Book Talk: Why I moved to Word Press
Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day. Today on Book talk, I wanted to talk about why I moved to WordPress. Now that I have been on WordPress for a little over 3 months, I have a much better feel for it and could explain myself better.
Control: The main reason I moved was for more control. I wanted my blog to expand and being with blogger does not do that for me. Blogger is a great platform to get started on. It’s easy and free. With blogger you can do things but you are limited. I could name lots of ways blogger is limited: blog designs, ads, etc. Really, with WordPress I have freedom to do what I want with my blog with out restrictions.
Fear: Yup, I got scared of blogger. Lately, all blogger has been doing is closing down widgets and shutting down people’s blogs for no reason. I worked for 3 years building up reviews and a audience. That last thing I wanted was for Blogger to go all ballistic on me and shut me down. I grown fearful and really I wanted to control that situation. Being on WordPress I don’t have that fear. No one can come and shut it down. And that helps me sleep a lot better at night.
Followers: I admit that I depended way to much on Google Friend Connect. I think every blogger has. Every blogger has stalk their follower count, hoping for it to go up and up and up. I wanted to be liberated from it. I wanted honesty in who follows me. I wanted to be free from ” I need to reach ***** followers. And when I move to WordPress I knew I loose all of that. And you know what? I was okay with it. My stats on WordPress if anything has gone up. And that makes me happy.
Design: I love my design. In fact, I love to change my design FREQUENTLY. Like more than I really need to. With Blogger, I could only do so much with my design. With WordPress, the possibilities are endless. Not to mention that if you have the amazing Tweak Me plugin by Creative Whim, then you can do SOOOOOOOO much with it. I love that fact that I can change something and it looks completely brand new.
Now that I moved to WordPress, I got ask a few questions from fellow bloggers and friends.
1. Were you scared? Heck yeah! I was moving to a whole new place. I moved with Paper Wings Design and the move was smooth. Every thing change over in a matter of a few days and I lost nothing. All post, comments, etc moved.
2. How much did it cost? I’ll be honest and put the numbers out there. Paper Wings Design charged me $150. $50 for the move from Blogger to WordPress and another $100 for the design. While they did a great job for me in the move, I wasn’t happy with the design. I decided to go with another designer, Butterfly-O-Meter Designs. She charged $30 for a re-design. My header was made by my husband (who is a graphic designer) and I paid him in a different form. (wink,wink*) Basically, I sent over my header and ask her to design it around that. She did and I loved it.
Here is the break down:
$150 (WordPress move and design)
$30 (Re-design)
$10 (Go Daddy Domain hosting, per year)
$0 (Server hosting is free due to a friend who has his own server and kindly is hosting it)
$70 (WordPress Plugins)
Total: $260
3. Is it easy? I think most people have fear that WordPress is hard to work with. Its so not like that. WordPress is extremely easy. If you could work on Blogger than you can work on WordPress. It’s just another platform to get use to.
4. What is the hardest part about moving? The hardest part for me, were the WordPress Plugins. Think of it like a new Iphone. When you get an new Iphone there is nothing on it cause you need to add the apps. Like WordPress, there is nothing on it until you add the plugins. I spent countless hours researching plugin after plugin. While most are free others cost money. I spent money on two plugins which I felt are essential and needed for book bloggers. For $35, I purchase the Ultimate Book Blogger Plugin. At first, I was a bit skeptical about spending that money. Now that I have it, I don’t know what I do with out it. It is amazing and I love it. I also spent another $35 on the Tweak Me theme. This theme allows me the freedom to change anything in my design. I can change the color, layout, header, sidebars to whatever I please. And yes, I do change it frequently.
In conclusion, I’m happy I moved to WordPress. Lots of amazing bloggers helped me with the move and I know I could not do it with out them. If you do decide to move I recommend that you have money. As you can tell it does cost to move. Talk to a blogger who has moved before and get their opinions on moving. Research plugins. Find the ones that would work for you. And above all, have patience. Even though I move three months ago, I’m still learning about WordPress and the different things I could do on it.
