I know that some of you have left Blogspot and moved to Wordpress.
I have so many concerns - the main one being will all my content come with me, including comments and photographs? This blog is a record of the past ten years of my life, and I would be so upset to lose it.
I know that some people leave the old blog up, and just start a new one, but I don't want to do that.
I haven't had any particular problems with blogspot over the years. But now, I can use only Safari to write posts and leave comments. Overnight I wasn't signed in on Chrome. I've never been able to sign in via Firefox.
I can't control my fonts now and it drives me crazy. The look, the presentation of my blog is very important to me.
I gather there are two Wordpresses - one is free, and one you pay for. As it is now, I pay Google $20 per year. Also, there is something to do with my own domain. I think that means that the content would be mine. With Blogspot, they have the power to delete my blog. I don't mind paying if it means it is mine.
I would so appreciate any help you can give me.
I will be curious to see what everyone says. I haven't had any trouble with Blogspot. I paid $20 per year for some time then decided I wouldn't do it any more. I do make my pictures with fewer pixels now but if they try to make me pay I will just quit blogging. I would hate to do that but I feel like they were robbing me. So many people I know post oodles of photos without paying. Something was wrong with that. Some people print their blog posts in a book every year. I am not sure what process they use but that sounds interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteInstead of quitting you, too, might think of moving. You cannot quit says me! haha. I can't imagine how big a book it would be for 10+ years. Honestly, I don't let myself think about how important my blog is to me. So much family stuff, so many recipes. I keep thinking I should write them all out on cards, but never seem to take the time to do so.
DeleteNan, I've been on Wordpress since 2006 and have had very few problems with it. The one issue was because of my outdated/old computer.. I use the free Wordpress. I do pay a small charge for photos yearly. I don't remember the amount, but, it is not all that much and I've never reached my quota each year. It was more of an issue when I posted every day. I have been very pleased with Wordpress.
ReplyDeleteI would love to have some books printed of posts, particularly the ones about my family.
Thank you for letting me know, Penny. I know what you mean about the books.
DeleteMe, again. I just checked my history and it is $20/year for extra storage for photos. If you decide to use Wordpress, you might want to try the basic and then determine if you need the extra storage.
ReplyDeleteI maintain a Wordpress blog for work and it isn't that bad, although I decided to stick with Blogspot myself even though it is not as attractive. I felt the set up and transition would be difficult (or at least the fear of losing information would be stressful). Are there any adult education programs near you? Someone who teaches a Wordpress class might be a good person to consult or to pay to do the setup for you.
ReplyDeleteThe only issue I would mention is the way Wordpress shoves some comments in the spam box. When I mentioned this on Facebook, as I have endless problems with it, the consensus was that Wordpress has a tendency to not like comments from people who're not on Wordpress. The cure is for the owner of the blog to 'rescue' these comments from the spam box and then all is fine. But... and there's always a *but*... a few people can't seem to find their Wordpress spam box so those people I've had to say goodbye to. Really sorry you're having such problems posting on blogspot though, Nan.
ReplyDeleteI tried Wordpress several years ago, but came back to Blogspot. I rarely have problems with it and am familiar with the process. The older I get, the less patience I have with adapting to change! :)
ReplyDeleteNan, you know I just moved at the beginning of the year. So far I really like Wordpress. It was very easy to import the whole content of my Blogger blog into Wordpress. Comments and photos too. I have the free version and to save room in the photo storage I use Flicker for the photos. You embed them in the blog and then they aren't in the storage. All the photos you import from blogger will go into your storage. After I imported I've been weeding through old post and deleting some and removing some photos on things like my Monday Muddle etc. and I did leave my old blog up. But if I need to add more storage in the future $20 a year isn't much for something I enjoy doing. The only thing I don't like on Wordpress is when you hit the return button it clicks down two lines not one. I did get instructions how to change that formatting but haven't had time to fool around with it yet.
