TPM Tidbit: My New Project
August 23, 2012 in TPM Tidbits
I write this update amidst some frustration. My blog has outgrown blogger and I have known for a while that I need to migrate to WordPress. I am working on moving my blog to WordPress as I type, hence my frustration. This is a monumental undertaking, recreating my blog from the ground up, importing nearly 300 posts, and then editing each and every post to fix formatting, re-insert pictures, and assign categories. I procrastinated doing this because I have invested so much time hacking blogger to recreate the functionality that WordPress provides automatically. Now, I am wishing I had started this process months ago.
When I am done, my blog will look fairly similar to how it looks now, but sleeker. The sketches and general styling of my blog are staying. BUT, my blog will have a few pretty awesome new features. Most importantly (to me), my blog will be easier to navigate. I try to think of my posts as sections in a book that I am writing out of order. I want my dropdown menus to be like a table of contents so you can easily find the posts I’ve written on subjects that you are interested in. (It is actually the clunky, buggy dropdowns that I have to code myself and update daily on my blogger blog that are the biggest motivator for switching platforms). You will also be able to see suggested related posts at the bottom of every post.
I am trying to finish this move as quickly as I can. I am anticipating 30-40 more hours of drudgery before it’s ready. When it is time to launch the new site, my blog will likely be unavailable for 24-48 hours. I hope that you will bear with me during this transition.
I’m not entirely educated on the subject, but I remember hearing something about no advertisements, selling, or affiliate links with WordPress. I’m sure you’ve checked it all out, but didn’t want something to go unnoticed just in case! Good luck with the switch!
Thanks. I’ve already figured that part out (WordPress.com doesn’t allow advertisements whereas WordPress.org does).
Hi Jessica and Sarah, I am sure that is not the case with WordPress. I have seen and worked on many WP sites that have both ads and affiliate links. Good luck with the migration Sarah, I know you will love having more auotmation (read: less work for you) in your site. Thanks for all you do, TPM is currently my favorite blog and I don’t even have kids.
Good luck with the transition. New to your blog and I LOVE it, not sure how I missed you all of this time
This may sound unsolicited, but have you considered a service like squarespace? — http://www.squarespace.com/
Me personally, I’m a software developer, and like running my own sites on my own machines, but I can see the appeal of something like squarespace which is both meant for non-software-developer customisation and is cheaper than running a VPS — I pay $20/month, squarespace is $16/month.
In terms of the transition, they have import tools for all sorts of platforms, including blogger — http://help.squarespace.com/customer/portal/articles/10810-importing-blogger-entries
This is not an ad in anyway. I just happen to love Leo Laporte’s TWiT network, and squarespace is one of their sponsors. Apparently you can get 2 months free with the promo code twit8, along some added discounts to the pricing.
In any case, I love you work, especially the stuff on the autoimmune protocol. I for one decided to test my response to egg whites after reading on the “WHYs” post, and had some good results excluding them.
Thanks. I think I’m too far down this pat (time and money) to change now. WordPress has a great blogger import feature, only problem is that it can’t import photos automatically (not sure any importer can). So, unless I want to leave my blogger blog active after the switch (I don’t), I have to reinsert images into every single post. Sigh. I need a tech-savy highschooler who wants to do boring work for pennies.
Good luck!
Hang in there! I just had to switch servers and while it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, I just took it step by step and tried to remember to breathe and sleep as much as possible. The latter didn’t always happen, but it’s worth it in the end
The biggest challenge for me here is finding time! I’m sure this could be done in a few days if I had nothing else to do. And I’m so naturally impatient!
Sounds like a huge pain in the butt, but worth the effort. Good luck during the transition.