It seems that I am doing it again! I'm sneaking in a reverse WFMW post, but I need input and the crowd on WFMW is a very knowledgeable bunch.
So, over the past three years that I have been blogging and reading blogs (I can't believe it has been that long), I have seen many blogs make the move to WordPress. I have heard that it is better, but never any real specifics.
So, here are my questions (feel free to answer any or all in the comment section):
What are the pros of moving? What are the cons?
What specifically is better on WordPress? What is better on Blogger?
Do I need to know more programming/HTML type stuff to operate on WordPress?
Can I customize the layouts/features like I have on Blogger?
What resource would you recommend for learning more and/or helping me compete a move if I go that route?'
This post shared at Works for Me Wednesday.
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2 comments:
The biggest pro of moving to wordpress is that google cannot shut your blog down as spam. The second biggest pro is that it is much more customizable than blogger. The third is that your SEO is better with wordpress. It is very easy to use. Obviously, there are some cons too. You have to pay for hosting, so it's not free like blogger. You need to be a little more technical or hire someone to do the updates, install the plug-ins, etc. All in all, I am very glad that I switched.
I moved to WordPress a few months ago, but I never used Blogger, so I can't make that comparison; I was using Quick Blogcast, which was pretty terrible!
You will need someone computer-savvy to help with the transfer of your old blog to WordPress so that the URLs change consistently and you don't lose anything. (The problems with internal links, noted in my sidebar, are 100% Quick Blogcast's fault: Over the time I was using it, it changed the way it set URLs for new posts, so they were done a whole variety of ways [like hyphens between words vs. underscores between words vs. no space between words] and although WordPress set the new URLs consistently for the posts themselves, where one post links to another it wasn't able to replace all of the links correctly.)
But the initial setup of your blog in WordPress is very, very easy! I advise setting up one just to play with the user interface and check out the different themes. (That's free.) There are hundreds of themes for the general appearance of your blog, and all of them allow for some customizing.
And once your blog is transferred over, it's very easy to add new stuff. It's also easy to figure out how to fix formatting glitches that may appear in your transferred posts if you used fancy text, block quotes, etc. I'm all about writing and had never cared to post an image, but recently I entered a carnival that requires you to put the button in your post...and I figured out how to do it All By Myself in about 3 minutes. :-)
I don't find that I need to use much HTML or other technical stuff; the toolbar has most of the options I need and does the HTML for me when I click.
As I understand it, WordPress is free if you are willing to have "wordpress" in your URL, like "http://abusymomoftwo.wordpress.com". It's if you want it under your own domain name that you have to pay for hosting.
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