Earlier this week, I received several notifications in my inbox regarding my domain renewal for candicewrotethis.com.

I will be honest with you: running and maintaining a portfolio slash blog for professional and passion purposes truly is quite an investment. I have learned this in the past year, as I juggle my job with my personal life (read: family and friends) and remote volunteering work. Admittedly this site needs more frequent updating because it is a major platform for me to express my thoughts in writing while honing them even further. Because to me, I feel like losing a part of my identity if I do not get my bum up and write.

At this point in time, I use my website for a multitude of reasons. The occasional word spill about life and everything else under the sun is one – because writing is therapeutic. If I want to be a true blue copywriter or a contributing writer, a blog is the best place to start just like the last 15 years. Another is that I get to show the world that I am more than just some girl who can string sentences together; also, I can dabble in graphic design when given the opportunity. Lastly, to show any future opportunity knocking on my doorstep that they will not be underwhelmed should they bring me on board.

Here is another aspect of having a website that not everyone has the guts to tell you: it can be kinda expensive. Admittedly, it was a steal when I purchased the 3-year plan back in October 2020. Everything was sailing smoothly until this week with the renewal email. Only then I realized that renewing it alongside the domain in October 2023 will cost me about half of my monthly pay.

Go figure.

The decision to not renew my existing hosting plan next year on top of my domain this year was tough but necessary. As much as I would have loved to stay with Bluehost, the renewal costs were out of reach for me. So I registered with Hostgator – another excellent WordPress hosting service – which offered practically everything my existing Bluehost plan did but at a more reasonable price. Subscription renewal is a bit costly (what hosting service isn’t?) but not migraine-inducing like Bluehost which could have cost me over PHP 10,000 every time.

Therefore, all new blog posts moving forward will be under my new website heycandice.net – starting now. The candicewrotethis.com domain will cease within a week hence the old site may no longer be viewable soon. Plus it is about time to use a domain that suits me better, honestly.

UPDATE: Site migration from Bluehost to Hostgator was a success! The process took almost a day but I am glad everything went smoother than expected.