OK, so I have asked myself this question a million times. Each time I have come up with a "No". Now I am asking again. I am hoping that there are lot's of people out there that can give me advice.
Just to give you some background, I have used both (free version of WordPress only). I started with blogger in about 2006/7 when I was blogging for work, then I started this one as a personal one. Then, there was lots of people saying that Wordpress was better, and at the time it did look more professional, so when I set up another, which was for my own business in 2008, I used wordpress.
My wordpress one hasn't been updated for a year or more, but that is more to do with the path my life took than the wordpress/blogger issue. I thought about changing this blog a few times and then Blogger was revamped and I loved it, so I stayed put.
More recently the possibility of blogging as a way of generating a little income for my wee family came along, so I decided finally to take the plunge, get my own URL and move to self hosted wordpress. I started this process and then got stuck, so I contacted the help desk of my host for support. They told me I didn't need to move to wordpress at all, but just host my blogger blog with them by altering the DNS settings. I did this - it was way easy. I could't believe I had stalled on this for so long when it was such a simple things to do!
At the end of last week I tried to do the same for another blog that I contribute to for a charity organisation. What I had done before didn't work so I contacted the help desk again. During this conversation it emerged that although I am paying them a monthly hosting fee, they are not hosing my blog at all - blogger is. All that I had done was change the address of my blogger blog. (This is what I thought I had done, but the guy specifically assured me that this wasn't the case!). And so, it seems I have been paying for hosting for 6 months which I am not using, but need to keep it to be able to manage the DNS settings. Grrr!
Now I have just heard from Google that I have used up all me free photo storage. I have had no choice right now but to start to pay them (approx £3 a month when you include the international transaction fee). So, I am thinking that I might actually finally take the plunge and move everything to a self hosted wordpress blog.
I have done lots of research online and found a few things that might be useful.
This blog about which is best - but it is old, and apparently comparing the free version of wordpress not the self hosted one.
This one which does actually talk about the self hosted version of wordpress, but I don't know when it was written
And this one, which is the most recent post on actually how to do it that I can find.
This is where I need your help.
Should I do it?
Do you know of a good place to find (up to date) instructions on how to go about it?
Does everything move across (i.e. comments and photos etc)?
Will I then be able to delete photos in my google account to free up space and stop paying google?
Anything else I should be aware of?
How long is it likely to take?
If you have done this or know anything about it I would really appreciate your comments. If I go ahead I am going to try and do it in the first week of Jan, when DD is here to take care of BB for a couple of days. Thanks in advance for your help.
Update - I got lots of help with this, thanks everyone who commented here or on Google+ . I thought it worth adding a link to this which I was sent, just in case anyone reading this is pondering the same thing http://www.blogxpertise.com/2012/08/10-reasons-blogger-better-wordpress.html
And I have decided to stay with Blogger!
You might want to go to dreamhost as they have an easy click install. - However if you have good traffic at the moment you might want to consider using a "301 redirect" on any misplaced URLS you might loose on the way this will save people from landing on "404 Errors" as this will loose you traffic. You need to export all of your data including posts pages etc and import them using the tool they have on the dashboard.
ReplyDeleteI hope this helps!
Ben
Thanks vey much Ben and to all who commented on this on Google+ (which I am LOVING btw!)
ReplyDeleteI have made the decision (again) to stay where I am, and will stop paying for the hosting that I am not using asap!
Hi BM. I see you've already made your decision, but for its worth I experimented with WordPress recently for a few months. I agree with the article you've posted - Blogger wins hands down. Much easier to use, more intuitive, less technical language. The cruncher for me was discovering that I couldn't add Google Adsense or Amazon Associates to the WordPress blog. Even though I've made a grand total of $9 from Google Adsense to date, if I was actually blogging for livelihood these would be important blog additions for me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while I remember... I've been meaning to ask for a while whether you're on to Elance yet? I understand it takes a while to build a profile, but I have noticed plenty of virtual assistant opportunities.