Are You Ready? Making the Move From Blogger to WordPress
This coming Tuesday, July 31, will mark my five year Blogiversary. Five years ago, I opened up a little blog to write about homeschooling. Then, a few months later, Dakotapastor received a Call to plant a church in Bismarck, North Dakota. So we moved. I stopped homeschooling. I became Dakotapam.
I spent a few happy and free years on Blogger.
Then my readership began to grow. I worked more with brands. I heard rumors of Blogger blogs being taken down without warning. I learned that Blogger content was not truly my own. So I began to research moving to WordPress. (I also looked into other platforms such as LiveJornal). I purchased a domain name (I’ve purchased several more since then, they are as addicting as people tell me tattoos are!). I purchased a hosting plan from GoDaddy. (Since then I’ve moved to HostGator and have loved it. The customer service can’t be beat, there are no spammy emails, and they even do some of the moving work for you. . . for free! Use coupon code Dakotapam12 for $9.94 off of a hosting packag
Moving from Blogger to WordPress can be intimidating. It is especially intimidating when you see that there are companies willing to charge you hundreds of dollars to do the work for you! But trust me, if I can do it alone, anyone can!
When I made my move I did some web searching for a good tutorial without too many words, that was not trying to sell me a migration service, and was simple to follow. I found this tutorial and it painlessly led me through the process. Last night I found it again and helped @EssieBurns do the same!
Once you have moved things over, you have some decisions and housekeeping to do! There is choosing a themeYou will also want to create a header image (I used picmonkey for mine, tutorial coming soon.). Then, there are all of the plug ins! It is easy to go crazy with the plug ins, but there are ten that I think every new WordPress blogger should have. That is my next post!
Update: Because I am a woman, and I love to change my mind, I changed my template. (Newer WP updates make this easier than ever to do! Now I’m using the free “Simple Catch” theme. I love the easy stylized header (I had to do very little, and I love, love, love, the social media sharing and search right in my header! Saves sidebar space!) I will still write up a tutorial on designing a header on Picmonkey soon though!
Chime in! Have you made the leap from Blogger to WordPress? Do You have advice to share? What is holding you back?
*disclosure: I have used affiliate links on this page, which means I might earn a cup of coffee if you purchase a product or service from one of these links. However, I only recommend products that I use and stand behind!
I have always started all of my websites in WordPress so I really can’t chime in on the experience… but if you want some tips, all I can say is have a backup of your site.. your posts, contents…database…. you never know what can happen during the migration process!
Oh for sure! I learned about the back ups the hard way! We were trying to add my husband’s site to my hosting plan and we did something a bit wrong and his site overwrote mine! That was nerve-wracking, and it was on the day before we were leaving for a two week vacation!
Twitter: dakotapam
I have one blog on blogger and another on wordpress and I really like wordpress but I never really thought about moving my blogger blog over to wp. The task seems daunting! It is nice to know how to be able to use both. If I ever decide to completely change over to wp I may be contacting you for advice!
Feel free to contact me! I love helping other bloggers! And, since I have done all of the work myself, I know how to do it!
Dakotapam recently posted..Wordless Wednesday: My Bloggy BFF!
Twitter: dakotapam
wow, glad the tutorial helped!
Yes, it did! It was good two years ago, and still helpful this past weekend! I’m glad I could find it again, which is partly why i noted it in my post, now I have the URL for my next friend who takes the plunge!
Twitter: dakotapam
omg, i NEED to do this. so intimidating, though. i took the first tentative baby steps a year ago…then scrambled back to my blogger safety net… perhaps a topic of discussion this sat?
Yes, sure! I’d be happy to walk you through it. The tutorial I linked to is superb, and the folks at HostGator are so, so, so helpful, and never made me feel dumb!
Twitter: dakotapam
NO ONE uses Blogger?! Haha. Tks again for the book rec. Seriously, I would NOT have been able to do it without the book rec!!! And I am on Host Gator too. And I’ve gotten compliments on how smooth the transition was. I should pay myself $500 like some companies would for moving the blog! Can’t wait to read your upcoming blogging posts like header, theme, etc. I run Thesis and haven’t installed any theme yet.
Twitter: lisacng
Lisa, I think Thesis is a theme and framework. I’ve been eyeing it, but have been too cheap to make the plunge. is it really as user friendly as it claims to be? For now, I’ve been pretty happy with free themes, but I know that a framework like Thesis will eventually give me the freedom to do *exactly* what I want with my blog. BUT if I buy Thesis, I don’t want to have to pay an IT or design pro, YK?
Dakotapam recently posted..Better Homes and Gardens State Fragrance Contest
Twitter: dakotapam
This is a really interested topic! I’m glad Lisa shared it on FB so I got the chance to read it. My friend and I just started bumbleofjoy.com so we are taking advantage of free blogger but I definitely see us needing to make a change later on as we already notice the limitations of blogger when setting up our site. Will definitely be keeping what I learned here in mind and might even ask for some help. Thanks for the post!
Twitter: bumbleofjoy
Welcome! I’m glad that I could help!
Twitter: dakotapam
I am so excited to launch my new website/blog all Word Press done by Scott Wild, Wild Inspire. It is so exciting and I love it so far. I will let you know when it is officially done. Work in progress. Thanks for the blog tho! Love it!!
Scott is a great guy! I’m sure you will love it!! Tell him hi for me!
Twitter: dakotapam