Why change to self hosted Wordpress???

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[ajugglingmum]

I have a number of Blogger Blogs and really don't have a problem with them. Sure there are a few glitches occassionally but usually they get fixed pretty quickly. I'm able to redesign the templates how i want them so why should I change to Wordpress?. I always hear how wonderful it is compared to Blogger so I'd love to hear from anyone who converted to Wordpress specifically from Blogger. Why did you make the move and what are the benefits?.

Rachel xxx
A Juggling Mum and Fun & Funky Blog Design

[Snoskred]

Had you asked this question prior to the release of Wordpress 2.5 I would have had quite an enthusiastic answer for you. Right now I'm unthrilled with the people behind the development of Wordpress and their attitude towards bloggers - they have screwed a lot of people over with 2.5 and they currently seem not to give a toss about how the users feel. 

The reason I moved originally was so that I could pre-blog - post in advance. I have been told that blogger in draft makes it possible to post in advance these days. I have made plenty of use of that feature of Wordpress. Also the fact that you can have static pages and contact me forms and in general a lot more control over things. There are a lot of benefits with different plugins and also the ability to code plugins yourself if you have the understanding and energy.

If people are sticking with blogger my number one piece of advice to them is to use their own domain with it. You seem to be already doing that, sort of - looks like you have some kind of redirect set up but your URLs are still blogger, not sure quite how you're doing that.

I would also say find a template that is completely different to the basic and standard blogger templates and that one you have achieved - gorgeous templates! A lot of bloggers will find it difficult to manage similar results with blogger, sadly. It is a lot more complex than the way Wordpress does it.

My biggest objection to remaining on either blogger or wordpress.com is that either of those two can remove your blog at any time for any reason without giving you any notice at all. If my blog is on my own server, the only person who can take my blog down is me or my host. So anyone choosing to stay on those services needs to find a way to backup their blog regularly - which is not an easy thing with Blogger. Wordpress gives you the ability to export your blog (and to import a blogger one) so my advice would be set up a free wordpress blog and export your blogger blog to it regularly.

[kathiemt]

I haven't changed to Wordpress 2.5 yet, so can't comment on that.  But I looooove Wordpress hosted on my own server for the following reasons:

Preposting - being able to pre-write several articles at a time and set up the dates for publishing
Control over the hosting - making sure that backups are happening and knowing I have control
Thousands of free templates available. Granted I don't know php but I can insert html into the coding and make edits
Plugins - so many of them to make my life easy.
Akismet makes my life easier for spam comments.

I must admit I've not used Blogger seriously for awhile, although I still have a couple of blogger blogs - I don't access them as often as my Wordpress ones so am more out of touch with what can be achieved. I know that when I was with Blogger I used to use the FTP facility and had them self-hosted still - I didn't want to discover my blog had disappeared overnight as I occasionally heard from others.

[Lani]

For me, I started with self-hosted WordPress, albeit on a free host with a subdomain rather than paid hosting and my own domain name.

I looked at Blogger and wordpress.com but for me the issue was control as well.  On my first comparison, the difference with what you can do on wp.com vs selfhosted wordpress was obviously enormous.  And Blogger... well I just didn't like it - I guess it's a kind of snobbery really, but I used to have my own sites in the nineties and I didn't want to just be lost in the crowd on Blogger.  While there are some fantastic blogs there, there is a lot of rubbish and they don't seem to be very good and controlling all of the splogs etc which pop up everyday.

I guess now, looking at it, the big issues for me are that using Blogger - there is still a lot that they dictate.  Them removing the option for those without blogger registrations to leave their URL along with their names on the comment forms was something that really annoyed me as a reader and I hardly visit any Blogger blogs now (even though I finally succumbed to open ID) because I find the software so obstructive..

With WP... well, first of all, you get the comments form on the same page...    But seriously, there are so many ways that you can change the way your blog functions (not just how it looks) to suit both you and your readers.

The other thing I find is that having that control over your blog is actually really helpful in teaching you how the whole thing works.  Because with Blogger so much is just sort of a given, I've found that many people don't understand even the choices they have and don't realise the impact not knowing has on the usability of their blogs. 