ReplyDeleteHey Nan - I understand completely. Some choice - face the complications or abandon the site and start a new one. Like packing a small kit bag and leaving home forever!
ReplyDeleteIt's no easy task to migrate from Blogspot to Wordpress but it can be done. But before you dig in to that, if you want more control over your blog, then getting your own domain is one way to do it. You pay for it but it would also give you more control over the aesthetics and provide more options including digging into the underlying code. At least that's how Wordpress handles it. You're essentially "buying" the blogging software for the fee.
If you really want to migrate over to Wordpress, there's an outline of the process here: http://bit.ly/1E3hkoa
It's a bit intimidating but it can be done. The other option is to find someone to do it with you or for you.
Hope this helps!
- Jeff
I started with AOL 10 years ago and feel comfortable with it.
ReplyDeleteRecently it disappeared and I panicked - but someone was able to restore it for me.
Use some Google but not accustomed to it.
So share your concerns.
I may be too old to learn a new system :)
Hi Nan,
ReplyDeleteI've been on Wordpress since 2011 (I migrated my LiveJournal blog which I started in 2007 over to WP using their migration tool which was pretty easy to do).
I don't have experience with Blogger or its issues, but I can't say enough about Wordpress "happiness engineers"/tech help. They will online chat with you to help with any questions or problems. Because I'm a luddite when it comes to tech stuff, I really appreciate how accessible they are.
I post a lot of photos at Alphabet Soup; most are stored in my Photobucket account (which costs about $30/year, but provides oodles of storage -- I have 10 years worth of images stored there and I still have lots more room).
I do have some images stored in my WP account and might at some point have to pay for more storage there, too.
While a basic WP blog is free, you can pay more for a plan that includes online chat support, no advertising, and your own domain name (that's what I have). It all depends on your needs and goals.
It wouldn't hurt to try migrating your blogger blog to WP. Leave your blogger blog up as an archive, and to make sure all your content has moved intact to the new blog. If you decide you don't like WP, you can go back to your old blog.
Good luck, whatever you decide. Happy to answer any more questions you might have.
I don't know enough to put in my opinion but I'm confused. I've never had to pay google for blogging? And I've used Chrome for ages after something went wrong on Foxfire. I do love the look of some blogs with Wordpress.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that I'll probably drop out of blogging if something happens to keep me from using blogger. But I hope you figure it out!
I have had little problems with blogspot and never even knew that there was an option to pay for anything. I must not post that many images (comparatively). In order to comment on Wordpress blogs I had to set up a profile there (I guess that is what it is) even though I don't have a Wordpress blog. If I comment on Wordpress blogs I have to use "tracybham" instead of TracyK. And I still cannot put links in the comments at some Wordpress blogs, which is only a problem if they want links in the comments. But I can see that Wordpress has some better features and if I had to, I would try to move over. I just don't want the hassle unless it is necessary.
ReplyDeleteLike Dewena said in her comment, I have never paid Google (or anyone else) for using blogger/blogspot.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have never had problems with it; I mostly access it via Firefox but have also not had trouble using IE, Safari or Chrome. My blog has been going since March 2008, and I have no intention to move it anywhere else.
Printing it out would be interesting - I can imagine making different books, for instance one with all the recipes, one with travel posts, one with book and film reviews and so on.
There are one or two blogs I follow which are on Wordpress. I can comment on their blogs without a problem, and would definitely follow you as a reader if you were to move your blog there.
Hi, my biggest fear is to lose all my posts when some higher power/moneymaker thinks it's time to cut their services. That's why I copy my blogger blog to a wordpress blog from time to time. It's easy but takes a bit of time. The instructions on how to import a blog from almost anywhere into wordpress are pretty straightforward, somewhere in 'settings' I believe. Other blog services offer similar import methods.
ReplyDeleteWhen another small provider stopped their blog service years ago, I actually received several emails to warn and prepare me as a suer and in the end I managed to get all my content in one zip file sent to me. I doubt blogger (which is google owned) would do that.