I Wish For Wordpress
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Man, was I stupid when I first seriously stepped foot in the blogging world. I’ve been planning to write up a post with my top blogging mistakes for awhile now, and not hosting my blog on Wordpress would be first on the list. What was I thinking? I wanted to blog for free, that’s what I was thinking. I signed up for Blogger, which I now hate. But now paying 15 dollars a year for a Wordpress blog doesn’t sound all that bad. In fact, it sounds more than wonderful!
When I first began to blog, I didn’t care about fancy little plug-ins, better overall layouts, all the widgets, the better interface, or anything that Wordpress offered, really. And I also didn’t care to pay 15 dollars a year for full customization, because I didn’t see the point. Now I realize how stupid I was! Before I didn’t have money in my Paypal to buy the Wordpress blog with, but now I do. And now I really regret not blogging on Wordpress.
Here’s a tip for all you new bloggers out there, who have yet to make their blog: Use Wordpress as your host! Even if it takes you a little while to earn 15 dollars to buy your full customization (if you even need that), it’ll be worth it in the long run. Having Blogger is my biggest regret. I know I could switch (it’s possible, isn’t it?). I know it would be better to switch to Wordpress before my blog gets any bigger. But it’s just something I don’t know how, and don’t want, to deal with. What should I do? Wordpress is better in a million ways. But should I make the switch from Blogger to Wordpress, or should I stick it out with Blogger for years to come? What all would switching entail, and how would I go about it (as in, how would I get a www.MYBLOG’SNAME.com domain, etc.) Is it possible?
And if I DO make the switch, I’ll have a lot of questions and need some help along the way, so maybe you can help me for once. I’ll be hanging out in the comments section of this post. 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
29. May 2007 at 07:26
I recently switched from free Wordpress to self-hosted Wordpress. It didn’t take that long (I did mine in one evening), but there were a few quirks.
It is very easy to import your posts across to the new blog, if that is what you want to do.
Overall the setup process ain’t too bad, and the sooner you start the sooner it will be done. So stop reading my comments and get cracking
29. May 2007 at 07:41
Well it’s getting late (almost four in the morning!) so if I DO begin the switch it will start tomorrow.
I need to purchase Wordpress credits through Paypal, correct?
29. May 2007 at 18:25
No just get some space from a web hosting company. Then download Wordpress from Wordpress.org and upload it using http://FTP.
29. May 2007 at 18:25
i switched from blogger to wordpress. i had 1700 + entries. it wasn’t difficult. best wishes.
29. May 2007 at 18:27
There are 2 options: Buy a domain from Wordpress for 15 credits, or register a domain you already own for 10 credits. If I get space from a web hosting company, my own domain, would I still need to pay Wordpress 10 credits? Or do I just need to download Wordpress and not pay the credits?
I am quite confused. You all will have to bear with me.
29. May 2007 at 18:28
Thanks Jen
29. May 2007 at 19:41
You don’t have to pay Wordpress anything unless you use their “Domains” service with a Wordpress.com blog; but I’m not sure if you can fully customise your blog that way.
By downloading Wordpress from wordpress.org you don’t pay them anything; you only have to pay a hosting company for hosting.
I have no idea what you are talking about with credits!
It might be possible to get Blogger to do 301 redirects to your new blog; see http://www.cashquests.com/2007/05/my-new-domain-kicks-ass.html for details; but note Kumiko still uses the Blogger platform. I still have a Blogger blog operational so I’ll see if I can redirect it to my Wordpress one.
29. May 2007 at 19:55
Mark, which would be cheaper and easier, getting my own web hosting and domain and installing Wordpress to it, or getting my domain directly from Wordpress? I don’t want to make anymore mistakes I’ll regret.
What web hosting do you use, or which do you recommend?
When you go to ‘options’ then to ‘domains’, when you add a domain it tells you you need credits to buy it. As with everything else on the ‘upgrades’ section.
When you go to updates, you can buy 15 credits (aka 15 dollars a year) on custom CSS. I think I would need that and also 15 dollars for my own domain. That’s 30 a year.
Since you have your own web hosting, you didn’t need to buy either, did you? I’m just trying to figure out if I should get my own hosting or just use Wordpress. Getting my own hosting would require more work on my part and I’m not extremely talented in that department.
Thanks for all your help, by the way.
30. May 2007 at 04:37
You can always register a domain at GoDaddy.com for aprox. $7 and get free hosting at freehostia.com.
They have a one click wordpress installation. Very easy! Y
ou can import your posts from blogger very easily! The money for your domain is very easy to earn back again, so it’s definitely worth it to change to a self hosted wordpress blog!
30. May 2007 at 04:50
Sandra - Thank you so much! I will definitely be looking into this and this is what I might do! Of course I’ll be doing my research and be 100% sure before I do anything.
Now that you’ve shown me those sites, which I am considering, one of my main problems is choosing what my URL will be. http://www.superblogging.com is taken.
I realize now that when I made my blog I did not take branding into consideration. I need to ‘brand’ my blog, and make a memorable name that can be worked with easily. Hmm…
30. May 2007 at 18:13
Tay, I understand your frustration, but it may be a little overblown. Sure, WP is what all the cool kids are using because of the multitude of plugins, but then again, I also read a lot of posts where WP bloggers have gone overboard quickly with plugins and had to scale back.
2Dolphins is a (Classic) Blogger-based blog hosted on my own space (courtesy of PowWeb) and with my own domain name. With some effort, I believe I’ve done a pretty decent job of making it look non-Blogger-like and the blog portion of the site blends right in with the other, static content that I’ve built in straight HTML.
Anyway, nothing wrong with WP at all - and I’ll admit that I’ve wondered about just how difficult it’d be to switch - but I also think you can get quite a bit of mileage outta Blogger too.
30. May 2007 at 18:15
Rob - Thanks for you comment but I feel that if I don’t make the switch to Wordpress now, I will really regret it later.
You’ve done a fantastic job with 2Dolphins though! I like how it has the tabs at the top as well.
Yes, Blogger has done me a lot of good, but I feel like I’d do a lot better with Wordpress. Thanks,
Tay
31. May 2007 at 21:55
I don’t know if using the ‘Domains’ service at Wordpress gives you full flexibility with plugins, but I suspect it is just a Wordpress.com blog with a new domain; no flexibility in other words.
middlezonemusings.blogspot.com redirects to a Wordpress blog so apparently this can be done.
I recommend you buy a domain name, redirect the Blogger blog to it, and then buy hosting and switch to Wordpress.
Remember to change the default post naming system that Wordpress has so that all the redirects will actually work.
Anyway, you’ll no doubt run into a few snags, but there’s plenty of nice people around who have done this recently who are willing to help
31. May 2007 at 21:56
Thank you so much for all of your help, Mark! I really appreciate it