The other day I received notice from WordPress.com that in 59 days my “Premium” site upgrade will automatically renew and I that I don’t have to do anything as this is just a reminder. I asked myself what’s the point if there is a point in my renewing.
Come to that, why did they even bother telling me about something that will happen automatically. Are they perhaps fed up with me and want me to cancel out!
The amount of use I make is too small even to be classed as imperceptible, “Premium” it seems gives me 13 GB storage space. A check of my usauge for the past 5 plus years indicates that I have used 79.67 MB; 1%. as at today I’ve received the magnificent number of 15,553 hits; just how many of those are my own, when I’ve gone back to review some of the tripe and/or codswallop that I’ve put out is anyones guess!
I suppose by having “Premium” I get to chose better design customization and fonts; however, I have no idea what designs and fonts are available with the ‘el cheapo’; it tells me that you get “Basic Design Customization”. That’s it!
With “Premium” I’m told that I can “Monetize” whatever that is; is there even such a word? Who comes up with these ludicrous expressions? Perhaps it means that it will get the Claude Monet treatment; be turned into a work of art worth zillions!
Luckily for me, the few that follow my nonsense, don’t have their senses abused with an endless stream of advertisements. Would anybody be stupid enough to pay to advertise on a website like this, a site that has received 15,553 hits in 5 plus years?
Probably; there’s no telling the thinking/stupidity of the advertising people.
I suppose I’ll just let things roll along in the usual fashion, and the few will continue to get ad free posts; that’s providing they don’t find something better to do with their precious time.
Oh, by the bye,in case anybody has been wondering, I’m still here, I’ve started many posts, just haven’t got around to finishing any that’s all. Perhaps I should, after all something may turn up that Claude might well “Monetize” for me! 😈
LordBeariOfBow 
Don’t feel bad; I don’t utilize all the features. I mainly like not having ads and having a blog address without “WordPress” in the name.
I do use specific fonts, but it’s not like anyone would notice if it switched back to the default. As for “monetize,” that just means you can let WP run ads on your blog. The amount of money you might make from your share of the revenue would, over the next twenty years, add up to . . . well, zero. You need hundreds of thousands of eyes on your stuff before “monetizing” turns into something tangible. And by “your stuff” I mean the blog and not, you know, your stuff.
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I don’t feel bad, just stupid. Like you I prefer not to have the WordPress in the name,I’ve had a look and there seems to be a lower grade where you get it WP free, “Personal” for about a quarter of the Premium fee, might give that a look and try. Only one person I follow would have any hope with the paid ads; as at this moment she’s had more than 10 million hits, a lot more than ten million, I’d be happy with the number 474K, that she’s received after the 10, and 10% of her 5507 followers would be nice.
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Sounds like they are going to automatically charge you for another year of a “premium” account, which you certainly don’t need if more storage space is all it gives you. I’ve been blogging pretty heavily for 7 years or so and still haven’t come close to using all my not-premium storage space for uploaded pictures and videos. Or it could be they mean another year of “no ad” or “ad free” blogging, which keeps ads off your blog (ads placed by WordPress and/or Google), although usually it will say something about “no ad” or “ad free.”
If this is a premium theme, you paid for it when you first got it and it’s yours to use with no further charges. And if you’ve paid for customization options, they should be available to you via the drop down menus on the left side of your page.
In any case, I’d read the fine print again and make sure you aren’t about to be charged for something you don’t need or want.
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There seems to be a lesser account called Personal which will hopefully suit me better; $36 pa as against $129 that they plan to slug me this time.
Theres not enough variation in the ‘Fonts’ for my liking, I like to chop and change with different fonts
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Give them a call or contact them via e-mail. There should be a $99 package that includes the name, the no ads, and the fonts. The name and no ads option purchased individually are $90. This is all from memory. Like I said, get in touch with them and get clear on the options.
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That’s the Premium option that I’m on and I think I’ll opt out and take the smaller one; the added incentive is of course the extra 3 bottles of bourbon I can have annually with the savings XD
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I never attempt giving tech advice (I’m usually the one getting it!), but I’m quite sure that the 15,000+ hits on your site are real hits—the times you log on and off don’t count. So it’s better than you think!
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Well thank you Diane, XD you’ve made my day 🙂
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I recently discovered that I had been paying an annual fee to a wine merchant I stopped using about 20 years ago. Apparently I had to opt out to stop it. I had received no reminders. I got my money back, but it does seem to put WP’s reminder in perspective.
