Part 1: Why switch to word press?

My internet was down all. day. yesterday and today. I did get a fun painting down for over our bed… I repainted the big ol’ ikat canvas (that I just painted)! With that said, I am going to attempt to keep up with the schedule for this week…

• Today: Why I decided to make the blogger to WP leap
• 5/15: WP themes, hosting options and costs (I am using blue host)
• 5/16: The blog design process with Kira (She just opened Primp my Blog for all your design needs!)
• 5/17: A step by step of my WP to blogger switch (He helped me)
• 5/18: Advice for a new blogger thinking about switching to WP

As a blogger blog, you hear about this mysterious thing called Word Press all the time. (Do you feel like this too?) I always wondered why people switch? What’s better about it?  What costs are involved with it? How do you make the switch? I want to de-mystify the Word Press thing for you this week! It’s a scary leap, especially when you’re leaping blind!

Let’s clarify a few things to get us all on the same page:

1. If you have a dot blogspot blog (i.e. nameofblog.blogspot.com)  Your blog is hosted by a google server. Google owns/ controls your blog.
2. If you have a dot com blog hosted by blogger. (i.e. the old C.R.A.F.T., creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com) Google still owns/controls  your blog. (I made that switch on 10.28.2010, 6 months after I started blogging, more on that here)
3. If you have a self hosted blog (i.e. blue host now hosts C.R.A.F.T.) you can use WordPress.org, for free, as a tool to create a fully customizable web site. According to this, “WordPress is limited only by your imagination.”  You own your website (blog).

Blogger makes things simple and easy, but as lots of limitations. Here is a list of reasons I finally decided to switch from blogger to Word Press:

1. I want to own my website and content.
2. Plugins v. gadgets. Blogger uses gadgets and there are a limited number of gadgets.  Word Press uses plugins and there are bazillions and counting. Plugins do everything from help you with SEO, speed up your blog, add a pin it button to posts, make your blog compatible with mobile devices, etc, etc, etc…  Here are 7 essential plugins for craft blogs. Here is the current number, as of this post:

3. Search bar in the header. I just really wanted that thing up there. Maybe you can do this with Blogger, but choosing a word press theme with a search bar in the header is simple.
4. SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I don’t know a ton about this, but did a lot of e-mailing and asking other bloggers lots of questions, the super sweet Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous said, “You can have SEO plugins built into your site to add the tags, target words, and rename your images for you when you are uploading them into your post.  You can add your own SEO tags and titles in Blogger if you understand coding and do it correctly. But it takes a whole lot more time and effort and you have to know what you’re doing. {you could easily just mess up your SEO ”
Pages. I wanted the capability to have more than 20 stand alone pages that blogger allows. Having more pages will let me organize the blog better.
5. I wanted the capability to post on an ad free pages. Blog Her does not allow you to post about things you get paid for on a page that includes their ads… That’s why I started another blog, hi, im jamie, to work with Clever Girls, Social Spark, and Blue Print Social. You can not post on ad free pages with Blogger.
6. Menus. This is also to help organize content. I love the pull down menus. (You can do a limited version of this in blogger, but it’s complicated). See how my pull down menus help organize content…

Since switching to WP, I have found 2 more things that make me like Word Press better…

1. Replying to comments. Blogger recently gave us this capability, but it takes way less time to do it on Word Press. You can reply and approve from your dashboard (vs. doing it from the comment section of the post). You can also install a plugin to make spam comments almost non existent, and there is even a plugin that will save all e-mail addresses from people who comment on your blog. (This could be useful to tell folks about an awesome giveaway, a new series, ask for guest posts?)

2. Uploading and sizing pictures. In Word Press, you can upload a picture and get a link url… you can’t do this with Blogger. You need the link url to make buttons and things for the side bar. You can get this info with other photo storing sites, but it makes it easier since it’s built into Word Press. It also makes sizing pictures way easier. Have you noticed that all pictures in a particular post are the same size now?!

There are certainly a few thins that I’m finding more difficult with Word Press too…

1. Writing a post. It takes more time. I’m sure this is partly due to me being a newbie, but Linda and Dana both said the same thing (they were both Blogger blogs at one point too!)
2. There are lots of things I don’t know what to do with. I’m learning, but there are so many more buttons and plugins and widgets and I feel like I need to know everything… and I don’t. That feels frustrating at the moment.
3. Blog Lovin’. For some reason, this is the one site that has had a problem with the switch. It says this… and I don’t like it, but what do you know… I don’t have any idea how to fix it

I think Linda summed up most peoples feelings when finally decide to switch from Blogger to Word Press, “Its a HUGE change and, let’s be honest, its SCARY. Its like putting your baby into the hands of a computer tech that you’ve never met and hoping they take care of it and they don’t drop your baby…..just sayin.” haha… I love it!

I hope that was helpful. I’m trying to post about the things I wondered/ wanted to know about before I switched! Please leave any questions you have in the comments, and I will do my very best to find you an answer or tell you about my experience!