(Mom, I promise that I’ll post silly pictures of the family soon. Very soon. Very, very soon. Maybe even today.)
Many blogging friends have asked me about my recent move to WordPress and why I left Blogger. And while I’m certainly not an expert, I thought it might be helpful to share the reasons that influenced my decision….
- First and foremost, I like the way WordPress blogs look. I know that sounds silly, but as I read and admire other blogs, the ones I liked the best were always WordPress blogs. Unfortunately, as an amateur blogger, I was spending a lot of time trying to figure out “how to do that” in Blogger, but always came up short. Which lead me to….
- I fell in love with the Thesis Theme when I watched this Demonstration (“Theme” in WordPress is the same thing as “Layout” in Blogger). The idea of being able to easily make all those customizations was incredibly appealing. Change the columns in one click? Add a sidebar? Move a sidebar? Navigation Bar in two minutes? Be still my heart. And now that I’ve been working with it for the last month I can honestly say that the $87 I spent on it was WORTH. EVERY. PENNY.
- WordPress does a great job “behind the scenes” helping search engines to find your blog. I have no idea how it works, but it does. For example, if someone entered “good true beautiful” into Google when I was publishing on Blogger, this blog came up about half way down the list. Now that I’m publishing on WordPress, this blog is first on the list. Try it, you’ll see. Snazzy, huh?
- WordPress has EXCELLENT support – in fact they are famous for it, and based on my experience I can see why. Honestly, I was getting frustrated by the lack of support from Blogger/Google. Being a DIY Blogger, I was trying to use Blogger’s support forums to get questions answered; and unfortunately, Blogger does a poor job answering questions. I would give their official support a D- (and that would be generous). Everything I learned about Blogger I had to hunt down and find on my own. And that was frustrating to me.
- I now own my blog completely. I own the domain name and I own the corner of the internet that is hosted on. And while it costs me a little bit (although not that much… see the next point) I like the fact that I have autonomy. If Blogger wigs out, or stops working with Internet Explorer, or has a system crash I don’t have to worry about it anymore. I like that.
- the hosting company that I was interested has some great discounts – including a promo code for a $100 discount on two years of hosting. That lowered the costs enough to make it a no brainer for me. (if you are interested in the discount code, just send me an email)
- I like some of the functionality of WordPress that Blogger doesn’t offer (these are called plugins and they are the extras you can add to your WordPress blog). For example, I can reply in the comment section and the commenter will get my email. That saves me a lot of time and makes it easier to answer questions. If you don’t know what I mean you can try it… just leave a comment below and I’ll reply to each one.
- along the same lines, WordPress does a very good job catching SPAM comments and getting rid of them. I was starting to get SPAM on my Blogger Blog (you know the guy from India who wants me to work from home?) and I didn’t want to have it get any worse. WordPress has some smart genius thing going on, because they catch SPAM like there’s no tomorrow. I like that.
- And finally, it seemed like every blogger I spoke with was recommending the move and their advice said “sooner rather than later.” Invariably, moving to WordPress is going to cause some disruption and it’s better to do that earlier in the life of your blog… And there’s no time like the present!
So there you go, my almost comprehensive list of why I made the change.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
That is a lot of good information. Can’t wait to read what you have to say about the downsides.
I’m getting a lot of spam and it is so frustrating!
Aghh! The spam is the worst! And I hated having to put the moderation or word captcha on. But I ended up doing so for posts that were older than two weeks. For some reason the spammers would tend to go for the old ones…..
Catching all the spam is definitely a bit upside with WP!
I just switched my blog to WP too and I am SO happy with the change! It was a little terrifying at first because there are some things that are more challenging than blogger, but I’ve got so much more control of my blog now and I really feel like it is mine!
Thanks for the info on replying to comments. I’d been wondering if they were hooked directly to my email!
Wordpress girls rock!!
Yeah! Wordpress Girls Rock! That’s great. I know exactly how you feel about the re-acclimation to WP. Like starting all over in Blogging Kindergarten, right?
If you have any plugins to recommend I would be glad to learn about them!
