I have been blogging at Blogger for almost four years, and well… change is hard, y’all.
Still, I am seriously contemplating making the leap from Blogger to WordPress. There are a few reasons, but the biggest one is the comment system. I freaking HATE the Blogger comment system. I know there are options to add a comment plug-in (like Disqus), but I’m not 100% in love with those options.
Meanwhile, I am in the beginning stages of a blog redesign (to be done by a professional this time; I can’t commit the time needed in order to do it!), so if I am going to make the jump, now is the time to do it.
Has anyone made the move before? If so, are you glad you did it?
Does anyone have any good reasons NOT to do it?
11 Responses to Blogger –> WordPress?
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About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
I love Blogger and I’m sticking with it. I started using Disquis a couple weeks ago and I enjoy it so far. The main reason I stick with Blogger is just the ease of use. I participated in a blog that was on WordPress and it was so anti-intuitive for me. I’d suggest logging into WordPress and giving it a shot before you make the jump. Good luck with your decision.
I have heard from a few people through twitter that moving to word press was a mistake for them. They lost a lot of their readers, because it wasn’t as accessible as blogger is. Obviously if that doesn’t mean anything to you, I’d say make the jump!
Krystie–
Not as accessible in what way? I find that to be interesting, but I can’t see how it would be true. Anyone who tried to access heatherdrive.blogspot.com would be automatically redirected to the new WordPress blog. I also use Feedburner, so anyone who subscribes to the blog (through Google Reader, or even through Blogger) would be unaffected. It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I’m curious to know more!
Made the switch and LOVE it! I can’t stand the blogger comment system. Drives me bananas. Jen is probably right – log in and play around with it before making the switch, but I didn’t have too much of an issue. And definitely would not go back.
I’ll have to ask the two girls that posted. I’ll see what I can come up with :)
I was going to switch and have contemplating switching, but I was talked out of it…I think I still have a post about it on my blog from awhile back. I do have an account with wordpress and played around with it on my own, but ultimately decided not to switch.
I had to move to WordPress because I needed a password protected system, and Blogger doesn’t offer that feature. MAN do I miss Blogger. WordPress does have more features, but Blogger was much easier to use. I’m very computer savvy, so it isn’t too big of a deal, but things like posting pictures is much much easier on Blogger. My biggest recommendation is to stick with blogger for as long as you can. The other commenters made good suggestions…make an account and play around. I sure with I could go back to Blogger, even with the commenting system.
I wrote a fairly long comment about why WordPress is so superior to Blogger and how much I love it and how I switched from Blogger a long time ago, and how much I hate Blogger’s overall system and especially their comment system (and how Disqus SUCKS)…and Blogger ate it. -_- Conspiracy.
I’ve used WordPress a long time, and while it has a minor learning curve, if you’re having a professional deal with setting it up, that’s the hardest part (which isn’t even that hard at all). WordPress can’t even compare with Blogger – WP is open source, and the possibilities are endless if you know PHP and some other coding. If you’re a more casual blogger, that stuff isn’t in your face to intimidate you. Basically, don’t let anyone tell you it’s not easy or accessible. It wouldn’t be as HUGE as it is if it had those issues. People like their hands held when they blog, I think. WP doesn’t do that – it gives you room. It’s just so much BETTER.
My blog is run from a local install (meaning I downloaded WP from wordpress.org and installed it on my server rather than hosting a mysite.wordpress.com through wordpress.com) and I prefer it that way. There are loads of help documents if you happened to get stuck on something, but I’ve scarcely read a thing about WP and figured out the more advanced features on my own. I argue that it IS intuitive for the computer-savvy and it’s much much MUCH better for a blogger who is remotely serious. Also, there are tons of great free themes, and tons more premium themes that come with support, if you go that route. But if you hire a pro, I’m guessing they’ll do it all for you.
Get WordPress. Seriously.
(My current blog took about 10 minutes to set up and import all my Blogger entries. I’ve done blogs that were way more complex. This one is a pretty simple theme with minor edits, but still it only took 10 minutes: kyleesportfolio.com/blog)
Made the move. LOVE. WordPress is a much better interface overall.
I just started a blog 3 days ago (EEEEE!). And I jumped in with both feet. I have a BlueHost account and I built my site with WordPress.
If you want to change purely for aestetic reasons, then maybe the grab-and-go blogs are adequate. if you want to build this thing into a business, or at least see yourself blogging for quite a while down the road then maybe just go ahead and switch over.
Although it is a much more professional set up at least getting the basic site up and running has been fairly user friendly with the wordpress templates. My only problem has been that the template I picked and installed had tabs with drop-down menus that came down when you put your mouse over them. When I installed it they are GONE! No where to be found. I’ve tried piecing code together to make them, but I think I just need to call someone.
I would say WordPress is on par with Excel, there seems to be a pretty healthy learning curve, but once you get it, it’s awesome.
I like the security I have with BlueHost that my stuff won’t just be deleted on a whim like with the free blogs. There are also online data storage options with BlueHost, since there is unlimited storage you can use it to keep important stuff safe too ;-)
My site is http://www.featherhousefarm.com so you can get an idea of what i’m talking about. My plan for the blog is similair to yours, just simple life stuff. Projects, food/ recipes, gardening and canning information and eventually I want to build it into a CSA farm (when i have more than 2.5’x2.5′ of garden space to work with.
[…] the fact that I’ve been wanting to jump ship to WordPress for a while now. I think I’ve posted about it and/or mentioned it several times over the last year or two. In my mind, there are so many […]