Happy Zombie

WOW… I’m beyond thrilled and touched by all the comments you guys left for me on my New Digs/100th Postaversay post! Have I said WOW yet? Thank you is not a heartfelt enough word, but for lack of a better word… THANK YOU!

Anyhoo… Angelina and Michelle prompted me to post about the switch from Blogger to WordPress. I’m far from an expert on blogging matters and programs, but this is what works for me.

When I first started blogging (pre Happy Zombie) I wanted something free. The best free choices for me were Blogger, WordPress.com and Vox. WordPress and Vox gave me no option to hack my template. I like to “decorate”, so those two were out. Plus Vox was too myspace-ish for my taste (not that there’s anything wrong with that). So I went with Blogger. I could do what I wanted with my template and that was a HUGE factor in my decision to go with Blogger.

I like TypePad and like visiting blogs on TypePad… but I didn’t want to pay the minimum fee and still not be able to have full control over my template. Like paying rent and not being able to paint my walls or hang pictures. Blogger had recently updated some of their functions (categories, faster updates, blah, blah)… but not enough for me.

I really liked what WordPress.com had to offer. Being able to edit comments, responding to comments via email, and easy commenting for my visitors. I’d been having a lot of problems with posting comments on blogger… either people emailed me saying they couldn’t comment on my blog or me not being able to comment on other blogger blogs. And of course the biggie… I’m a Mac user and Blogger is NOT Mac/Safari friendly. Every time I wanted to link a word I had to code it by hand. Any html in a post I had to code by hand. It gets old. I was not willing to open Firefox or Camino just so I could write a post.

I kept thinking about moving my blog to my website. I figured I might as well use it for something other then storage. And then… it was like the clouds parted revealing sunshine when Wende left me a comment about WordPress.org. I thought to myself… wow… Wende’s blog is from WordPress? Hmmm… I’ve loved the ease of posting comments and reading her blog every day (ok, maybe even TWICE a day!). Hmmm… I must look into this WordPress.org further.

So come to find out, there are two WordPress programs. The WordPress.com is where they host it for you. The WordPress.org is where you host it on your site and you have full control of it. Hmmm… the latter sounded really good! I was really hesitant at first. UGH… changing my url, loosing all my posts and comments… thinking I had to start over! OH BUT NOT THE CASE. Wether you go with WordPress.com or WordPress.org, there’s a nifty little easy cheezy button that lets you import your Blogger posts and comments! WOW… sign me up!

So I took the plunge and set up a WordPress.org program (free BTW) on my site. I did find a glitch, and the easy cheezy import button wouldn’t allow an import from “new blogger”. Putting my thinking cap on, I opened a WordPress.com account and imported my Blogger posts and comments to that. I then imported my new WordPress.com account’s posts and comments into my WordPress.org (this blog here) account. It worked! Did you follow that? I couldn’t got from point A to point B… but a little pit stop and I’m there! Or HERE I should say! Some of my transfered posts are a little tweaky and the commentors names lost their hyperlinks, but I can fix that with editing (some day when I have time, hahaha). Tweaky or not… I have them and that’s all that matters to me. And not only is WordPress.org easy cheezy… there are HUNDREDS (I’m guessing over a thousand) templates to choose from should you want a pre made template.

Blah, blah, blah… I ramble on sometimes and say nothing. I hope I made sense of that all! If you have questions… post a comment! Thanks to WordPress I can answer you right in your comment (like Wende does!). I’m givin’ up the Bloggy Love to Wende who showed me the light! Applause, applause, applause!

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