Comments on: Blogging 101: Start blogging today

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 01:29:26 +0000

Hi, DarrenW—I personally prefer the undated version, but that’s because it makes for shorter URLs and easier sharing (less likely that URLs in an email will be broken between lines; easier to tell someone over the phone). I’m honestly not sure whether it makes a difference to search engines or any other relevant parties.

So why do I have dates in my URLs? Just because I forgot to change my permalink structure when I started this blog, and then got a lot of traffic to a couple of posts. I didn’t want to change then, and haven’t take the time to really look into the redirect plugins that (I know) are available now.

By: DarrinW

DarrinW — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 17:05:38 +0000

I find this post of yours relevent

You know what I used to think like that “Wait more , gain more knowledge…” but you asked the right question, “What are you waiting for?”

Just a short while ago I had none, and now I can’t wait to set up other blogs…that shows how addictive it is. But you’re right about blogging being a lot of work.

BTW, what do you think, is it better to have a %category%/%postname% permalink, or a dated version cos I see some budding blogs reverting to dated versions when previously they were using a category/postname format.

By: Kathie Thomas

Kathie Thomas — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:40:57 +0000

Gee thanks. I don’t contribute every day or every week to them all. There are 4 I contribute to several times a month and then the others will be less than that. Although I might have a month when I’ve got lots to say! And then most of the blogs all get stuff posted to them

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:08:55 +0000

Good point, Kathie! In my case, I’m more addicted to starting blogs than anything, and sometimes have trouble keeping up with everything. I’m WAY impressed that you keep up with 10!

By: Kathie Thomas

Kathie Thomas — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:18:57 +0000

“You’re better off just starting. Practice makes perfect, and blogs are very fluid. If you start with a mediocre idea, you’ll clarify it over time (and believe it or not, writing will help that process immensely). You’ll learn what you need to know as you go. And though you may never have more time, blogging doesn’t actually take that long once you get going.”

In your para above you forgot to mention how addictive it can become! I used to wonder why anyone would want more than two blogs (1 business, 1 personal). Now that I have a total of 10 and contribute to several others I keep finding more topics I’d love to get started on! And then it’s a case of spreading my time to make sure I’m contributing to all fairly regularly

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:31:20 +0000

An update for Justin (and anyone else who’s interested): transferring a blog from Blogger to WordPress is made pretty straightforward by this import plugin.

Basically, you get the Blogger blog set up (just a few settings changes, and only then if you didn’t already have it set up that particular way) and install and activate the WordPress plugin. Then you set a few options in WordPress and go through the posts in batches. The plugin pulls in the posts, the comments, and the labels as categories. It’s very streamlined.

The only difficulty is redirecting the old Blogger posts to the new WordPress posts. I’ve handled that in the past by modifying the Blogger template to redirect each post to a search on WordPress for the title. This seems to work reasonably well and is what I’m planning on for the current migration.

By: Dawud Miracle

Dawud Miracle — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 22:04:45 +0000

I, too, would stay away from Blogger. Use TypePad is a good option. I find WordPress to be even better.

First, though, define why you’re blogging. If it’s for your business, you may have different needs than if you want a personal blog. Identify you needs first and then look for the best solution based on your needs and budget.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:24:47 +0000

Hi, Justin–

It’s been a few months since I’ve done it, but I think WordPress actually makes it pretty straightforward. When I’ve done it, it was pretty much just a matter of going to Manage > Import in WordPress and entering in the appropriate Blogger info.

My only uncertainty is the “new Blogger” factor… all of the migrations I’ve done with Blogger were “old Blogger”. The main differences I know of are the use of labels, so I’m not sure how those will move over.

However, I’m doing a migration next week, so I’ll know pretty shortly how painful it is or isn’t. I’ll post an update at that point.

By: Justin Beller

Justin Beller — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:06:02 +0000

I agree with your view of Blogger. I’m really disappointed with it and I wish I took some more time in planning which blogging application to use before I committed to one. Blogger is not very flexible and the template designs are less than desirable.

I’m several months in to my blogs and I’m curious if you know of a way to export my posts, comments and labels to a new application like WordPress.