blog design. — Page 3

Moving from Blogger to WordPress

August 28, 2012 at 9:11 am by Claudia

I moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress last week. It was a big decision, one I had pondered off and on for quite a long time. Circumstances arose that finally forced my hand and I made the decision to do it. I’m glad I did, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a sharp learning curve.

Blogger has been very good to me until recently. I’ve been blogging over 4 years now on that platform. Blogger is free and user-friendly. It doesn’t require a lot of coding, especially with the new templates. I had an older, somewhat custom, template. Along the way, I learned how to fiddle with the html coding to design the blog the way I wanted it to be. It was the perfect learning platform for me. I spoke about my reasons for the move in this post. Now that I’ve moved, I thought I might share some of my thoughts on moving from Blogger to WordPress.

Why move?

Blogger is an excellent platform. It’s free. Millions of bloggers use Blogger. If you’re happy there, great. I had some serious problems with their help forum, or as I call it: lack-of-help forum. I also had problems with the fact that all of the photos I have posted over these past 4 years are housed in Picasa (part of Blogger) and have to stay there. Blogger, Google+, Picasa, Google Analytics and Feedburner are all living underneath a big old Google umbrella. I have no desire to be a part of Google+, I want to own my content and my photos. I want more control. I also, like many of you, have seen Blogger shut down a blog with no warning. Sometimes it’s due to malware or spam. Sometimes it’s for some other reason. All you have to do is search the Blogger Forum and you will find countless examples of blogs that suddenly vanished. Google/Blogger is in control and that means you aren’t.

There are lots of reasons to move to WordPress. Most frequently cited are greatly improved SEO (search engine optimization) and a platform that is much more customizable and flexible than Blogger. You can reach a larger audience. If you want to grow your blog, that’s important. If you have ads, that’s really important. And personally, I think the look of most WordPress blogs is cleaner.

All of this is true. But you can also lose followers since you are no longer able to use Google Friend Connect. I’m busy trying to let everyone know where I am, that I still have the same URL, and that Google Friend Connect followers have to find some other way of following me now. I worry about losing my readers because Google made the GFC widget unavailable to WordPress and Typepad blogs. It’s needlessly exclusionary, which ticks me off and I have a sneaky feeling it’s all about power.

What you need in a move to WordPress

Since Blogger/Google is the host for Blogger blogs, you will need to find a host. I use Bluehost, but there are many of them out there. Having a host involves a monthly fee. I think I’m paying something like $6.95 a month. I chose Bluehost because their customer service is available 24 hours a day. I can call them any time I want to and they will help me with any issue I have. After my experience with Blogger, that in itself is priceless. They have been enormously helpful during this move.

You need to download WordPress, which is free. I’m speaking of WordPress.org, which is self-hosted, rather than WordPress.com which is the version of WordPress that is like Blogger. And then you need to find a framework/theme that works for you. The most popular frameworks are Thesis and Genesis. I use Genesis along with a child theme that I chose. That involves an initial investment but that investment pays off. In my case, StudioPress, which designs Genesis, has the most amazing help forum. I asked so many questions there and every one of them was answered, quickly and efficiently. How refreshing!

What else?

You can either hire someone to design your WordPress blog or you can do it yourself.

You can hire someone to move you from Blogger to WordPress or you can do it yourself.

These things cost money. If that isn’t an issue for you and you’re wary of making the move yourself, hire someone.

It was an issue for me. Designers charge a healthy fee for designing a site. They also charge another healthy fee to move you. I don’t have that kind of disposable income. After reading rave reviews by other bloggers about Sharon Hujik’s ebook, How to Move from Blogger to WordPress, I bit the bullet and purchased it. It costs $35.00 but Sharon currently gives you a discount code that takes 20% off the price, so the end cost is $28.00. (I’ve a link in my sidebar and I’m an affiliate.) It’s worth every penny.

Believe me when I say that this book gives you all the information you will ever need to make the move. Truly. It became my best friend over the past month. I followed each and every step Sharon laid out. If I had a question, I emailed her. She responded right away. What more can you ask for?

Did Anything Go Wrong?

Short answer: No.

If you do any research on this kind of move, you’ll see all sorts of stories about losing comments or posts or followers.

I had over 1200 posts and over 28,000 comments on my Blogger blog. I didn’t lose one post. I lost maybe 50 comments. 50 comments out of 28,000? Small potatoes. Everything moved over seamlessly.

My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. If I had made the move before Google discontinued Google Friend Connect for WordPress and Typepad blogs, all my followers would have made the move along with me. Now, I have to find ways to let them know of the move. If you are a follower on Google Reader, you are still getting my feed and that’s great.

