I had been thinking about moving to WordPress for nearly a year. I finally made the jump due to Blogger’s inability to email me about comments. This was the nudge that I needed to make the move.
Last year I participated in the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers. It was an eye-opening experience for many reasons, but what became clear was there were many reasons that WordPress was the way to go. Some of them included:
1. Loading photos was so slow,
2. Options for adding in functionality was difficult,
3. I could choose a domain name (kathleenmcmusing),
4. Blogger didn’t play nice with my iPad for editing/creating content.
5. And finally, comments weren’t working.
I knew that one of the bloggers last year, Jan at Cocoa Quilts, moved to WordPress. She used a service called Pipdig. I asked her a few months ago if she liked the service and she said yes. I read the recommendations on their site and also started looking around. Here are the things you need to decide:
1. Will you use wordpress.org or wordpress.com. Pipdig also has some information on this.
-Wordpress.com is a free site, but you may run into problems with space.
-Self hosted gives you a domain name and more control
2. Who will host your site? A year ago, Bluehost was recommended but in the past year it seemed Siteground was being recommended by more folks – due to some issues that bluehost had last year. My husband has had many years in the technology business and he agreed as did Pipdig.
Things to do before moving:
1. Familiarize yourself with WordPress. I began a blog on wordpress.com (free site) and played. Pipdig has a tutorial when you purchase. There are others out there. Learn it!
2. Think about organizing pictures – this I didn’t do and it may have been good to download all the pictures
3. Back up your site
4. For free WordPress and self-hosted WordPress -purchase migration package ($97 one time cost). You may also want to purchase a theme (how your blog will look).
5. Self-hosted WordPress has two other things to do
a. purchase domain name ($27.95 was my cost for the year – domain name/protection)
b. purchase hosting service ($91.20 for the year – recurring cost)
The actual move:
So this was pretty easy. Phil at Pipdig did all the work. He is in England, so a bit of a time lag, but very prompt responses and really so helpful. My blog stayed up the whole time. My old blog is redirected and my old links go to my new site. SO, if you had a link to my tutorial, it should still work. While there were some fiddly things there was very little that needed fixing. I wanted all my pictures accessible (this may come to haunt me-storage costs) so it would be easy to reuse some (I often do).
SO should you do it? Do you like learning new things? Are you frustrated by what you are using to blog? Check out WordPress.org and play. It can’t hurt. I recommend the people I used 100%. I have not needed help from my host, but I believe it is easy to get. I do feel like my site looks better and it works better for me.
I am happy to answer any questions you have on this.
Disclaimer: *Links with asterisk indicate an affiliate link. Your price is not any different, but a small percentage of the sale will go to supporting my blog.
All good tips, Kathleen! While I didn’t switch as you did, I did switch to self-hosted later in my blogging. I learned a few things the hard way, doing that. Having a migration package is essential, in my humble opinion. Anyway, glad you made the move!
I couldn’t agree more. I know a lot but I don’t really know about redirects and a number of other fiddly things. So glad it is done and I really enjoy the new platform! Now on to learn Gutenberg – haven’t yet tried it but Pipdig has a tutorial I will be using.
I am so glad that Phil @Pipdig worked for you. It looks great and am I am sure you are thrilled to have it donne.
Jan, your recommendation was so helpful. Phil really knew what he was doing and I never waited long for answers. You are right, I am thrilled.
I have needed support from SiteGround a few times and they have been lovely to work with. Congratulations for making the move!
That is good to know about SiteGround. I knew someone mentioned it and I am really pleased with my move and the service from Pipdig.
Hi Kathleen! It sounds like it was a smooth transition for you. I started with the self-hosted WP so no moving for me, but I’ll look for you to follow in Reader now. Happy Wednesday! ~smile~ Roseanne
Thanks, Roseanne, it was pretty easy except for a few little things. Blogger was driving me crazy. See you at th WordPress site!
I am so happy that the move worked for you. I am on blogger and have thought many times about moving over to wordpress (especially when we were not getting comments e-mailed to us), but have been too chicken and busy to do it yet.
I highly recommend moving and doing it with a migration service. You will save yourself a lot of headaches. The lack of emails on commenting pushed me over the edge.
Loving your Shoot From the Stars blocks! I know very little about EQ8 except I’d love to have it! I’m afraid the housework and cooking would never happen around here if we connected! Duchick at mchsi dot com
I highly recommend EQ8 for designing and getting an idea of how fabric looks together. But, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for your housework not getting done!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Kathleen. Interesting!
You are welcome, Nancy. It is good to let others know how these things go!