[kathiemt]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of how the Blogger forms work either. I hate being locked into having to use a Blogger ID to comment on many blogs - I ended up just setting one up as an ID for myself so I could comment.    I much prefer to see it on the same page as the post you're commenting on - sometimes I need to be able to re view what I'm commenting to.

[MarkSBurgunder]

Hi Rachel

Another benefit for some when using the self hosted option is that if you are using your own domain name and a decent hosting company you will be able to have email addresses for your domain name. So for example you'd be able to have rachel (at) ajugglingmum.com.  Using an email address on your own domain for your everyday email can liberate you from your ISP. In other words you would be able to change ISPs without any hassles as your email address would not change if you ever got really unhappy with your ISP.

There are many decent hosting companies around in Australia and some will even give away free hosting for not for profit use.

[kathiemt]

That's a good point Mark. I forget to add about the email aspect. I own so many domains that it's a given for me and something I forget others don't realise or might not know about.

I know a couple of members here provide hosting - as I do too. And then there's godaddy.com and hostgator.com which can provide hosting for you if you're prone to wanting multiple domains and accounts.  Or you can simply go to wordpress.org and look for hosting solutions there too.

[Lightening]

Lani - blogger have replaced the option to comment and leave another URL without using live ID now.  Although some bloggers themselves don't allow it.

Rachel, if I were looking at switching a blog from blogger to wordpress (self hosted) now I think these would be my reasons:

1.  Easy to write a prepublish posts in advance (great for when you're going away but want to maintain your posting schedule).

2.  SMILEYS.  I know you can do them in blogger but they're easier for me in wordpress.

3.  The amount of choice when it comes to templates/themes and plug-in options.

4.  The ease of commenting.  Commenting on blogger blogs is SO much harder than wordpress (at least that's what I find).  Mind you, I didn't notice much change in my commenting levels when I switched.  Perhaps I had very tolerant readers.

5.  More options for monetising my blog over the long term.

At the time that I did actually switch I think it was basically a matter of seeing a good opportunity while it was on offer and grabbing it with both hands.  I'm very technically limited so it wasn't something I'd have ever been able to achieve without a LOT of help.

I notice though that there are still a LOT of self hosted blogs out there using the blogger software (especially US blogs).

[ajugglingmum]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my question You have all given me lots to think about. I am a little scared of making the change though, I have heard that it is quite tricky.

Rachel xxx
A Juggling Mum and Fun & Funky Blog Design

[Lani]

If you decide to do it, you'll have heaps of help.  There's plenty of people here who have made the change, and some fairly recently.  Also might be worth checking out Andrew's site Get A Real Blog, which has info on this very thing.

[AndrewBoyd]

If you decide to do it, you'll have heaps of help.  There's plenty of people here who have made the change, and some fairly recently.  Also might be worth checking out Andrew's site Get A Real Blog, which has info on this very thing.

Hi Lani,

thanks for the plug

It is about time I started on the second edition of Get A Real Blog, so any comments are more than welcome.

Best regards, Andrew

[ajugglingmum]

Thanks for the link Lani I'll have to have a read before I do anything!

[planningqueen]

I was on blogger for a month before I crossed over to WordPress.  I actually found the switch quite easy.  (Some photos really need readjusting and still need to fix up some internal linking - just haven't gotten around to it!)  I switched because of control and functionality.  Plugins take the hard work out of so many issues and the dashboard gives you fantastic information about what is going on with your blog and its readers. 

Even given my trauma (still ongoing problems ) I would still recommend WordPress over Blogger. 

[ajugglingmum]

Thanks PQ - Well it's settled then, I'm gonna do it! Just need to find the right time to do it....... havinig a sick kid at home today and a baby is probably not the best time to start...lol

[Lani]

Whenever you decide to do it, feel free to ask for help with anything. 

Once you do move, probably the first thing you'll be dealing with is Theme Hell... There is some good advice on how to go about choosing a theme (from the gazilliuon available) in that thread.

[ajugglingmum]

Thanks Lani I'll check it out! I'm just in the process of transfering my domain name to another server. So once that is done I'll start transfering my blog to WP

[kathiemt]

Whenever you decide to do it, feel free to ask for help with anything. 

Once you do move, probably the first thing you'll be dealing with is Theme Hell... There is some good advice on how to go about choosing a theme (from the gazilliuon available) in that thread.

I'm addicted to looking at themes and could spend days and days if I'm not careful!