Home feels so much better after a really good clean. That’s true for this blog, too. Maybe you noticed a few changes. What’s different? Thanks to lots and lots of help, I ripped out all the old Blogger wiring and installed shiny, hi-tech Word Press tools to streamline the whole darn thing.
Along the way to making this blog a bit more pro-style, some things were lost (please re-sign up for my RSS Feed!!!). And some were gained (Yay, SEO! Stats! Organization!)
Truth be told, the actual move from Blogger to WordPress didn’t take that long–maybe two or three full days in front of a computer with a couple of tech savvy friends–but a whole lot of life got in the way. There were four months of waiting for the work of a designer I hired that, it turns out, actually had no intention of doing anything. A month to rebuild my confidence. And then, thanks to the nudging of my good friends Todd and Diane, I was able to realize I was playing the classic game of avoidance.
What was I afraid of? Other than flipping some switch and everything going *poof*, I feared the technology. Or more specifically, my lack of knowledge. So in order to get over my fear, I decided gut the thing myself. With LOTS of hand holding and guidance from my friends.
Before turning to my busy techno-buddies, I started studying. A Google search resulted in finding great on-line sources like the Devil’s Workshop and Mama Blogga . These two sites offered step-by-step break downs of what it took to flip the switch. With their easy to follow instructions printed out and highlighted, I was ready to begin.
Neal (the groom to be of my writing partner in crime and blog friend Spicy Salty Sweet) was first on the scene. With patience and know-how, he guided me through the basics. He told me about Fetch, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) , and Text Editors. He showed me how I could create a temp-site on my desktop, via a local host. With a strong cup of coffee and a fresh bagel in hand (I find food bribes help ease the pain of such things), Neal answered all of all my rookie questions.
Once my head was in the game, we downloaded my blog’s database with a simple click of the “download” button. We uploaded my Google blog’s database information onto my computer’s local-hosted WordPress account and–Zing!–I had a WordPress blog!
Lucky for me, that first version of my WordPress blog was just a temporary and invisible-to-everyone-else site. It was a mess, thanks to more than a year’s worth of bad organization and Blogger’s limited ability to categorize posts. I had a lot of cleaning up to do. My friend Diane coached me on how to start thinking more strategically about organizing my stories and how I could make my blog Search Engine Optimized with well-crafted categories, good organization, strong titles, and focused tags. To help me figure out the organizational direction of my blog, I looked to other inspirational blogs for ideas for organization and design.
Once my old Blogger database cleaned up, I was ready to flip the switch. It took one full day of hand holding from two Angels-Sent-Straight-From-Heaven-But-Shall-Remain-Anonymous. They coaxed me through the change of DNS settings, the fixing of permalinks, the preparation of my web host, the redirection of traffic to different sites, and the re-design of my banner. There were moments I felt like I was going to have a minor panic attack, but when all the work was complete I felt incredibly free. I finally had myself a real and functional blog.
Now that the gutting process is over, I’m excited to get to the fun stuff. I look forward to exploring this new world with you…And if you’re wondering how to subscribe to my new blog’s feed, just click SUBSCRIBE TO FOODWOOLF button at the top right hand corner of the home page!
And, as always, thank you so much for sticking around through all the changes! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Thank you so much for writing about this! I also write a food blog (Domestic Divas) that I host on blogspot, but have been afraid to make the switch to WordPress even though I already bought my domain name! Let’s just say I have a love/hate relationship with computers. This is very inspiring!
Now I just need to locate some computer savvy friends! Lol.
xo
WordPress OWNS us all. “Design Studios” that scam your money? Not so much.
I’m so glad this worked out – I know it can be a nightmare (I used to help people with this for a living) but it looks like you came out more knowledgeable and relatively unscathed. Yay for you, and yay for squeaky clean new sites!
It sounds to me like the changes you are making are going to really help! You SEO upgrades sound great too. but I personally think the new look is fab. I like simple and clean and you did a great job. GREG
Thanks for sharing this with us because I too am having jitters about my stuff. I know I want to get out from Bloggers as well, but just too chicken to do so because I’m worrying about losing everything. I did have a domain name set up, but need a better layout with better gadgets as well.
Wish me luck!
This is great as I, too, will be making the switch (actually, starting a new site) on WordPress. Todd and Diane are amazing resources for this; they’ve given me some great advice as well on the topic. I love the look of WordPress sites and they definitely give you more room to grow. It’s great to read first-hand experience as I’ve been a bit fearful myself (as I am not very technically inclined!!).
Oh my – I just did the same thing last month and am still tweaking things! Maybe there was an easier way, but I’m still manually re-uploading all my pictures since they were linked to blogspot and not wordpress. But i love wordpress much better and I can do a little more – it’s worth the trouble!
great blog – will be reading regularly now that I’ve found it!
Great info! I’m “thinking” about making the jump from Blogger to WP, but still on the fence. I’ll check out those links and see if I can muster up courage to do it.