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I bet you got your money back without interest for 20 years. True what you say about putting WP in perspective, I get this warning each year and a month or so later they give me another warning before delving into my money so I have no complaints about WP, they like Brutus are honourable men; and women 😉
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Actually it was such an odd amount it possibly did include interest. 🙂
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Not too much I’ll wager, still nice to get something 🙂
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Here’s my two bits worth. When I first signed up to WordPress it was completely free. Suited me down to the ground to get started. Had a size limit that took me two years to fill. Did not allow me to upload videos – no big problem. WordPress is part of the domain name. Recently got to where I was full and would either have to delete some photos or upgrade. (3GB versus 13GB). I decided on the latter, so now I have a Premium Subscription $129 per year. Allows me to upload videos as you may have noticed. I could also use them as a domain name and get rid of WordPress. Only problem with that is that I had already created a web-site as part of launching my book, so switching to WordPress as the domain name would screw that up. (see http://www.gwenwilson.com.au) My interpretation of your email is that they are warning you that you are about to be charged $129 automatically, so do something NOW if you don’t want to pay that. I love your erudite commentary on life, and I am sure 15,000 other “hits” have too. But you are not running a business nor uploading photos so I would expect the standard plan would suit your purpose. You don’t strike me as the kind of man who would hand over money for no particular purpose, so ACT NOW is my suggestion. I don’t think either plan is more or less susceptible to ads. I don’t believe my blog has ads attached, but please tell me if I am mistaken. It does seem as if the totally free option has moved to Personal, but do ask them. Chop and change with fonts? I’d like to hear more about how you do that. I thought it was governed by the theme you chose. Apart from switching between content and header, italics, bold and colours . . . And, to conclude, next on my to do list is to download a programme to compress the size of my photos as I have been very slack in controlling that as I have uploaded them. With any luck I will claw back a lot of storage space so that the premium version will do me for years. The other thing with the premium version is that you can choose a wider range of themes, but again, that is more attractive to businesses. A lot of web-sites these days are actually built on a WordPress platform. Here endeth the sermon. . .. cheers!
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You don’t normally see the ads on your blog if you are logged in. To check, go to your blog from an Incognito Window or a different browser where you are not logged into WordPress.
Also, as I mentioned above, the $99 package gives you ad free, your own domain name, some font control, extra space, and lets you upload videos. All those purchased individually cost about $160 or so, if memory serves me correctly. The only thing you don’t get with the $99 package is the ability to set up a store.
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I suspected that to be the case, so from time to time I have asked friends and they are not seeing ads. I’m guessing your 99 is Usd, which is translating into the 129 in aud.btw, have you looked into software to compress image size on WordPress, and if so, do you have a favourite?
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If anyone knows anything about photography and all it’s dark secrets it’s Emilio otherwise known as disperser 🐻 not exactly a wolf but it will have to do !
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Isn’t that a cute bear? teehee. Let’s wait and see what the Disperser comes back with. BTW I never finished the compulsory voting debate with him. I got too busy to follow my thoughts through.
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Whatever happens I can assure you that Emilio (disperser) will finish up having the last word 🐻
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Not sure if you know, but I’ve been known to use a few photos on my posts.
Here’s what I know (based on what I do):
I process all of my photos through Lightroom. When I output the photos I plan to use on the blog, I choose JPG, 72dpi, 70% quality, with the largest dimension at 1280pixels.
That will usually take originals that are around 20MB and bring them down to around 0.2-0.3MB, or 200-300KB. If one has 13GB of space, that translates into roughly 43,000 photos before you fill it up. Now, I do have that many photos, but I don’t post all my photos.
The key is to convert what are usually 300dpi photos to 72dpi (that’s the maximum resolution of most screens). The 70% quality means 30% compression. If you keep the dimensions large enough, you can probably go to 50% compression before it begins to be noticeable.
The 1280pixel maximum dimension is twice what WP will show on the post, but I do that so anyone interested can click on the photos and get a larger version. If I saved the photos at 640pixels, their sizes would be halved.
Hopefully that’s not too confusing.
One thing . . . if you have photos already saved as JPGs and you want to compress them, you are not going to save much space. The best bet is to compress them when you process them. Most people do not process their photos, but even so, whatever program you use to look at them, you should be able to export them with some compression.
If you do already have photos and you just want to resize them (change DPI and maximum size) I recommend the free program FastStone Photo Resizer. It’s what I use when I need to e-mail photos that I have already processed and want to make smaller.
Hope that helps. Feel free to ask for clarification on anything that I might not have explained clearly enough.
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all of it! XD XD 🙄
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Thanks Emilio. I do understand what you are saying 🙂 and I do intend to be more methodical in future. It wasn’t until recently that it dawned on me how much storage space I was wasting. There also seems to be a variation in file size from jpgs on my laptop from my camera, versus those uploaded directly from the iPad camera, with the latter being much larger. So, barring my immediate next post, I will work them over first. I have printed out your advice and it is on my noticeboard in front on me. I’ll look into FastStone too. I was toying with giving WP Smush a go as it looked straightforward and designed for WordPress, but I did look at some comparison results and it didn’t seem to compress anywhere near as much as others in the survey. I have about 3,000 images consuming 5.6 GB. Dohhh! And BTW I have just signed on to your blog.
