I love Google and all they are doing on the Web, but one of my goals for 2008 is to become a more active blogger, and I need a platform that will grow with me.
All signs seemed to point to WordPress – especially when I realized how simple it was to install.
Don’t get me wrong. I loved Blogger and it was ideal for my situation when I signed up in June, 2006. But as I got more serious about blogging and developed more content, it just made sense to make the move to WordPress.
It’s more robust and has a ton of plugins, and since it’s open source, programmers are constantly coming out with new plug-ins you can use on your blog to enhance it.
What’s a plug-in? It’s basically a script you can install to give your blog an added function. WordPress even has a directory of plug-ins and installing them is very simple if you know how to FTP files to your host.
There’s even a WordPress plug-in directory with a categorical listing of all the free plug-ins.
Need a sitemap created for your blog? Just download and install the plug-in and in seconds your sitemap is ready to go!
Want to make your blog pages more search-engine ready so you can get more traffic? Simply install the plug-in and instantly your blog becomes more SE friendly.
OK, here’s where you see that it doesn’t take much to make me happy. I love how the keyboard smilies turn into graphical emoticons automatically. No more image inserts or using those boring text-based smilies! (Sometimes it’s the little things 
.)
Another big reason I wanted to move away from Blogger was I was having issues with the upload feature. I wanted to move my blog’s content from blogger.com to my own domain, but was having issues with their FTP setup.
Hosting your own blog’s content not only looks more professional but it’s much more comforting to know my content is not sitting on a 3rd party’s server.
Importing my content from Blogger to WordPress was a breeze. WordPress has an Import feature that instantly transfers all you posts and comments in a few seconds. The formatting remained the same and my images and video came over just fine for the most part.
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Don’t forget to change your Blogger’s Archive settings to “No Archive” before you import. Otherwise you’ll be scratching your head like I was, wondering why WordPress was only importing my first post from every month. 
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And if you’re worried about losing your Blogger feed subscribers, worry no more. Of course if you use a service like FeedBurner this is never an issue.
But if you don’t, Blogger allows you to redirect your Blogger feed to another URL. So all your Blogger feed traffic will be directed to your new one.
[insert shameless plug]
Speaking of feeds, the one for this blog is http://feeds.feedburner.com/2createawebsite (hint, hint )
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What about your existing Blogger traffic? No problem. There are tons of tutorials out there that will show you how to redirect your blog traffic to your new location. Laffers.net has a tutorial that was easy to follow.
So if you’re looking to start a blog or want more options, I highly recommend WordPress. Blogger has made several advancements in the past few months but not enough to entice me to stay.
You don’t have to have your own domain to use WordPress. You can host your blog on their site, but I think it’s best to host your own content on your own domain. Hosting is so cheap these days and why not have the piece of mind and professionalism of sporting your self-hosted blog.
Not to mention if you already have a site on your own domain, adding a blog just gives you more content. And you know how the search engines love that!
WordPress may not be for everyone’s needs and desires, but I’m certainly happy with the switch. My only regret is not doing it sooner.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve heard so much positive praise for Wordpress that I’m sorry I started my blog on Blogger! I like Blogger so far, but I’m afraid as my site grows I’ll have to switch to another host. I have a question…how will switching to another host/domain impact all of one’s affiliate accounts? Is informing Adsense, Commision Junction, etc. as simple as updating your profile information with them? If someone clicks on a backlink to your old blog, will they be re-directed to your new blog? Geez…can you tell I’m a newbie?
Good news, Julie. Switching hosts has nothing to do with your affiliate links on your blog as they will remain the same. No need to inform any of your affiliate merchants about the switch as it doesn’t impact any of this.
Blogger is nothing more than your host where you blog content sits. So switching to WordPress just gives you more functionality and has no impact on any links, content, etc.
Wow…that’s great news!
Thanks for replying
I agree with Lisa 120%. Blogger is not that bad like its reputation, it can do great things for you. I still use it for smaller side-projects and testing. But hey, when it comes to WordPress, you know, it’s just state of the art! WP is such a great software, you feel at home immediately. Also, the community and support is fantastic, even if you’re looking for advanced stuff. BTW: Great Blog Lisa, keep on writing
Hi Lisa,
Where is your old contents in that blogger blog? I think that has a page rank of 4 or higher and this one I think not ranked yet.
I have a blogger blog which has a page rank of 4. If I use wordpress and use my own domain name like blog.mysite.com, how will it affect my page rank?
Vanaja,
The PageRank of my old blog was only a 3 and most of the traffic came from my main site so I didn’t have a lot of backlinks. Plus adding the redirect from your old blog does inform the engines of the move and over time it will help with building the PR to my new blog.
I don’t worry about PR anymore though. It’s just a tool that represents how many “worthy” backlinks you have and doesn’t necessarily reflect how much traffic Google and others will bring you.
My WordPress blog is already getting more traffic than my old blog after a few weeks. And thanks to the WordPress SiteMap plugin my posts get indexed in Google within hours and I’m already receiving keyword traffic.
Follow on Twitter: @LamNuwin
Thanks Lisa
Thanks Lisa for this wonderful post.
Hey girl, thank you so much for the tips and links. I followed your instructions and am now going to work on my first article in wordpress. Here’s to sharing!
Have a great day! xx
My blog is currently on Blogger but your post is very compelling. One day when I’m bored I’ll check out Wordpress.
ps- my content appears in Google within a few hours as well, you just have to know where to syndicate
If you set up a Wordpress blog, it is wise to upgrade it to the advanced services to allow more than 35 people.
Thanks for the post – I’ve been testing both blogger and WordPress for the past few days and your post helped me make the right decision to go for WordPress – my aunt is also a huge fan. Your sites are great and an inspiration. Thanks!
From Carmen in Thailand
I’m also a happy Thesis user and recent Blogger switchover (I just read your Thesis post too) and definitely recommend Thesis and WordPress. Something else to point out to the budget bloggers is that Dreamhost has a FREE basic account with one-click WordPress installs! Not sure how they handle plug-in installs because I don’t think there is full FTP access for this type of account… but it’s free and easy to set up!
http://www.dreamhostapps.com/
Justin Bradshaw’s last blog post..GrandCentral, GoogleVoice and their new best friend, Ooma
Follow on Twitter: @toshopoholic
I decided to set up a complimentary blog to my website and am having fun playing around with Wordpress.
I decided to go the with free version for now and am hoping that I can easily convert to the hosted version when I make the leap.
Is there an import function just like you used for Blogger?
I haven’t made that many posts maybe I should just switch over now??
Jane´s last blog … Stella for Gap