WordPress.Com offers a VIP Hosting service if your blog is getting more traffic than you can handle. What kind of traffic are we talking… well, WordPress.Com gives an example of a blog that gets more than 500,000 pageviews a month. VIP Hosting isn’t cheap, and it is not offered to everyone. Have a look at the services you get:
- You create WordPress.com accounts, import your content, and point your DNS at us.
- WordPress.com will load balance your site across our hundreds of servers. (**This alone, for a high traffic blog, is worth the price of admission)
- You can have your own domain name.
- People logged in to WordPress.com will also be logged in on your domain, which makes it easier for them to comment and link you. (Also gives you free integration with our My Comments, Tag Surfer, and avatar features.)
- Included enterprise-level Akismet spam protection.
- Inclusion in our top lists, which can drive a great deal of traffic.
- You will have the ability to edit your templates via Subversion (SVN).
- You can run most plugins (that don’t modify DB tables).
- There are no restrictions on ads, javascript, etc.
What do you need to do for all of the above services?
- A “Powered by WordPress.com” link on your site.
- A few standard hooks in your template for our centralized stats.
- Your tags go into and point to our Tags community.
- $600 to setup your site and $300 a month hosting fee.
WordPress.Com makes this clarification: ..“Because of the nature of this program it is not open to the general public, it is intended for existing high-profile publishers, or startups that we have a good deal of confidence in. You may be a good candidate for VIP hosting if, for example, you get more than 500,000 pageviews a month on your blog. Pricing may be flexible depending on your circumstances….”
People often ask how WordPress.com makes the money required to run the kind of service they do. VIP Hosting services is just one way.
