

Having the worst domain name is one thing. Creating clunky URLs for each post that people can’t read or search engines can’t index is another thing.

These are the worst offenders:

• http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-9912342-3046240?_encoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000FN0KWA
• http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=98115&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1&iwloc=A

If you want to give your post a fighting chance in the SEO landscape, then you have to include recognizable words in your URL. This means keywords, too.

Here are a few approaches you can use when it comes to URLs:

• Long form + tracking digits: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/a-quick-and-dirty-guide-to-modern-day-link-baiting/37115/ (at one time also needed for inclusion in Google News)
• Date + long-form: http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/01/23/how-to-design-your-blog-for-awesome-seo/
• Short form: http://www.copyblogger.com/writing-bullet-points/

6. Plagiarizing other bloggers

Listen: one of the keystone elements to successful blogging is consistent content. In fact, in one study HubSpot proved that the more you blog the more traffic you will get.

But ask any blogger, doing that over time and the well will eventually run dry. That’s why there are so many blog posts about creativity and overcoming writer’s block.

Bloggers need a ton of ideas!

That’s when the temptation to copy what other bloggers write comes in. (By the way, scrapers are shameless plagiarizers.) But there is no faster way to kill a post and ruin your reputation than to plagiarize.

Here are a few articles to help you understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it:

• Law Firm’s Plagiarized Website Subject to Expanded Jurisdiction
• Plagiarism, Content Farms and Google
• The Right-Brain Thinker’s Guide to Beating Blogger’s Block

7. Publishing less than one post per month

Okay, I understand that you are very busy…and that churning out one blog post a month is not easy. But really, the less you post, the less chance your newest post has any chance at gaining traction.

That one blog post every two months is about as good as not blogging at all.

As I mentioned above, the more frequently you post, the more traffic you are going to get. That traffic eventually slows and then dies when you stop posting.

Besides, if Google comes back to your site to check for more content and doesn’t find any…it will back off and it may be a long time before the spiders come back…which sucks for your newest post.

8. Writing big blocks of copy

On an article for Optimizing Marketing Copy for Mobile I found these paragraphs intriguing…especially the one with the arrow pointing at it:

I understand the author isn’t writing for mobile. He’s writing for Mashable. But the same rules that apply for mobile marketing copy…well, pretty much apply across the web.

Writing short paragraphs is a basic blog post writing law. Just like simple words and short sentences. Resort to long blocks of copy and you are stacking the deck against your blog post.

9. Zero presence on any social media platforms

When blogging was the only game in town (see points 3 and 4 in that article I linked to)…well, all you really had to do was blog. There weren’t other social media sites you could leverage like Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

That has all changed.

Hopefully you are on these sites (especially Google+)…and hopefully you are being strategic about how you use these social sites to promote your content. Every post you publish needs a boost from your social media presence.

10. Never inviting readers to leave comments

A post without comments is like that abandoned house down the end of your street…creepy and not to be trusted.

Of course if you are just launching a blog, it may be a few weeks before you get your first comment. But follow all the steps above and that comment will come.

You also have to encourage people to comment. That’s why I end every post I write with a question:

I do this on my blog and every guest post I write.

You will also get comments when you write detailed posts on advanced topics. You may cover a complicated issue that needs a little more explaining…or somebody wants to know how you did something.

That’s okay…you want that.

In the end, good comments give your post proof that people find what you are writing about valuable. And the more comments the better. It’s social proof in action.

11. Writing about a topic nobody cares about

It’s this simple: your post will fall flat on its face if you do not write about what your audience cares about.

The same is true if you try to write about a topic that somebody else is already doing a good job writing about. For example…

• If you want to write about online copywriting…then you have to do a better job thanCopyblogger.
• Want to write about social media news? Then you have to compete with Mashable or Social Media Examiner.
• Perhaps SEO is up your alley. If that’s the case, then you have to square off with the likes ofSearch Engine Land or SEOmoz.

Don’t get me wrong…it can be done. Every single one of those blogs started small. But it takes a lot of work, which brings me to my last point.

