Posterous will shut down at the end of April and web hosting provider Blacknight has created a tutorial for moving Posterous to WordPress
With news that blogging platform Posterous will shut down at the end of April, web hosting provider Blacknight has created a tutorial for moving Posterous to WordPress, and has launched a discount for Posterous customers looking to make the switch.
Launched in 2008, and acquired by Twitter last March, Posterous is a free blogging platform that has “millions of users” who will be without a website on April 30. Until then, Posterous users can download all of their Posterous Spaces, including photos, videos and documents as a zip file but they are on their own in terms of finding a replacement.
While Squarespace and WordPress have built importers for Posterous users, web hosts also have an opportunity to provide information to these users who may want to opt for a paid hosting solution after being abandoned by the free Posterous service.
“The old saying, ‘if you’re not paying for a product then you are the product’ seems to ring true once again,” Blacknight’s James Larkin writes in a blog post Thursday. “It goes to show that if you plan on setting up a home on the web it really does pay to spend a few Euros on getting your own domain and hosting so you can be sure you’ll always have your website.”
The tutorial on the Blacknight help page goes through backing up Posterous sites, switching to WordPress, and getting set up with Blacknight hosting. The tutorial is step-by-step, and features screenshots to make it especially easy for a user to follow along.
This type of approach has been used by other web hosts when services shut down to help win customers in their time of need. Last year, Bluehost posted a video with instructions for MobileMe users to switch to a Bluehost hosting account.
To go with the tutorial, Blacknight is offering a discount to Posterous users that want to move to Blacknight. Users can use the code “preposterous” once they’ve added a minimus hosting plan to their shopping cart and selected 12 months payment for 40 percent off.
Talk back: Have you provided any help to Posterous customers through tutorials or special importer tools? Do you think these kinds of situations provide a good opportunity for web hosts to win new customers? Let us know in a comment.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson is the Editor in Chief of the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