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Well, you’re not the one who asked. For you, here’s the simple version:
1) load desired photo.
2) click the publish button.
3) go have a drink.
Easy-peasy.
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Can I push the button instead? 🙄 3) is the easy bit 😉
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Well, if you have Windows 8 or 10 AND if you have a touch screen, then sure, go ahead and press the button.
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@ G^2 . . . the whole size issue is highly dependent on what you ultimately want to do with the photos. If the sole use is for WordPress, you can probably adjust the resolution and compression in whatever device you use to give you smaller photos. I have all the originals because I might want to print them, and that requires higher resolution than what the screen uses (hence the 300dpi).
However, I follow an old mountaineering rule . . . never let go of anything unless you got a hold of something else. Meaning, I prefer to keep the original size file and modify a copy for use on WordPress or e-mails, or what not.
By far, the easiest way to prepare photos for WordPress (that I have found) is Lightroom. I read them in, tweak them, and then I output the ones I want as a batch to a directory I then draw from when composing the post.
As far the voting discussion, no need to finish it. As far as subscribing to my blog . . . you are a brave, brave person. LBOB tried it for a while, and now he can only handle small bites of it at a time . . . the bites with small words. I think he also only manages to look at two photos before his eyes glaze over and he heads for a drink.
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I did wonder if I was taking my life in my hands . . . with so many followers, you won’t notice if I slink away, licking my wounds. RE voting, I am watching from the wings to see what result mass abstaining will have on the US election result. I get your position on not voting simply to choose the best of the bad, and I realise I will never convince you of the merits of compulsory voting. But wouldn’t it be interesting if people became so fearful of what might happen if they said nothing at all, that they decided to turn out in droves and vote for a third option – Jill Stein, for example? So far as photos. Yes. My intention is to retain the original in its best condition, with a “good enough” version on the WP media library. My photos simply illustrate the story, it’s not a e-store or a site to showcase my photography skills. As for LBOB and the drinks cabinet, he has lived in OZ for many years, so he has learned the local habits well 🙂
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🐻 XD burp excuse me 😉
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Oh look! It’s five o’clock! aka Wine-o-clock 🙂
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Hmmm I thought it was daylight savings time, been going an hour
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so has hubbie, apparently beer-o-clock starts earlier
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Well that’s a relief 🙄 😎
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@ G^2 . . . Don’t be fooled by the number of followers . . . I have (maybe) ten regular readers or so. Another five to ten wander in, probably lost. Of the twenty visitors, most look at the photos, and then only two or three of them. I wager maybe four or five read more than halfway down a post. Of those, 2-3 might leave a comment.
I have no illusion about the popularity of my blog and I encourage readers to only hang around if they really, really, really, really kind-of-sort-of can stomach to do so. Life is to short for anyone to waste their and my time in a mistaken impression they need to be polite or stroke my ginormous ego.
As for the elections, the real interesting thing to watch is what will happen on the next election, in four years. We’ll see if we will finally get a viable and qualified independent or third party candidate (besides the current slate of battier-than-bat-crap-single-issue-pseudo-parties).
Meanwhile, I’m watching the train wreck brought to us by the celebration of ignorance versus critical thinking and a media that’s all about sensationalism and creating controversy and acrimony.
As for the photos, I always link the gallery of the original photos . . . not that anyone ever goes to check them out. No matter what I’ve tried, whatever WP does degrades the photos and makes them lackluster. That’s in part why I link to the larger version.
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Strange I never notice that ginormous ego; and I’m usually so observant as for the news on the idiot box it’s designed for those without the capacity to think and read
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@LBOB . . . ginormous egos have no need to flaunt themselves to lesser egos . . .
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I knew that naturally! 🙄
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Re the photos, I’ll master the compression first, then I might come back to you about the gallery comment as that went over my head. But I have noticed that what looked brilliant on the iPad didn’t look so good when I loaded it. I thought it was the laptop screen getting aged. Re election: If Trump gets in, he may follow the inspiration of other eccentric leaders and lock up all his opponents, subvert democracy, etc etc, so that he gets to become leader for life. Or he may make America such an anomaly within four years that it won’t matter who tries to stand in the future. . . . Or, he just might “make America great again”. Who knows? But I wouldn’t put money on it.
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@G^2 . . . SmugMug is a site like Flickr or the like where I dump my photos at a higher resolution than I do on WP. I then link it on the posts for those who want to see the photos in the original sizes.
