Sensational Saturday – it is sensational to be able to do things for yourself.
Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis, (I appreciate each and every one of you) have noticed some changes to the way this blog looks. The look changed because this week I switched moved my blog from Google’s Blogspot platform to a self hosted WordPress.org blog. I have resisted this change for quite a long time, but finally after speaking with a few people at the recent PowerUp Weekend in Washington, D.C. I put on my big girl panties and made the switch.
Many of the people I spoke with told me I should pay a website designer and get the move done. However, this is Janeane’s World so I figured Janeane should do the moving, so off I went. Everything I did was free. I am sharing the process I went through with you because, if I can do it, you can do it and here is how.
1. I already owned my domain name, www.janeanesworld.com and it was linked to my Blogspot blog. I had purchased the domain name from GoDaddy.com and like their customer service department a great deal.
2. I was in the habit of copying my blog articles from Blogspot to a WordPress.com account everyday, so I had a full copy of my entire blog on the WordPress.com site already.
3. I called the customer service department at GoDaddy and told them I already had a domain name and wanted them to host my blog and attach my domain name to my new WordPress.org blog.
4. GoDaddy sent me a series of email, with instructions on how to proceed. The customer service people told me it could take several hours to be ready to start the process, but it took less than one hour. The emails came almost at the same time.
- The first email was my hosting credentials, information I would need to provide WordPress to set up the self hosted blog account.
- The next email was a link to the FAQ page from WordPress.org which I found quite helpful. I am attaching a copy of the link here for your ease of use. WordPress Hosting FAQ
- Next GoDaddy sent me an email telling me it was time to build my website along with another helpful email. help guide. Keep in mind, a blog is just a type of website
5. I went to the WordPress.org site and downloaded WordPress 3.4.2 and GoDaddy sent me an email telling me the program was downloaded and it was time for my personal touch.
6. Next pick out one of the more than eight hundred themes for your blog design. My Blogspot blog header was designed for me by Brandi Jeter of Mama Knows It All and it is a beautiful peace of art.
With a little trial and error, I was able to add my personal header to the template of my choosing.
6. I learned that most of the good stuff on WordPress.org comes from something called Plugins which are programs that do all kinds of cool stuff. I will talk more about them later. The first plug in I installed was the Blogger Importer Plugin. This plugin was really cool because it imported all my blogger blog posts including comments!
7. I then copied my buttons etc from my Blogspot blog to my new WordPress.org blog by using the text box. It was not intuitive, but every time I had a question, I got answers relatively easily.
8. Here are some of the plugins I got and found useful:
- All in One SEO pack, to help my blog be recognized by the major search engines
- EP Social widget – to add those neat social media sharing buttons at the end of each post
- Jet-Pak for WordPress to allow me to use some great features and connect with my free WordPress.com blog site
- Linkwithin – to put links to random previous blog posts after each new post
- Network Publisher – so that when I publish my blog on WordPress.org it automatically posts to several other networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and a host of others
9. The last thing I added was the Google Analytics plug so that I can keep track of relevant statistics with my blog.
All in all, it was a fun and rewarding experience and I am glad I was able to do it myself. I successfully made the switch, own my content and can advertise or do whatever I want. I highly suggest you set aside a day or two and try the process for yourself. If you get stuck, send me an email or leave a voice mail message on this blog. You can move your blog from Blogspot to WordPress.org if you take your time and go step by step. So the question for you this Sensational Saturday is what challenge are you ready to face and conquer?