After using Blogger for the last 3 years I feel like I’m a pretty competent user.I like Blogger…
I understand how it works.
It is familiar.
I have developed some reasonable html knowledge over the years to help me change things to be more my liking.
And if I’m honest – I love it because it’s free!
But.
For a long while I have been contemplating moving my blog to my own url.
Mostly because it kind of bugs me (since I’m a details girl and all) that my blog url is still “mummastimetocreate” when for the majority of my time blogging I have gone under the name “diary of a Flutter.Kat”.
Also because I’ve heard some horror stories about people losing their entire blogs at Google’s whim.
Yikes – imagine that!
I am relatively regular at backing up my blog, but still – the thought of losing 3 years of history terrifies me!
So this week I’ve been playing around, having a go and looking into different options.
Oh my.
It’s a big wide complicated other language out there folks!!!
All of a sudden my confidence in my html and blogging skills (and computer skills in general) disappeared and I find myself in a quandry – should I continue wasting investing time on it, or should I stick with what I know?
What to do, what to do?
I could of course hire some help.
Except sadly there is absolutely no room in the budget for that with a big half finished house sitting here in front of me, so that is not going to be an option right now.
Never one to quit I am keen to give it all a go, but I find myself sooooooo out of my depth.
Have you made the move from Blogger?
Are you an IT guru that can give me some pointers?
Either way I’d love your feedback and thoughts on the whole Blogger vs WordPress format.
I actually find myself drawn more to Blogger hosted blogs to read if I’m honest. But I do wonder if that’s just because they ARE so familiar to me so I know what to expect and what to do.
It is probably more to do with the fact that I mostly follow people through Google Friend Connect and read through my Blogger dashboard.
Hmmmm….
What do you think? Do you like Blogger or WordPress more?
Does it even matter?
Do you even notice the difference?
What blog reader do you use to read blogs with?
One thing is for sure, I really would like to change my url to one that is more “me”…
That is the end goal…
I’m just really not sure the best way to get there.
Interested to know your thoughts…
I (obviously) use Blogger. And I live dashboard for following my blogs. And, like you said, I think I tend to read more blogger based blogs. But is this because they are also small like me and so I can relate to them? Is this because unless you’re a professional blogger it’s not worth the time and expense of switching? I don’t know!
Surely there’s a way to get your URL to be what you want it to be, an still be a Blogger (if you wanted to)???
Oh, and how and why and where do I do this blog backing up thing??? I’ve not backed up. That wasn’t in the manual… 🙂
E xx
Google loses blogs?! I am going to have nightmares now. I have thought about the pros and cons but consider myself too small a blogger with no business attached so don’t see the sense in it for me.
Hi, I am a new reader. Love your blog!
I also have blogged on Blogger and Wpress and have experienced the glories of having been erased,having a nervous breakdown over it and then after much fuss, getting it reinstated. I found Blogger easier to manipulate than WP. That is just me. I did not use WP very long. One thing that sort of troubled me is that in the fine print of Blogger it states that all that I write on Blogger is owned by… blogger. Uh Um… What? Not sure what that entails, but it gave me pause.
Have you ever looked at what the backup is and reinstalled the backup? You might want to if you haven’t.
I closed my blog to the public about a year ago, but I did enjoy using Blogger and would use it again even knowing they own my written thoughts Bwahaha!
If you want to chat about how one goes about reinstating or anything else I think you can email me by lifting my email here. I don’t check it all the time so if I don’t get back pronto, I am not ignoring, just quilting or sewing a pair of PJ pants inside out “on purpose”.
Oh one more thing. You should consider what you want your blog to be and what is important when deciding whether to get your very own URL. That will probably make the decision for ya!
Best of luck!
You don’t need to move from blogger to use your own URL, you can just set it to repoint :o)
I use WordPress. I’ve always used WordPress, though, so can’t offer any comparisons. I find it super easy to blog in. I follow blogs both through WordPress and through Blog Lovin’ without any problems.
You could always set up a new blog using the Flutter.Kat name and then transfer everything from this blog to that new blog. Well, I’m pretty sure you can. I’ve never done it so I don’t know how easy (or hard) it is.
I follow blogs using BlogLovin. I switched to that when they announced that google reader was closing. It does the job so that’s fine by me. :o)
I just set up a word press blog, and used this article to help me http://michaelhyatt.com/ez-wordpress-setup.html
and I’m using http://www.bluehost.com/wordpress which is a really good price…so far its been pretty straigtforward.
good luck
mmm, very interesting. We share so much of ourselves online and it seems by doing that either to Blogger or Facebook etc; that they bloody well can claim our very thoughts, so scary. In fact when I think about things like that for any length I consider retreating deep inside a cave with no WiFi. Anyhow, I have no advice for or against except to say have you considered making a quilt or other goodies for an IT professional you know or a friend know etc; ? It’s amazing how many people love our work, even enough to trade their work for it 🙂 good luck with your decision.
Someone mentioned transferring your info to another named blogger – that I know you can do. It may not retain the dates perfectly (like everything pre transfer shows up as the date of transfer). At least that is how it was when I went from WP to Blogger. Maybe blogger can handle its own data better. Check that!