So, that whole website overhaul thing, how did that work out Isaac? Sigh…
In case you don’t remember, I had a nerd rage moment and decided that i no longer wanted to deal with using a web authoring program, didn’t want to deal with web hosting, didn’t want to change the way I post blog entries, and essentially wanted all the blog goodness without all the blog hassle. My plan was pretty simple, close down my website, continue to use Blogger to host my blogs, and simply (hah!) add a better looking template to the blogger sites. I cancelled my hosting plan, bought a theme that I loved for the blog, and then paid someone to adapt it so that it would work for Blogger.
That last bit was the actual issue. He did eventually come through and give me a working theme however I still had to do a lot of fiddling to get it to work. Got it good enough and then promptly let it languish while I dealt with some health stuff. When I finally got back to it, something had changed. Things weren’t displaying properly again and I couldn’t remember what I had to change in order to get the theme to work/look the way I wanted on my other blogs. I really like the theme but it wasn’t written for Blogger, it was adapted. ARGGGH!
So I ended up doing what I should have done all along. I went ahead and bought web hosting, bought the WordPress version of the theme I like, and started a wordpress blog. I was able to import all of the blog posts from Blogger, the site behaves the way it should, I can use the posting tools I like (MarsEdit on the Mac and there is a good iPad app to use), and as a bonus I own all of my content on my own service.
I went back to Dreamhost for my hosting duties. I’m pretty sure I’ll be paying the same, or maybe a little less than I did before, right around 7 or 8 bucks a month. Yes, I did pay for 2 years up front to get that price, but I went with them for two reasons. First, I really liked their hosting. After a rather shaky start back in 2006, they have been rock solid since then. I also like their customer service. I had to get some help on a couple of things this time around. Used the online chat and they were able to solve both problems in under a couple of minutes. Good stuff. The other reason I went with them is because I knew they had 1 click installation of WordPress and automatic updates. If you know your stuff, installing WordPress shouldn’t be too big a deal. I don’t know that stuff however so the auto installation was a godsend.
Got it up and running with little problem. Imported the stuff from Blogger with no problem. As a bonus, I realized I could also import my content from LiveJournal! That’s where I started before moving over to Blogger. I started blogging back in 2004! While there were a few formatting issues, having all of my posts in a single blog is just wonderful. Also glad to get my stuff out of those services before LiveJournal closes down and/or Google decides to shut down Blogger.
I’m still gutting my head around what is possible with Word Press. I’ve never used such a full featured blogging platform before. The theme I’m using has a lot of posting options. Hope I can make use of them. I still have a few things I’d like to sort out but overall I’m happy with the way it has come together and how it looks. Should have done this from the start.