How to move from Blogger to Wordpress, part 1
If you want to move your current blog from Blogger to Wordpress, maybe we can help. We just brought over and merged 6 complete and separate blogs, and we learned a lot along the way.
You’ll need to decide if you can be happy with a free blog hosted at Wordpress.com. Keeping it at Wordpress is very easy and you will have some nice features, but you also sacrifice some flexibility.
If you’re not terrified by all things technical, I highly recommend you try out the self-hosting option (***Whip An Orbit, below***). But if you are planning to copy your Blogger posts over to your new Wordpress blog, you’ll want to start here anyway. Due to a bug in the importation process, the easiest way to make the move is in 2 hops.
So no matter where you want to end up, start here:
- Go to Wordpress.com and sign up for a new account. Don’t panic. It’s fast, free and easy. Make sure you check the “gimme a blog” button near the bottom.
- On the next screen, you’ll choose a name and address for your blog. Unless you’re happy with the boring default one they put in the blank. Don’t do that, please.
- Here’s what you see after just 2 screens. The process couldn’t possibly be faster or easier.
- Still with me? Save that email, but you don’t need it yet. Click the change your template link, and pick something pretty with the click of a button. You might want to take note of whether the template you chose allows a customized header and whether you can edit the css. Then again, you might not care. There’s no commitment here - you can change again at a moment’s notice.
- At this point, you might want to explore your options, especially if you plan on staying right there at Wordpress.com. Take a few minutes to click all the choices at the top, and just read everything. Don’t be afraid to make changes. Unless you click the big scary Delete Blog Permanently button, you’re not going to hurt anything.
- Remember to delete the silly “Hello World” post. Go to Manage: Posts to do that. Now go to Write: Posts and write something original, for goodness sake. Take a look at the options while you’re there, and hit the Publish button when you’re done, and you’re off!
You are now logged in as [your user name].
An email with your username, password, Akismet API key and important links has been sent to your email address.
Write a post [link], change your template [link] or visit the homepage [link].We hope you enjoy WordPress.com.
Next I’ll tell you how to copy all your Blogger posts over to your new Wordpress.com blog. Don’t worry. It’s easy.
Remember, even if you’re going to move to your own self-hosted Wordpress blog, you might need to move your posts to a free Wordpress blog first, so pay attention. I’ll explain why and how.
***self hosting: we use and love Whip An Orbit. It’s a small and growing company with great customer service, tech support, and a real personal touch. They also have Wordpress pre-installed on the server so you can activate it with just a couple of clicks. Packages start at $1.50/month, and even the cheapest package will allow you to host several separate blogs on separate domains!
Part 2 (Importing your Blogger posts) is here.
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Filed under: Huh? Category?, misc.
I may have missed it so forgive me if you already told us, but I’m curious to know what the reason was for moving from Blogger to WordPress, if you don’t mind my asking. I’m familiar with Blogger but not WordPress so I don’t know why or if one is better than the other.
Thanks!
Norah,
Wordpress offers a lot of features that aren’t available with Blogger, both for readers and for the blogger.
I particularly like the ability to moderate comments from only *new* commentors, while automatically letting through the comments from previous or “trusted” commentors. I can also set other guidelines for which comments to moderate: keywords, IP address, number of links, etc.
I also really love the ability to schedule posts ahead of time. If you try to do this with Blogger, the post will show up right away with a future date. Wordpress is smarter: it will hide the post until the scheduled time.
Wordpress is also great for content management: not just a blog, but a website w/static pages or even an online store. We might expand the website significantly at some point, and Wordpress will make that very easy.
Oh - one other neat feature that comes to mind immediately: I can easily switch back and forth between themes (templates) w/o losing all the customizations. I think you can do this if you use a standard Blogger template, but not with a custom one.
But the biggest advantage has to be the functionality of all the optional plugins. With free plugins, you can make Wordpress do almost anything!
Can you tell I’m really jazzed about Wordpress?
Thanks for explaining, Kim!
Can I just say a HUGE thank you for doing this!! THANK YOU!! I’ve been wanting to do something with my blog for the longest time but had no idea what to do…This has been great advice! I l LOVE the idea of a customizable header and have spent a good chunk of my evening going through pictures to try and find the right one. I can’t wait to find out how to move my posts from blogger over to wordpress!! Thank you again Kim!!
Laura,
I’m glad to help - but don’t work too much on your header until you know what theme (template) you’ll be using. It’s far easier if you make your header size match the one that’s already in there.
Thanks Kim, I had picked out my template first and then played around with some different pictures to see what it would look like. I settled with a picture I had taken of a rainbow…I’m thinking the title of my new blog will have the word blessings in it so I thought the rainbow would be perfect!
Haha…thanks Kim! I just started a blog on Wordpress not too long ago…I like how you’ve moved over now, and I’m learning more about it from you! Thanks for the help!
And I’m glad you’ve moved over here, because the internet filters of the school I’m at blocks the comments section of Blogger.
I’ve been following your life for about 3 years now…thoroughly enjoy your stories!
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