But to be perfectly honest, GFC was becoming something it shouldn’t for me. I don’t want to get caught up in getting more followers, constantly checking my follower count and comparing myself to others. No good can come of it. And the Follower count isn’t an accurate reflection of how many people really read your blog. I had followers on that widget that I’m absolutely sure hadn’t been around in years. I’ve followed blogs that I eventually got tired of and never visited again. So, the numbers? Not reliable.

Other thoughts

For me, the hardest part of the move was designing the blog. The coding used on WordPress is predominantly CSS coding. I had no idea how to work with it. I wanted to tweak the theme I bought so that it worked for me. In the beginning, it took me one entire day to figure out how to widen the margins of the posting area and the sidebar. There is indeed a learning curve. It got easier, however. Every question I had about it was answered in the StudioPress Forum. And with each answered question, my ability to work in this framework increased. I became much more confident. Now, I’m not a blog designer. But I’ve learned that you can design your own blog. I learned that on Blogger and I’ve learned it on WordPress. I like learning new things. It keeps my mind sharp. I feel empowered. The theme I chose had the elements I wanted in a blog and had some design elements that were perfect for my style. It made for a perfect design starting point.

I hope this gives you a little more information about moving from Blogger to WordPress. If you have more questions about the move, you can email me or leave the question in the comment section and I can address it in another post. I do have threaded comments now, so if I can answer your question quickly, I’ll do it there. Check back!

A couple of more things:

1. If you know of someone who reads my blog through Google Friend Connect, can you pass along the information that I’ve moved, that I’m at the same URL, and that I can be followed through my RSS feed or via email? I’d so appreciate that. I recommend following through Google Reader (which you can do by clicking that RSS button.) For a great post about how to use Google Reader visit Marianne’s blog here.

2. Remember that the first post for ‘A Favorite Find’ will be this Saturday. I’ll get the post up on Friday evening, though it is officially scheduled for Saturdays. I’d so love for you to join me.

Thanks, everyone! Happy Tuesday.

A New Home

August 26, 2012 at 8:21 am by Claudia

Well, I did it. I moved to a new ‘house’ here on the internet.

I have been working on this off-and-on for over a month; first signing up for WordPress, then buying a framework and theme, finding a host/server and designing the blog itself. I held off an the actual move while I was tending to and then mourning for my Riley. I knew it needed a level of concentrated attention that I simply didn’t have. But by the time the weekend approached, I felt the time had come. Yesterday, I sat with my laptop all day long, hunched over (not a good idea for my back) tense (also not a good idea for my back) and scared something might go wrong. But, amazingly, it went off fairly smoothly.

How did I do it? I used this ebook:

How to Move from Blogger to WordPress by Sharon Hujik. This book is simply the best. Sharon gives you every bit of information you need to make the move. Step-by-step she outlines exactly what to do – so even a terrified, not-at-all-techy person like me can manage to pull it off. If you’re thinking of a move to WordPress, I can’t think of a better, more clearly written guide to the process. And Sharon is extremely helpful. I’ve sent her countless emails along the way and she responds quickly and cheerfully. Her words of encouragement really helped me. If you’re interested, you can order the book by clicking on the link in my sidebar. You can even download a free preview. I’ll write more about this book later, but I feel so strongly about it that I’ve become an affiliate.

Let’s face it – if you google moving from Blogger to WordPress, you will find lots of horror stories about trying to do it on your own. You can pay someone to do it, but frankly, I don’t have the money for that. And even if you pay someone, there is no guarantee it will go smoothly. I’m frugal by necessity and I was bound and determined to do it on my own and save money. And I did it!

I have to also mention the generous fellow bloggers who helped me as I was researching the move to WordPress: Marianne of Songbird took the time to write her thoughts and recommendations in great detail, Susan of Between Naps on the Porch and Ann of On Sutton Place also shared helpful information with me. I hope I’m not leaving anyone out! Whoops! Forgot Kari of Thistlewood Farm – she was ready and willing to share her experience with me.

I’ve lots of thoughts to share on the move that I’ll try to put together in another post. For now, you can see that the layout is fairly similar to my Blogger layout. As I said to someone, I don’t want to re-invent the wheel. I want Mockingbird Hill Cottage to look like a good friend who’s just had a wee makeover. You’ll find that I have to add lots of links yet – not everything works perfectly – but it’s presentable. I also want to add that, like many of you, I sometimes don’t like having to click on “read more” at the end of a truncated post. I’ve designed this blog so that there will always be 4 full-length posts on the main page, as I know most of you read this blog daily. Even if you visit once a week, most of the posts will be full-length. I hope this makes everyone happy!

