Decisions…… decisions.
This was a hard one for me. I am so anti-change. I am the kind of person that once furniture is happily placed in a room, it will stay in that spot forever. It only moves for the occasional dusting…. I said occasional, right?
So why did I switch to Word Press? Reasons listed below are in no particular order:
- On Blogger, you do not officially “own” your website. At any point something could happen and wallah, no more. For $20/month it’s mine with my name on it. Kind of like that property ownership pride we all feel when we buy a house. That is after we scare ourselves silly with all the triplicate forms to sign.
- Eventually, you will run out of room on Blogger. A friend of mine has gotten notified that she is reaching her limit. She has been on since January 2007. Depending on how often or large your posts are will determine when the party is over.
- My name will be a household name….. eventually. If you type your name into Google and the first thing that pops up is not you, then it makes it harder for your devoted followers and any future followers to keep updated. Someday you may follow in the footsteps of Oprah Winfrey going to Oprah and now just “O” and you want to be ready.
- The techno gurus say that Google loves Word Press. The search engines will find you.
- Finally, I am personally friends with the owner of Varick Design. I am the old dog trying to learn new tricks here, and Chico (Published Author, Air Miles Ninja, Church Planter and Dilated Pupils?) has been very patient and helpful with my transition. I did have some “moving jitters”, but his tech support has guided me through this process smoothly.
There are obviously some costs involved in producing a quality site like this. For Chico to create a new custom web design yourname.com with initial tech support the cost is $998. He will also be happy to “bedazzle” your current web home, pretty it up a bit, and give you nifty links to Facebook, Twitter, etc. for $250.
The owner of Varick Design has graciously donated a $25, that’s right, I said $25 gift certificate to Starbucks for one lucky commenter.
In order to qualify, you must go to Varick Design, browse around a little, and leave a comment for Chico on the post no purchase necessary.
Consider if a new website is right for you, or someone you know. Great for small businesses too! The contest is open until Sunday and a winner will be announced on Monday, December 21st.
***As an added thank you to all my readers, anyone who signs up with Chico for the complete blog transformation, or the blog makeover will receive a $25 Starbucks gift card from me.***
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Eek! I didn’t know I could run out of room on blogger. Wah! I’m going to try to save my posts somehow… and there’s a lot of them. Good stuff to know about WordPress, though I probably wouldn’t change over right now. Maybe later. I heard WordPress is better for website stuff.
Interesting Diane…these are things I wasn’t aware of , thank you for passing them along! I’ve considered moving from Blogger many times simply because it is buggy, just haven’t done it yet!!!
Joy is great…:0)
Cheers
PS…I’m having a problem “authenticating this comment using OpenID”, I did with your last post as well. It keeps telling me I don’t belong on my blog…is this possibly a blogger/wordpress thing???
Wow, i didn’t know you could run out of room on blogger. Funny that Google loves wordpress when blogger is related to Google (isn’t it?). Those are all great reasons, ones I’ll consider when the time comes.
Hmm…that must be blogger’s dirty little secret because I didn’t know you’d run out of room either.
Wow, I’m jealous Diane. I paid that much too, to someone else a year ago to get my Word Press up and running, and he did and took off. Now, I have a bunch of questions and no one to answer them, which only means that I must do the research and find the answers myself. Otherwise, I love Word Press and having the site named after me.
All good reasons, but running out of room and the household name seem like the 2 biggest
I didn’t realize Blogger had a limit. I’m waiting to get published, then I’ll be paying someone to fix a professional-looking website for me with my new, shiny professional blog. I imagine many of my current posts will have to go. It’ll be too hard to control what I’ve put out there over the past three years at this point.
I did not know all this and boy do I not want to change. It is soooo much trouble. Yikes! I will have to pray on this one for a bit.
Thank you, andrea
Thank you, Diane. I was waiting for this post! I’m curious about blogger running out of room. At that point couldn’t you just start a new blog and transfer all of your info into a new blog? That’s very interesting and something I’ll need to think about, especially because I’m getting to the point of firming up my website decisions. Thank you!
Thanks so much! that’s a scary thought about blogger as you never think it has limits -aside from comments – but at least all is well now and you’re hosting an amazing giveaway! good luck with your new site!
limit
Interesting to know such things about blogger. I do know a couple of people who have run out of space on the blogger blog. I get worried about doing the .com thing, although I would love to. We have university IP space, so we can’t do anything commercial or host something commercial. Perhaps if I had an external hosting company……
Anyone who wants to be in the running for the $25 gift card needs to leave a comment at Varick Design’s blog. Thanks! :O)
Hey Diane,
Thanks for the shoutout.
Diane: this is very helpful. My SIL has tried to talk me into switching. I appreciate your insights.
I think you’ve done beautifully for one who doesn’t like change; I’m proud of you, dear.
Wow, I didn’t know about that either! I’ll have to look into that. Thanks so much Diane.
Diane, thanks for all the info! I didn’t know that you can run out of room with Blogger. You gave me much to think about. Thanks!
Some very good points. I think I will eventually switch to wordpress, but for now since I’m new at all this, blogger will work for me. When/if I get published I will make a website with my own name.
I love the new site though!
I didn’t know we could run out of room. That’s scary!
I do have my own website that I hope to revamp and hook a blog to some day. So I’ll wait until I can do that I think.
Thank you for all the juicy inside information. It’s nice to REALLY know what going on in the blogging world. I also didn’t know I could run out of room on my blog…I’m going to have to print out all the old posts to keep them. But I personally haven’t had any problems with Blogger yet, so I’ll probably stick around there (yep, I’m a Cheapskate!) until I get kicked off!!!
I have blogs on both blogger and WordPress. I have likes and dislikes about them both. My writer/author/personal site is on Word Press though. Mostly for the search engine optimization and also the design functionality is way better. I enjoy having complete control over my site instead of only partial.
Interesting about the blogger/space issue though. Didn’t know about that. Very interesting…
I agree. I do have likes and dislikes with both. Even though I am learning, I think ultimately I will like WordPress better. Thanks!
I wonder how long it takes to run out of space. I only post 3 times per week. I know others, who post every day and have been on a lot longer than me.
I’m like you. Once I’m settled, I don’t want to move. This will take a lot of prayer and thought. Another thing – you lose all your Followers. Did you have to build up from scratch?
Blessings,
Susan
Thank you for stopping over and for this very good post.
I see my transition as a three step process. WordPress next…
Thanks for the insights.