12. Giving up

In a wonderful post about 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic, Rand Fishkin ends with the tactic of being consistent. He points out that the SEOmoz blog, his personal blog and his wife’s popularEverywhereist blog didn’t really take off until two years had gone by.

Sadly, most people quit about nine months in.

Blogging is hard work…and commitments like job, family or other reasons can overtake your blog. That happens. This is why it is so important to count the costs before starting a blog…because in the end giving up on your blog will kill every post you’ve ever written…and success will not come.

Conclusion

None of what I shared…except the part about social media presence and Google+…is probably new to you. But it’s true…and it has been for years, which means it’s probably not a bad idea to follow, right?

Fortunately, blogging is a level playing field…so anybody can apply the basics and succeed. I mean, if you want a blog that grows year after year…you have to start with the basics…namely, writing a killer blog post. And do that non-stop.

That’s it.

HOW DO I TRANSFER MY WORDPRESS WEBSITE TO BLUEHOST?

APRIL 2, 2013

If you already have a WordPress website up and running on another web host, moving it to a new hosting provider can be a little intimidating at first. Lots of people have questions: How do I get started? Will my site go down while I’m moving it? What do I do to make sure I don’t lose any files? Well, we’ve put together a guide to help you out.

how do i move my wordpress website to bluehost?

At Bluehost, many of our customers use WordPress for their sites. So here is a step-by-step guide on how to move your WordPress site from another host to Bluehost with almost no downtime. There are a lot of steps in this process, but if you follow them one after the other, you should be able to transfer your website in no time.

1. To start, log into your current host and use a provided program (such as phpMyAdmin) to export your site’s database.
2. Use your preferred FTP program (such as Filezilla or Cyberduck) to download and save your wp-content folder (a.k.a. the files that make up your WordPress site.)
3. Log in to your Bluehost control panel.
4. Install WordPress using the SimpleScripts, one-click install tool.
5. Create an FTP account in your Bluehost control panel so you can upload your files to your new WordPress site folder. When creating your FTP account, keep in mind that you might want to change its designated directory to something easily identifiable.
6. Launch your preferred FTP program and open a new connection. Log in with your new FTP account info.
7. Overwrite the existing wp-content folder with the one you downloaded from your previous host.
8. Open phpMyAdmin in the Database section of your Bluehost cPanel.
9. Select the database to which you want to import your data. You may need to look up this information. (To do so, go to the File Manager in your control panel and open your public_html folder. Then scroll down to find the wp-config file, right click the icon, select “Code Edit”, and then “Edit.” In the code edit window, scroll down to identify the database you should use.
10. Back in your phpMyAdmin window, once you’ve selected the correct database, you will see a list of tables. Drop these tables before you import your new data by selecting the “Check All” option at the bottom of the list and then selecting “Drop.”
11. Now it’s time to import! Go to the “Import” tab in phpMyAdmin. Choose “Browse your computer” and find the SQL database file that you exported from your previous site. (It should be named something similar to “bluepm1_wor2.sql”.) Make sure the SQL format is selected and click “Go.”
12. Here is an important step after you import your database. After your database is imported, check to learn the new table names. If your table names begin with ‘wp_’ then you don’t need to make any changes. However, sometimes your tables will import with a name like ‘wrp-‘ Go to your file manager and open the wp-config file in your public_html folder.
13. Right click on wp-config, select “Code Edit”, and then select “Edit.”
14. Scroll down until you find the line “Stable Prefix” line. Edit it to read ‘wp_’.
15. Now that you have your database and site files, it’s time to put everything on your temporary URL. This is how you move your site without any downtime.* First, in your phpMyAdmin site, select wp-options from the menu on the left of the screen. Then, select “Edit” on the “site url” line. (This will typically be line 1.) Paste in the temporary URL provided to you when you created your Bluehost account and click “Go.” (Tip: if you’re not sure what it is, it can be found in your Bluehost welcome e-mail.) *Note: all of these previous steps can help anyone move their WordPress site. The following steps are for those are want to move their WordPress site without any downtime. 
    
