I checked on my blog a few days ago, located at alchemybyfire.wordpress.com, only to be greeted by one of these sponsored posts sitting there – right in between the content I’ve actually written:
Apparently, WordPress.com is testing this new form of aggressive advertisement on random unpaid blogs that are reliant upon their services. If that’s the direction they want to take their advertising; fair enough. They’re well within their rights to do so. Yet this heavy-handed approach to blog monetization was the kick in the pants I needed to realize a goal I’ve had for awhile: Moving this website to paid private hosting. As stated by another blogger, the cost of “free” has become too high.
So that’s what I’ve done. Everything has been migrated to a new server, one that ostensibly respects privacy and First Amendment rights. I say “ostensibly” because no one can predict which corporations will cave to the political outrage mob next. Even the most seemingly staunch defenders of online freedom will buckle when the pressure is high enough. At any rate, I feel more secure speaking my mind with this host than I did on WordPress.com, who have a track-record of taking down sites with dissenting opinions. I needn’t worry as much about running afoul of a nebulous Terms of Service agreement, as is so common with nearly all “free” social media websites.
Subsequently, some of my more interesting posts have been restored, such as me plugging the documentary, Hellstorm, and my brief season with Spiritual Satanism. There are sure to be more writings in the future that require fainting couches for the snowflakes out there. As we can see with the social media sacking of E. A. Koetting, even Satanists and Occultists are now considered dangerous extreme right-wingers. The same kind of media silencing can happen to any one of us, regardless of how carefully we toe the party line.
I have also changed the name of my blog back to Succubus Lover, the original title I started with in 2012. The days of being tried in an alchemical fire are never entirely over once they’ve begun, though it doesn’t feel all-consuming like it did back in 2014. I want to shift the focus back to the intimacy that succubi are so well-versed in.
The advantages that we’ve gained from the changing of hosts boil down to this:
– No Ads cluttering up the place.
– The ability to upload nearly anything and fully customize the site.
– Far better privacy for all, as I’ve stripped all of Automattic’s data-mining programs away.
– A cool new gallery, and an endless array of helpful plugins for increased functionality.
– Our little internet home is no longer in the social media ghetto.
I’ve taken this changeover as an opportunity to carefully comb through every link and image, which took three days to finish. There shouldn’t be any broken hyperlinks. I’ve also added a new FAQ page, based on the one I wrote for the succgen threads on 4chan. There’s also an index page for easier navigation through the older posts.
Email Notifications
The only downside to moving has been losing the ability to notify WordPress.com subscribers. I could install Automattic’s Jetpack service to restore this functionality, but then I might as well have stayed where I was. If I use Jetpack, everything about this blog would be redirected through their servers and I’d be sacrificing a great deal of privacy in the process. I’m not going to put up with that any longer. We’ll be doing things the old-fashioned way from here on out. If any of my readers want to receive notifications about new blog posts, I have two options available:
- Use an RSS reader to get notifications. I’ve got a fancy new button on the right sidebar, made by yours truly, that will open up the feed link. An RSS reader is required to actually make use of it. Copy this link: https://succubuslover.com/feed into your RSS tracking program of choice, if not using a browser extension.
- Use the ad-supported Blogtrottr to receive updates.
I have explored different email marketing programs that would help serve notifications to those who really want them, but I can’t find a single pre-packaged solution that doesn’t feel wicked sketchy. Maybe that’s the nature of marketing? I’m probably just ignorant about how it all works and need to study up on this more.
That’s all for now, folks. Hopefully with me being fully in charge of this website, I’ll be compelled to update more often and share some art. It feels good to carve out my own little corner on the net and make a better digital domain for sharing about these entities.