Subscribing

I’ve been told by some of my blogging friends that the blog is showing up in Google Reader. But that may be the old feed from Google Friend Connect. If you already have my blog bookmarked, there will be no change at all – same address. If you followed on Google Friend Connect, which I can no longer have on this blog, you can make sure that feed is part of your Google Reader or you can click on the RSS symbol in the Contact widget on my sidebar and subscribe there. Or you can subscribe by email. I don’t want to lose any of you. If you haven’t already, you can also bookmark my website (that’s how I keep up on a lot of blogs.)

If you go to your Blogger Reading List, you’ll see “View in Google Reader” on the right hand side:

Did you know that’s an option for viewing your blog list? And if you go over to Contact on my sidebar, you’ll see a symbol like this (only mine’s in blue):

If you click on this symbol, you’ll be taken to a page where you can subscribe to the blog via Google Reader. There are a variety of options for different readers, but if you click on Google, you’ll be able to add this blog with its current feed to your Google Reader. I hope this helps.

Why?

I didn’t move to WordPress because I want to be a ‘big’ blog or for better SEO (my eyes glaze over immediately when I read about that stuff.) I moved because I had some problems with my Blogger blog on several occasions which alarmed me. The Blogger Forum, where I sought help, responded only once. I felt like I was stranded in a boat without a paddle. When I searched for others with the same problems, I found countless instances of people asking for help who never received an answer of any kind. Now I know Blogger is free and it’s huge and I’m sure that accounts for the lack of response. The same problems can happen to any blogger, but now I have a host/server looking after me as well as the fantastic support in the WordPress and StudioPress Forums.

You can do a lot more with a WordPress, too. I’ve been fairly cautious with all of that. I’m sure I’ll be trying new things as I go along. And I’ll be sure to write about it, as well. And everything else that you read about it holds true – now I own my content, I’m not dependent on the whims of Blogger – it was time to move on.

It’s been an emotionally devastating, exhausting week. I miss my little boy more than I can ever say. Don, Scout and I have hunkered down here in the cottage while we tried to come to terms with Riley’s passing. Everywhere I look there is a memory and an empty space where Riley used to be. Once again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the loving, compassionate messages you sent to me. You will never know how much they have helped in this journey of grief and pain.

More tomorrow.

Less is More

May 9, 2012 at 7:04 am by Claudia

I’ve been itching to clean things up around here. Here, meaning the blog, and here, meaning the cottage. I have a lot of stuff. And I love it all. I’m a collector. But sometimes I just have to go through everything and decide what I need to toss or store and what I truly want out on display. Since I’m limited right now as to my time at home, the only area I can really attack is the studio. It took me all of an hour today to put many things away in boxes to be stored and to neaten things up a bit. Keep in mind that when I left for Hartford, there were stacks of boxes on the sewing table, stuff on the chair and lots of stuff on the floor.

All of the boxes I use to ship items from the shop have been put under the sewing table. Hmmm. I’m thinking about changing the skirt on the table sometime in the future.

Many of the things I had on top of the sewing table have been put into storage. If you look to the right, you’ll see I took most everything off my inspiration/mood board. It was way too cluttered. And to the left you’ll see I’ve added a photo of my mom when she was a teenager.

Isn’t she pretty? I used to have that dress when I was young. I wish I knew what happened to it.

I cleaned off most of the mantel/shelf. There’s much less there now. (Sorry for the grainy photos, it’s very rainy here today and I’m leaving for Hartford tomorrow. So I just went ahead and took them anyway.)

Bye bye clutter on the top of the bookshelf.

I also cleaned off the top of the cabinet. Do you ever get the urge to purge? I want to tackle the bedroom next and my everything-but-the-kitchen-sink closet, otherwise known as my craft closet. Not only does it house work stuff, craft stuff, and all sorts of other stuff, it is now holding some of my husband’s clothes. It’s bursting at the seams.

I’ve been cleaning up the blog as well, starting with my new banner. I’ve changed my post divider. I’ve eliminated some of the things on the sidebar – that seems to be a never-ending battle. I also made a new blog button. The old one just didn’t suit Mockingbird Hill Cottage’s current incarnation. The new button is so simple it might even be boring. However, does anyone use blog buttons anymore? It used to be a big thing, but now I really don’t see them that much. Maybe they’ve gone the way of the dinosaur? I’d be happy to get rid of my button altogether. What do you think?

I’m off to Hartford this morning. The next 9 days will be full of afternoon and evening rehearsals and performances. This is when I have to adjust my sleep cycle. I’m usually in bed by 11 at the very latest and now I won’t even be done with rehearsal by 11. The older I get, the harder it gets to change my sleep schedule!

Happy Wednesday.

Moving from Blogger to WordPress

A New Home

Less is More

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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