16.  Repeat step 11 for your “Home” line in wp-options. (This is typically line 36.)
17. Now it’s time to see if your work has paid off. Enter the temporary URL into your internet browser and check to see if your site is there. If so, you’re nearly done!
18. Log into your WordPress admin site to save your Permalinks. Go to “Permalinks” under the “Settings” tab of the dashboard and click “Save Changes.”
19. Before you can move from the temporary URL to your permanent one, you must change the nameservers associated with your domain to point to Bluehost. This can be done in the domain manager of your domain registrar, whether it be with Bluehost, or another registrar. Use the following: NS1.BLUEHOST.COM and NS2.BLUEHOST.COM. (This indicates that your site is hosted at Bluehost.com. The DNS change can take anywhere from a few hours to several days to propagate. Once it is finished you will be able to use your domain on your new site.)
20. Once the DNS change in complete, log into your WordPress admin site and go to “General” under the “Settings” tab. Then, enter your domain into the “WordPress Address” and “Site Address” fields, and click “Save Changes.”
21. The last step is to enter your domain URL into your internet browser to check to see if your site is live. If so, then congratulations! You have successfully moved your WordPress site to Bluehost.

We know this is a lot of steps, but if you follow these instructions you should be good to go. And of course, if you need help at any point in this process, you can always contact our support team for help by calling us 24/7 at 888.401.4678 or through 24/7 live chat.

 A Step By Step Guide to Migrating Your WordPress Website To A New Web Host

A Step By Step Guide to Migrating Your WordPress Website To A New Web Host

• Published on: 29th October 2013
• Author: Tom Ewer
• Under: WordPress Tutorials
• Comments: 119

Moving your website to a new host can be a daunting and stressful experience, but it doesn’t need to be.

Many people are faced with the need to move to a new host because of problems with their current provider and have just had enough. But all too often, migrating to a more reliable host is delayed time and again for fear of making a mistake and damaging your site(s).

To get around the problem, people will either pay a professional to move their site for them, find a new host that offers the service as part of a new hosting package, or take the third option of having a go at it themselves.

If you spend a little time preparing your own website, migrating is nothing to be concerned about. It can be a very straightforward project if approached correctly and can easily be reversed out of should any problems occur.

Let’s run through the steps required to move your WordPress website to a new host.

Step 1: Back Up Your Website’s Files

The very first step of any project such as this is to back up every aspect of your site. This step is good practice before any major change but it is also a requirement of migrating your WordPress installation.

There are many plugins out there that will completely backup your site for you. This backup however, requires a more manual approach. Using an FTP program (such as FileZilla), connect to your web host and copy all files under your website’s directory to a folder on your local computer.

This includes the .htaccess file that is set to be hidden. Consult your FTP program’s help file to have it display hidden files if you are unable to see this file.

Depending on the number of media uploads you have in your site, this could take some time. While this download is underway we can begin step two and make a copy of your database.

Step 2: Export The WordPress Database

Exporting your database is a simple process that only requires a few steps to complete. Login to the cPanelaccount of your web server and open the phpMyAdmin application. Select the database that contains your WordPress installation from the list on the left hand sidebar and once selected click on the Export tab on the navigation menu.

The default settings of a Quick export and the SQL format for the export are sufficient for what we need. Click theGo button and the database export process will begin and a file will be downloaded to your local computer.

Once the database export and the FTP transfer of your files have both completed, you are ready to move onto the next stage.

Step 3: Create The WordPress Database On Your New Host Server

Before we can begin the migration to the new web host, we need to create an environment for a WordPress installation. To do this you must create a database that you can import your SQL data into.

Login to your new web host with the user credentials they have supplied you and connect to the cPanel software. For our guide we will be using the MySQL Databases application. If your web host doesn’t have that application running then you will should contact their support team to discover their method of creating new databases.

The steps to create a database are quite simple:

• Open MySQL Database and create a new database with an appropriate name for your website.
• Create a new MySQL user (with a secure password).
• Add this user account to the new database and grant it All Privileges.

