I started my blogging journey over on Blogger. In fact, I had started 3 blogs on Blogger, hoping to be able to share all the facets of my life. (If you’d like to see them, they’re still there.)
My old blogs are:
- Modern Mom’s Life – in which I rambled about mom-isms and raising kiddos
- 2 Talented Daughters – where I followed Emma (and her modelling career) and Rose and the stuff they’re getting into at different ages and stages
- Modern Mom In Kingston – when I stumbled across fun things happening around town I’d post about them here
I struggled, trying to get Blogger to perform they way I wanted it to. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to run three different blogs simultaneously. After some Google research I realized I needed to switch platforms.
I felt that WordPress was going to offer me a nicer, easier to customize, prettier blog layout. I was right – it was definitely the right decision for me to switch from Blogger to WordPress!
The actual changeover
I chose not to import my old content. I did read many articles and threads about how to do it, and it didn’t seem too hard, but I was hoping for a fresh start. There was a slight tags-to-categories issue that I chose not to waste my time on. If I had imported all my older posts it would have created a category for every tag I had on Blogger. I had a zillion* tags there. I didn’t want a zillion* categories here. There was also an option to go into every post I had on Blogger and take the tags out, but again too much work!
Using WordPress I’ve been able to streamline into one blog with various categories. I found this so much better, even when I was only a week into using the WordPress platform.
A few challenges
I had a short foray into the world of WordPress.com, and I started moving my Blogger posts over, but I quickly realized that the features I was hoping to use were still not available to me. A few web searches later I realized that I wanted to get into the self-hosting side of WP.
I was amazingly nervous about trying to launch a new platform. My husband is part of a web hosting business and he already had a page registered in my name. This worked out well when I finally realized that, to do what I wanted, I needed a self-hosted site. A few emails with the company and Bingo! I was able to download WordPress to my site and was off and running.
There are so many themes to choose from once you get into WordPress. I found that a bit overwhelming. I started with one I thought I liked, but then ended up changing again partway through my design process. I’m still fine-tuning and tweaking my site every time I get on here.
I’ve found WordPress to be very user-friendly overall. Also there many sites and forums where questions are answered, and usually very clearly! I went through a phase where I thought I’d like to design WP sites for others, but I don’t have enough time or experience yet. The act of getting the sites up and looking great is very rewarding for me!
Please share your experiences with Blogger or WordPress (or any switches between the two) in my comments; and if you have any fun, useful plugins that make your blogging life easier, I’d love to hear about them too. I’m so happy with my decision to switch from Blogger to WordPress!
~Jess
*zillion is a creative exaggeration of my tag totals.
17 Comments
Hi Jessica, just curious if the whole switch to self hosting was a steep learning curve. I’m currently with wordpress.com, but eventually plan to switch to .org. I have some experience hosting my own sites in the past, but don’t want to get caught up with too much site maintenance. Thanks!
While I didn’t get far into WP.com before I chose to move over, I didn’t think it was too tough. It did take me some time, partly because I was learning about all aspects of WordPress, having come from Blogger. One evening (6-10pm) and then most of the next day (8-3) I worked on it and it got it up and going, and put a bit of content on so people had something to look at. I did stumble over many sites about moving from .com to .org. The site hosting itself is not a worry for me, as my husband’s company does that for me and if I have any questions I just ask him! The stumbling block there is that I’m not as high on their “need to do right away” list as some of their other clients! But once they got me my password, getting WordPress started up was only a matter of downloading it. Then it’s all in the dashboard as you’d see in .com, only with options for plugins and other bits that aren’t offered in .com. Hope this helps, and thanks for reading!
Love to read from what you did recently with your blogging career – moving from blogger to WP.
I rather had an unpleasant experience with self hosted WP blog when I started.
I subscribed for a Reseller hosting account with Bluehost with the aim of putting up several of my blogs I was planning work on. Only to be disappointed with the experience. In summary;
Soon after I had developed the first blog (mysite-hosting.com), it developed multiple error reports which I tried to contact Bluehost helpdesk but failed to get them resolved.
This resulted to my blog being de-indexed from google SE.
As if that wasn’t enough, Bluehost deactivated Quick Install script that could enable me install WP on other web space I had created for other domains I wanted to work on. I was advised to use manual installation which is rigorous. I tried to do one but couldn’t continue on others. Quick and simple methods saves time.
Being unsatisfied with these issues I made up my mind to switch over to blogger just last month. And the site is doing well, although the former site is still there.
It sounds to me like you had issues with your hosting company, rather than with WP itself. With my husband providing my web space I really don’t deal much with anything on the host side. I hope you have a better experience on Blogger, and it allows you to create the blog you want. Best of luck with it! 😀
~Jess
Great advice. Must admit I love wordpress! It’s user friendly. My host is BLUHOST? Any thoughts on them?
I don’t have any experience with other hosting companies. The previous commenter seemed to have an issue with them, but I think a lot of people are with Bluehost.
Thanks for reading!
Really looking in to doing this, as want to get more ‘serious’ about my blog. Just seems quite overwhelming right now. Thanks for clearing up a few areas. #coolmumclub
I thought it was going to be more overwhelming than it was. I did spend a lot of time reading about how it works and I had to chat with my hubby about how you get WP on a domain (turns out the domain hoster gets that part set up – in my case I got an email with a password to get me into my website’s admin area and I had to download WP – from a list of things already there – and run it, but from then on I didn’t do anything else with the site itself)
If you have specific questions, you can run them by me. Not sure if I can help, but I’ll try!
Thanks for the comment!
~Jess
I have used Blogger in the past (another blog lifetime) but now use WordPress. I remember loving Blogger at the time but am now such a WordPress girl I don’t think I could ever switch! Thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub and welcome to the WordPress club! x
Thank you! I definitely made the right choice for me in my blog life! Blogger was fine but there were just a few things wanted to add to my blog (and have control over) that it seemed like WordPress could do for me. And it has. Thanks for the comment!
~Jess
I went from wp.com to .org and was really worried it was going to be a nightmare but it was actually fine and I haven’t looked back! It is more work and I am still looking into buying a template as mine is OK but I want something a bit more exciting. Looks like you have definitely made the right choice, thanks for sharing on #coolmumclub
Thanks for visiting. I’m glad to hear you had a relatively easy switch as well. It seems so daunting to go “self-hosted” but it really falls into place.
~Jess
bookmarked!!, I love your web site!
Very good blog! Do you have any suggestions for aspiring writers?
I’m hoping to start my own website soon but I’m a little
lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like
Wordpress or go for a paid option? There are so many
options out there that I’m totally overwhelmed ..
Any recommendations? Kudos!
I started on Blogger (which is free) but I’m enjoying WP a lot more. It’s more customizable and I did get some suggestions earlier on that you’re more likely to be “taken seriously” if you’re a self-hosted blogger. It shows you care enough to commit to paying for your website (or something like that)
Thanks for the comment!
~Jess
I’ve migrated my Blogger blog to WordPress using this automated migration tool: https://wordpress.org/plugins/cms2cms-blogger-to-wp-converter/
Thanks for sharing!
~Jess