I definitely have a lot of friends that use Wordpress and love it. Excellent post with great information!
Visiting from SITS, have a great day!
Hello SITSah! Glad to have you over for a visit! Any chance you’ll be in Baltimore?
This is awesome info! I have been wanting to become self hosted for a while now…
Did you register your domain BEFORE you went to DreamHost or did you do it all at the same time??
If you did it all at the same time was it still $10 for the year?? I went to their website but couldn’t tell if I did it at the same time what the charge would be…
Hi Bernadette! Thanks for your question. I had already registered my domain name, so I just needed to transfer it to WP.
However, I believe that Dream Host will give you a free domain name registration for a year when you buy their hosting (double check to be sure). If they don’t offer that, you can almost always get a domain name for ~$10 with GoDaddy. But try Dream Host first. I’ve been VERY impressed with them and since you’re already familiar with WP it should be a simple transition.
So, Sharon, do you have to pay $87 every month or is it an annual fee or one time fee?
Hi Jenny! I’m sorry, my comment was confusing.
In order to have a self hosted blog with wordpress.org you will need to own your own domain name (which costs ~$10 a year). By owning your own Domain name you no longer have blogspot or wordpress in your URL… It would just say myblogname.com.
You would also need to pay for the hosting of your blog, which typically costs ~$10 a month. However, right now Dream Host has a promotion which gives you a whole year for only $10 (see above).. In case you aren’t familiar with the term, hosting is akin to “renting server space” – right now your blog is hosted on Blogger and you don’t have to pay for it. If you move to WordPress.org you would have to.
The $87 cost I mentioned is actually to purchase a Theme/Layout called THESIS. That is a one time charge and will cover you for the life of your blog. The reason I bought THESIS instead of just using a free template is because it makes it blog design much easier on bloggers. It allows you to make changes to your blog layout very simply with a minimum of “know how.” I decided that I could either spend A LOT of time learning or pay the one time charge. And even though I’m pinching my pennies, I think it was worth it!
I love the new look! I like wordpress too, but I started on blogger, and have just learned to live with it’s quirks I guess. One question I do have is that I am not receiving updates in my blogger follow thing now, and so I didn’t know you had posted ALL week… {gasp!}. Do I need to do something different to make it change? I may try to figure it out on my own, but if you know what to do I’d greatly appreciate the advice!
Also, I gave your blog an award today! Check it out when you get a chance!
http://adollopofmylife.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-award.html
Hi Lindsey! I’m sorry about the problems with the followers update. I thought that if I installed the gadget here on my WordPress blog the updates would still come, but alas, I was wrong! It’s a bit technical, but the google-follower-thingy is still looking at my Blogger Blog for updates and since I’m not there anymore…..
What you need to do is unsubscribe from your followers dashboard and then follow again. In order to follow again you might need to actually type the domain name in to the subscribe box (www.goodtrueandbeautiful.com). You’ll know you did it right when it refreshes and new posts show up. If you need more help just send me an email!
Hi Sharon!
I’m so excited to try out your nifty new feature here. Very cool!
So, you got me looking into switching, too. Since I still have a lot to learn with Blogger I thought maybe I should just switch now rather than learning Blogger then having to learn Wordpress. So, I went to dreamhost but it doesn’t appear to have the $10 for the year special. Everything I’m seeing shows $10/month. Is there something special I need to do or somewhere I need to go on the site?
Thanks again for your help!
Kristina
Hi Kristina! That good thinking… it does make sense that if you plan to move to Wordpress “eventually” that you would make the move sooner rather than later. I will let you know that there are some differences in how the platforms work, but it’s very doable…. you just have to ask a lot of questions from the Support Folks and read things carefully!
The Dream Host offer that I used was with promo code 777. It showed $10 a month until I entered the promo code in at the shopping cart stage. Then it made the adjustment. If it doesn’t work, I would recommend waiting. Apparently they offer this deal pretty frequently and it’s worth waiting for!
Well…. I did it!
Sort of.
I signed up with Dream Host and I was very glad to see that the promo code was still active and I saved $110! Woohoo! I couldn’t have done it otherwise. Thanks for sharing that.