Write down the database name, the new MySQL username and its password. You will need them soon.

Step 4: Edit the wp-config.php File

Browse to the folder on your local computer where you downloaded your website files to. In that folder there is a file called wp-config.php that controls the access between WordPress and your database.

Make a copy of this file and store it in another folder on your local computer. This is necessary for restoring the changes we are about to make should something go wrong later.

Open the original version of the file with your favorite text editor and make the following three changes:

1. Change The Database Name

Locate the following line:

1	define('DB_NAME', 'db_name');

The db_name portion of this line will currently be set to the MySQL database name of your old web host. This must be changed to the name of the new database you have just created.

2. Change the Database Username

Below this you will find the line:

1	define('DB_USER', 'db_user');

In this line you need to change the db_user portion from the username of your old host to match the new username you have just created.

3. Change The Database User Password

Finally, edit the third line:

1	define('DB_PASSWORD', 'db_pass');

As with the others the db_pass section of this line must be changed to the new secure password you created for your MySQL user.

Save wp-config.php and close the file.

Step 5: Import Your Database

Now that you have a new database to work with we can begin the import process.

Launch phpMyAdmin from the cPanel software on your new server and select your new database from the list on the left hands sidebar. Once it opens select the Import tab from the navigation menu.

In the File to Import section click the Choose File button and select the SQL file you exported previously.

Un-tick the Partial Import check box, make sure the format is set to SQL and then click the Go button. The database import will now begin.

The time this import takes varies depending on the size of your database. You should receive a message informing you of the success of the import when it has finished.

Step 6: Upload The WordPress Files To Your New Host

Now that you have the new database prepared and you’ve reconfigured the wp-config.php file, it is time to begin uploading your website’s files.

Connect to your new web host using your FTP program and browse to the folder that your website is going to be held. If this is the primary, or only site being installed on this web server then uploading the files to the public_html folder is the usual directory.

With the remote directory selected you can upload your website files that should now include the updated version of wp-config.php. As with the earlier download, this process can take some time.

Don’t delete these files from your local computer once the upload finishes. They are still needed until the final steps have been completed.

Step 7: Linking to New URL & Defining New Domain

One issue people always seem to have when moving their site is that they’ve added links to other posts on their site or inserted images directly by pointing to a URL on the server, causing these to break when moved over to a new domain. If you want to quickly and easily search for any instances of your old domain name and replace with the new name I (AJ Clarke) suggest you take a look at the Search Replace DB script on github. This will allow you to do this with great ease. Just make sure you DELETE it when your are done (for security reasons).

Make sure you are running the search and replace on the new domain you are transferring the site to not the old one.

Changing Site URL: By doing a search and replace for the old domain and replacing with the new domain you’ll also be altering the site_url and home url values in the database (Changing the Site URL) which will ensure that when you try to log into your site on the new domain it doesn’t try and redirect you over to the old domain.

* This small subsection was an added note by AJ Clarke.

Step 8: The Final Touches

This step actually includes two separate things with (potentially) several days between them.

Before you can use the site on your new host you will need to reconfigure your domain’s DNS settings. They will be set to point to your old host and you will need to point the correct records to the new server IP address.

This process will depend on where you have your domain registered. The details of completing this process are too varied to discuss in this post, but your domain registrar should have all of the details you need to make this change.

DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to fully propagate. It’s best to do this at a period when you expect lower levels of traffic. During this 48 hour window you should avoid making any changes to your website as you may be changing the old version of the site.

After the 48-hour period has expired you should now be accessing the new web host when you go to your website. It’s at this point you can connect to your old web host to delete the files and database. You should still have a local backup copy of these files and the database export, along with the original wp-config.php file in case you need to roll back the migration. It can be a good idea to hold onto these files for a an extended period just to be on the safe side.

Conclusion

As you can see, when broken down into the above simple steps, the process isn’t that difficult. All it really requires is for you to be careful at each step and give yourself the option to go back to the original version until the last possible moment (in case of any problems).