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If you want to leave your free Blogger account for a free WordPress account, it’s super easy to do. But you should know that there are those who say Blogger is just as useful for a free account as WordPress. This is probably true for personal blogs, but I have found Blogger to be almost impossible to use with student accounts, unreliable at times, and not very intuitive. So I would still recommend making the switch, especially since Wordpress has made it so easy.
This blog has always been on my own server w/ the taylortheteacher domain, with WordPress installed. But my class blog was on Blogger until the district decided to block every blogger blog. The district Internet filter is a mess, and has made my life unpleasant this week. WordPress came to the rescue. (Incidentally, in case anyone cares, I’ll be able to read your WordPress blog at school. That is, until they decide to block WordPress too, at which time I’ll have to spontaneously combust.)Here’s how you do it.
1. Set up a wordpress.com account. This is self-explanatory. Note: do it right the first time because you cannot set up two Wordpress blogs with the same email address. You can never change your web address, so make sure that’s right. Also, choose a nickname that identifies you. Mine was “admin” for a while until I figured out how to change it (very easy). “Admin” isn’t someone I would want to talk to. You?
2. Enjoy ease of use and flexibility of features of Wordpress. Marvel at vastly superior choice of themes. Play around. Make it cool. (Or I won’t be able to be your friend.)
3. After recovering from your bloggasm, click on “manage” in the dashboard menu of WordPress. Then choose “Import.” You will then, of course, pick Blogger.
4. Hit “The Magic Button.” Then, “Import.”
5. Try not to gag at the stench of going back to Blogger after the fresh air of WordPress. It’ll only be for a minute. WordPress, gentleman that it is, will escort you back to your Blogger blog to verify that you really want to make this commitment.
6. That’s it! You’ll have all your comments, posts, and users in your WordPress blog.
7. The only glitch I experienced, which was tiny, was that two of my posts were saved as drafts in WordPress rather than being posted immediately. When I opened them I found that the links were missing from those. They were old, and I didn’t care about them, so I didn’t replace the links. But you may have to replace some links if you still want them to be there.
That’s it! You’re officially cool now!
To learn how to make the switch from a free Blogger account to your own domain using Wordpress, read MamaBlogga’s article here.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Jordan (MamaBlogga) // Oct 12, 2007 at 3:52 am
Thanks for the link! Unfortunately, I feel like you’ve misrepresented my position here. I feel that if Blogger is working for you, there isn’t any need to change to a different platform. If you so desire, you can use their Custom Domain service and continue publishing from Blogger.
Obviously, Blogger wasn’t working for you and your purposes. However, there are dozens–hundreds–of highly successful bloggers who use Blogger and even publish on BlogSpot.com (Fake Steve Jobs and Post Secret, to name just two.)
For most people, the hassle of switching blog platforms isn’t hitting the import button. I’m a professional Internet marketer, and in my article I work very hard to help bloggers who do choose to switch from Blogger to WordPress how to do so without losing links and search engine “juice.” If you’ve previously published your posts on another domain, there are specific concerns that you should be aware of and do all that you can to address. This is why my article is so extensive.
I also wanted to let people know that switching from Blogger to WordPress 1.) doesn’t assure your success and 2.) isn’t necessary for success. A lot of people read articles praising WP (which I use and do like) and get “WordPress envy,” wherein they feel as though they HAVE to switch to WordPress to be considered a “serious blogger.” The emphasis of my opening statements is not to discourage people from switching, since that is the focus of the rest of my lengthy article, but to let people know that you don’t HAVE to switch.
Thank you again for the link. I’m glad that you did successfully migrate your blog to WordPress. I do like using it better than Blogger, but I also realize that it’s not a panacea. I hope that if you used them, my instructions made the switch a bit easier.
2 Taylor // Oct 12, 2007 at 6:42 am
I really am sorry you feel I have misrepresented you. I didn’t intend representing you at all except as saying the one thing linked to your blog. I apologize if that’s unclear. I was writing this article for a specific person who needed to switch from free Blogger to free Wordpress, but wanted to provide a link to you in case someone found this article expecting an article about switching to their own domain.
All the negative comments about blogger are all mine.
3 ken // Oct 12, 2007 at 9:17 am
I am glab that Jordan pointed out WordPress Envy. I sure feel like that’s what I have, but everytime I try to find out why I feel envious, I come up empty-handed.
If my host (host, not brood) allows me to:
1. post
2. import widgets
3. auto-ping! (which, on another note, leads to baby-making)
4. add some of my own aesthetic touches (which, in case you haven’t noticed, I sorely lack. My one idea was to grab my original 11″ Optimus Prime and take a photo of him sitting gallantly upon a log and then photoshop-crop slightly less-than-expected shots of various body parts to make a revolving door banner. But alas, three issues prevented me from this path.
1. You beat me to the punch with doll-girl.
2. Blogger can not support multiple / random banners.
3. I felt really awkward being out in the woods all alone with Optimus Prime and my camera. At one point, about 50 feet into the deciduous forest, I heard the undenialbe sound of twig snaps and leaf cruches. It was too fast for my camera to capture, but I’ll be damned if Megatron wasn’t stalking us. To this day, I have never returned to the woods. In fact, without photographic evidence to prove otherwise, I doubt the lovely plastic figure atop this blog is still alive).
And it looks like I’d have to pay for get my fancy domain in WordPress. That’s another 6.95/month that Kenny-boy don’t be havin.
I mean, I could go with the free: name.wordpress.com, but how is that any better than name.blogspot.com?
4 Jordan (MamaBlogga) // Oct 12, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Thanks, Taylor! I really appreciate your understanding. I see why Blogger didn’t work well for your purposes; it’s great that WordPress is working better for you! All platforms have their limitations, but as free platforms go there were a lot of things that I liked about Blogger that I couldn’t have done on WordPress.com
I think that I’ll revise part of my opening, too, to make my meaning clearer.
@ken–Your conclusion is EXACTLY why I recommend not switching unless you have your own domain!
5 Taylor // Oct 13, 2007 at 10:16 am
Taylor Doll’s enemies like to go after her administratively with things like Internet filters, bullshit paperwork, and endless “professional development” meetings which develop nothing but acid indigestion. She’s safer in the woods. It’s just that her fingers are stuck together, so it’s pretty hard to tie her hiking boots!
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