As for Trump, or Hillary, people forget we are not electing a King. They can say whatever they want, but there are limits to their power. There’s Congress, The Supreme Court, and about 80+ million gun owners.
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All with their weapons aimed at Hillary!
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Yes, your Presidential race does seem to eclipse that there is a government below them. It’s different in Australia. We elect the party who will form Government, then they elect the leader who will be Prime Minister. All the same, people get confused. They often select the party based on their liking for the leader, so that when the party has an internal coup, everyone screams that is not who they voted for. It’s come about over the years by getting confused with the American system. In my opinion.
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Not sure I agree with the last sentence Gwen; it’s really only since the advent of TV and the population in general were able see the politicians and hear the voices, which before they just couldn’t do before. Prior to that unless you were lucky enough to catch say Bob Menzies at an outdoor rally (like I was once able to do, he was on the steps of the GPO in Perth) so you could see cheer or heckle as per what ever mood took you; then there was something personal now it’s just who comes across betteron the idiot box.
Get rid of letting the pollies loose on TV during the election campagning might well go a long way to solving the problem and we might well be better off, In my not so humble opinion XD 🙄
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Yes. I do agree, in part. We must not forget that before TV was Cinesound at the cinema, and many people took their awe of politicians from the news-bites there. And speakers corners and public rallies as you refer to. People would have been well aware of Billy Hughe’s charisma or lack of it, for example. But through the power of TV, we became more aware, and more exposed to, how America does politics, and we started to expect ours to do the same. It’s descended into thought bubbles which can fit into a short TV segment. I totally agree, we should get them off the idiot box. In fact, I wrote a letter to a local politician recently, expressing my support for his wish for four years election terms, and addressing my thoughts on the electioneering period and advertising content. I have not received any acknowledgement. Once upon a time, way before computers, politicians would drop a polite reply. It’s so easy today with all this technology, and yet they can’t be bothered corresponding with their constituency, even when it is a letter of support. Did you hear Health Minister Jillian Skinner on ABC radio this afternoon, saying she didn’t want to hear comments from listeners if she thought they were just trying to make a political point?
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Minister Skinner is typical of the Liberal Party and the Liberal Party’s mentality, lack of morals & integrity, but at least this time she spoke the truth. No I didn’t hear her, glad I didn’t I’d have blown my stack.
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By the time I sift through all the verbiage contained in your posts I’m somewhat exhausted, so comments suffer; \\Did you notice how polite I was using vebiage instead of the other ‘…age’ word? 👿
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If I can butt in for a moment with your chat with Gwen that is the package that we are both on the $99 US is the $129 AUD package; think I’ll go back to bed and pull the covers over my eyes! 😈
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Well, as everyone surely knows, the only thing that matters is US$, but that’s a conversation for another time.
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Well that’s true enough, the US$ is the worlds prime currency, we can but hope that it isn’t replaced by the Yuan
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Problem solved just received this from WordPress; I can’t complain about the service dropped them an email last night got the reply this a.m.
Now I’m starting to feel bad about cutting back on them 😥
[#2828810]: WordPress.com Help: downgrade from ‘Premium’ to ‘Personal’
[#2828810]: WordPress.com Help: downgrade from ‘Premium’ to ‘Personal’
Maureen C. –WordPress.com 5:01 AM Flag this message Newsletters
To: lordbeariofbow@hotmail.com
help@wordpress.com
HI there,
> How do I downgrade from ‘Premium’ to ‘Personal’ and what will the annual charge
> be.
The yearly cost of the WordPress.com Personal plan is A$48.44 compared to A$134.00 for the Premium plan.
As for how to switch, I can downgrade your plan for you now, so that when you renew you pay the new price, or you can wait until a bit closer to your renewal date and make the switch then.
Let me know which way you want to go and I’ll be happy to help.
—
Maureen C.
Happiness Engineer | WordPress.com
P.S. Did you know we also offer live chat support Monday-Friday? Try it out at https://wordpress.com/help/contact/
Too many newsletters? You can unsubscribe.
© 2016 Microsoft Terms Privacy & cookies Developers English (United States)
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Christ! If thats two bits worth I’d hate to see two bucks worth XD
Actually I’m an easy mark when it comes to forking out my money; I’m only safe locked up in-doors. I’ve never bothered or worried about the few pictures I’ve added, just use the enlarge or make smaller buttons Gets too complicated for me.I’m on the same option as yours Gwen so I have only got the same fonts etc, I’d dearly like more fonts but I suppose the only way to do this is to write in the HTML and that’s beyond my ken 😦
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Everything after the first two bits is an introductory special to get you to sign up to my get rich quick scheme without reading the fine print 🙂
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I just checked the WordPress store, and I don’t see the $129 option. The personal plan is $99/year and the business plan is $198/year.
https://wordpress.com/plans
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