Happy Reading!
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Really amazing post. I’m on blogger, and I must have been living under a rock because I had no idea about blogger’s deleting blogs. I totally understand your move. WordPress had always seemed a bit intimidating to me. But your post had made me take it into consideration.
🙂
Thanks for the update, Savy! Everyone seems to be moving to WP. I’m still on Blogger, and happy with it. I don’t do blog ads, which seemed to be the main reason for blogs getting deleted, but I still back up my blog once a week, just in case. It’s great to know that so many people are happy on WP in case I decide to move!
I think everyone still on Blogger has been a little concerned about all the changes they’ve been making lately and shutting various things down, but moving over makes me really nervous too! I know a lot of people, like you, have had great experiences, but I’ve heard some horror stories too and I’m just super scared that I’ll lose more in the move than I would if Blogger just keeps shutting widgets and things down. I’m still considering it though, and I do love how much more control you have with WordPress. Thanks for sharing your experience Savy!
There are two things that hold me back, one being a huge reason to stay for blogspot for a while. I don’t have the money for it at the moment. I’m a student and every bit of my money goes to things I’d rather buy for it. I’m currently searching for a job, so perhaps when I have some more money I might look for it. The second is, I’m scared of the change. I’ll have to learn so many new things and I’m not sure if it’s worth it for me. I’ve started my blog just for fun and I would like to keep it that way. If I’m going to pay for it and if I need to learn all new stuff, it might feel a bit more serious than that.
But, I really like the look of your blog and many people are positive about WordPress. That is very nice to hear 🙂
Great post hon!! I’m glad that you are happy with the move and it’s working out well for you. I would love to make the move, but hubs won’t pay for any of my blog stuff, and I’m not working, so I can’t. Once I get a job I am definitely going to consider moving to WordPress, but it’s not doable right now. Also, my apologies for being a horrible commenter lately. Between being obsessed with watching the Big Brother live feeds, and training my new pup I am not on the computer much. I will be back to normal commenting soon!!
I love this post! <3 WordPress is awesome and I pimp it every chance I get! And I'm so happy that you're happy with Tweak Me. You've done awesome things with it!
Oh thank you for this! I’m saving up for the move and have it semi-planned. I know I’m going to do it, I just don’t know when I’ll be able. Thanks for the money break down too. I have a friend doing it and she’ll let me do payments and all that, but I want to be sure I pay her a fair amount. All this stuff is just way over my head so hearing that it’s easier than it seems makes me feel much better!
I agree about GFC. When you look at that thing constantly it does put pressure on you!
I have a duplicate site on wordpress I upload on occasion from my blogger site. Just in case. That way I don’t lose anything (hope). I’m glad the change was good for you and I think the site looks so good!
I love the new background, Savy!! I’m like you and love changing around the look of my blog. I thought about paying someone to design me one but what I like now, I may not like 2 months from now. I like to keep things fresh 🙂 When I first starting blogging, I only knew of blogspot. I didn’t know about WordPress until later on. I thought I was fine with blogspot until I’ve seen more and more horror stories of blogs being shut down. It seems like everyone is slowing making the switch over to WP. I’m honestly terrified of both right now. I’m scared that I’ll lose my blog but I’m also worried about making the switch. I like change, but not big things like that. It makes me nervous! I never thought I’d still be blogging 7.5 months after starting mine but now that I know how much I love it, I really am going to start considering switching. Thanks for the great advice and answers to those questions. I love the honesty!
Nice and informative post! Thanks! Planning to move soon! Already on the list for creative Whim. So excited! Also bought that Ultimate book blogger plugin when it went on sale (half the price). Will rethink for Tweak Me. And will still search which hosting to use etc. i’m really not techy so will need to do lots of research. Haha.