blog — Page 28

Tweaking the Blog

September 4, 2012 at 7:51 am by Claudia

I’ve been wanting to join in on my pal Brenda’s Tweak it Tuesday for a while now. The problem?

I haven’t been tweaking anything lately.

Oh, wait….except this blog.

Some major tweaking has been underway at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. Over the course of the past month or so, I’ve been working on a move to WordPress. I could have done it more quickly, but I took my time with the whole thing, especially with the design. And I used Sharon Hujik’s book How to Move From Blogger to WordPress to help me with the nuts and bolts of the move (link in my sidebar; I’m an affiliate.)

I did it all by myself! I still can’t believe it went so smoothly, but it did.

Here’s a look at Mockingbird Hill Cottage in its early days:

I rather liked that free background with its pretty browns and creams. Yikes, look how big that header is! That’s one of the early templates from Blogger.

Along the way, I’ve redesigned the blog several times. I even had a designer have a go at it. But it’s all about control for me. The last time I redesigned it on Blogger, I eliminated every element from a designer and created my own design elements. I didn’t want to be dependent on a designer any longer; too many things can go wrong, believe me. Here is what it looked like around here a mere two weeks ago:

I loved that design. But for many reasons, some of them involving serious concerns, I wanted to move to WordPress.

After a few weeks of tweaking, I ended up with what you see here:

I love it. The colors are pretty; it’s clean, crisp and simple.

It was the right move to make. If you’re interested in more information, I’ve written about it here and here.

I’m very happy in my new blog home. Same URL, no more Google Friend Connect, but plenty of ways to follow along. This move involved some extensive tweaking – and it was worth it.

Linking to Brenda’s Tweak it Tuesday party.

Blogging Tips on a Monday

September 3, 2012 at 8:00 am by Claudia

I’m sharing some Blogging Tips today that should enhance your viewing experience and the viewing and commenting experience of your readers. At least, I hope so!

1. Update your browser

This is something that we often forget to do, but not updating can really affect your viewing experience. When I completed the move to WordPress last weekend, my husband pulled out his laptop to see how it looked. His laptop is my old laptop and he uses Safari. When he clicked over to my site, everything on the page was out of alignment. It looked terrible. I had a real moment of panic because my site looked just fine on my version of Safari. So I suggested that he update the browser. Well, actually, I updated the browser. And, lo and behold, the blog looked just the way I’d designed it to be. Such a simple update but so important. I use 3 different browsers: Chrome, Firefox and Safari. I regularly update them. It’s easy. Just click on the name of your browser at the very top of your screen, then click on ‘About Google Chrome’ or ‘About Safari’ and if there is an update available, you will be given directions on how to do it.

I don’t use Internet Explorer because it has a lot of problems and I think there are much better browsers out there, but if you do, I imagine you can update your browser the same way. (May I suggest, in a non-pushy way, that you use a browser other than IE?) Updating also assures that anything that needs updating – for example, correcting any bugs in the browser – is updated and working smoothly.

2. Viewing Blogs – Font Size

Font size is an issue for some of you. I get it. I usually have a fairly large font size on my blog. However, I also have preferences as to how the font looks. On this new blog, the difference between 15px font size and 16px font size is huge. I like 15px. I do not like 16 px at all. To me they look entirely different. I tried 16px. No good. It’s not going to happen. Some blogs I read have very small sized fonts. If you, like me, are getting older and using readers or actual prescription glasses, that can be an issue. So, if you don’t like my font size or another blogger’s font size, what can you do? Easy. You could increase the font of your web content via your browser’s preferences, as you see here.

However, if a web site, like my blog, has a fixed font size and I think most blogs do, this may not work. Never fear, there’s a fast and simple way to increase the font size and that has to do with View found at the top of your computer screen when you are using your browser.

This same sort of thing is found when you use any browser. If you’re reading a blog and want to see a larger font size, all you have to do is click on View at the top of your screen.

Then click Zoom In. Voilà! Your viewing area and font are larger. When you’re done, click Zoom Out. This way, you get to control your blog viewing experience and reading those pesky smaller fonts will be a breeze.

3. Please (I beg of you) stop using Word Verification and Captcha

I understand that you don’t want spam. None of us do. But asking someone to decipher the increasingly-impossible-to-read characters and numbers in Captcha before they can leave a comment is not what you want to do. This stuff is so hard to figure out that it is not at all uncommon for me to try 3 or 4 or 5 times before I can finally get my comment published. I start cursing. I get mad. And sometimes, depending on my mood and the window of time I have available to comment, I give up. Do you honestly want to lose comments? I didn’t think so.

All you have to do in Blogger is go to your dashboard, click settings, then click posts and comments and change Show Word Verification to NO. Easy. If you’re still worried about spam, you can do what I did on my Blogger blogs. On that very same page, I went to Comment Moderation. You have 3 choices: Always – which means no comments will get published without your approval, Never, or you can choose Sometimes and For Posts Older Than (fill in the blank) days. I always used 3 for my number of days but that’s because I post every day. Why do this? Most spammers like to hide their spam on older posts. This way, you get to review the comment and see whether it’s spam before it’s published. And no one has to go through that annoying Captcha guessing game.

One other note: I don’t see this that much anymore but sometimes I encounter a blog that has both Comment Moderation and Captcha. You don’t need that. It’s overkill. One or the other is sufficient. Hopefully, between the two, you’ll choose Comment Moderation.

4. Viewing Blogs in a Reader or via Email

Many of you subscribe to blogs via a reader of some sort or via email. It’s convenient. That way you know when a blog has a new post. All the blogs I followed on Google Friend Connect are now part of a big old bunch of blogs I can read on Google Reader. And, since this move to WordPress, I have been encouraging everyone who used GFC to subscribe to my blog via RSS. I also bookmark a lot of my favorite blogs instead of reading them in a reader. I actually prefer that.

When I see a new post from a favorite blogger in a reader, I always click over to the actual blog post. Yes, I know it’s an extra click. But here’s the thing: for me, an important part of the experience is seeing the actual blog on my screen – the post, the design, the sidebar, etc. Seeing all of that gives me a bigger picture – of the writer, her/his style, sense of color, header. I’m very visual. And, even more importantly, if that blogger has ads on her blog – ads she is hoping to earn some income from – she needs me to click on her actual blog. She’ll get nothing from me reading every post in my reader.

I have BlogHer ads on this blog. Those ads provide a small income for me that I really need in these precarious times. So, think about those bloggers you know that have ads and make sure you click on over to the actual post. It takes but a moment but it can make a big difference in that blogger’s quality of life.

Okay! I hope these tips are helpful.

To all those who labor, and that’s all of us – Happy Labor Day.

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.

Tweaking the Blog

Blogging Tips on a Monday

Moving from Blogger to WordPress

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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