Now though, I’m at a loss. I have no idea where to begin. What do I do next?! Do I have to move all of my stuff from my current blog over now? Or do I find a new template and tweak that then move it over? I saw you mentioned something about a mirror site, do I do that? I’m sorry to ask so many questions but I just don’t know what to do and feel like I’m in a foreign country where everyone speaks a different language. I can learn and I will learn, I just need a little help in the beginning. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Kristina
Congrats! I’m glad that the promo code worked and that you had such big savings. Woohoo!
The next step will be to install Wordpress and create a “mirror” site which will function as your test blog. Once you’ve done that you can import your blogger posts/comments in using a wizard.
In order to know how to do that you will want to send an email to the Dream Host support team and tell them that you’re new, you don’t know where to start, and that you’re trying to transfer your blog in from Blogger. They are AWESOME and you will get a response within 10 minutes. They will send you links to their information forum and all the directions are there.
It will seem a little overwhelming at first, but read the info they provide carefully and ask them if you have any questions, or if you’re not sure what to do. They will walk you through the whole thing!
Good Luck! I know it’s a lot of new things to learn, but at the end of the day I’ve been really happy with the move.
Sharon – you are killing me!! I want to go… very scared! How much “no-kids around” time do I need for the technical transfer?? Do all my other feed followers (other than blogger..) come along and what about feedburner email folks?
Hi Lynn! I’m sorry, I don’t mean to freak you out. But I know exactly how you feel – it is intimidating and scary and exciting, all at the same time.
The initial set up (purchasing hosting, buying Thesis, installing Thesis) took about 3 hours. Installing Wordpress is super easy if you use Dream Host – it’s the push of a button.
Then I used a “mirror” account so that I could get things set up, but since it was a test blog it didn’t impact what the public could see. I would highly recommend that (and the DreamHost folks will tell you how to do that). You don’t need to redirect your domain name until you’re ready to go live… that takes some of the pressure off!
I spent about a week building the graphics and stuff I wanted to use for my blog – that’s probably a lot longer than many folks would need, but I’m still learning PhotoShop! I also spent a lot of time (4-5 hours) learning how WordPress works, how to install things, how the page layouts worked. I think this would probably vary from person to person, and what theme you decide to go with.
Of course, you could also save yourself some of the stress and hardship by hiring a blog designer to do all this for you… I have no idea how much $$ it would cost, but it might be worth it if you really feel anxious about it! Amanda at Beautiful Blog Designs might be able to recommend some to you!
Sorry I forgot about your second question… the feedburner feed was easily updated (I just needed to change my feed source on the edit page – not too complicated). Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to do that for the feed that Google Readers are receiving. So that’s a pain in the neck for those readers.
I am so glad I found this, as I have been thinking of moving my personal blog to WP, but I am overwhelmed by the mere thought of the data transfer and moving almost three years of info to a new format (not to mention the pictures). Yikes. I think fear will keep me away for a little longer…
Lol.
Hi Jessica! I know what you mean about the intimidation factor… it is daunting! Fortunately the actual process of moving the posts and comments from your old blog to the new one is very automated and simple. The Thesis theme that I’m using has a Wizard that does it all with the “push of a button.” So if that’s been a big obstacle for you, I can at least settle that one!
There are other challenges of course, and I’m writing a post this week on what the “downsides” are. But transferring the posts/pictures/comments isn’t one of them!
Both this and the disadvantages of Wordpress posts are great! After the whole crazed “you must move!” from Boot Camp, I’ve been on the fence and am slowly moving towards Wordpress, and it’s so great to have someone spell out the basics!
.-= Megan (Best of Fates)´s last blog ..Frugality’s Revenge, Part 2 =-.
Hi there Sharon,
I was browsing blogcatalogue and came across this post you have on why you converted to WordPress. I am a freelance writer from Malaysia and I do provide WordPress installation service for clients in my country. It’s really refreshing to hear the upside that you have listed and I will ask my clients to read your post if they want to know more about the benefit of WordPress. Getting firsthand information is always better because if I were to explain to them, I’ll definitely be biased towards WP