Moving Your Blogger.com Blog To A New Domain - Preliminary Notes
The move of the BlogSpinner blog has been an utter pain in the bee-hind. For several weeks, I've been debating with myself what the impact of the move is going to be, and for the most part, there are a lot of negatives:
All of my research into search engine opitimization and marketing suggests that once you've built up a URL, you want to stick with it, primarily because of any search engine referrals you are receiving. However, blogspot.com-based URLs have lately been under attack by blog engines and directories due to some perception that a lot of them are splogs (spam blogs). Some engines/ directories are outright not listing new post from blogspot.com blogs.
As well, I wanted to group a number of writing-related blogs together under one banner. The only way to do that, of course, is to set up a new domain (CountWordula.com). Unfortunately, this means I have to rebuild my search engine rankings for the new BlogSpinner URLs through the same techniques I used for the earlier BlogSpinner V1.0).
In addition to a new URL, I wanted a new template. It was relatively easy to sketch out a new design (actually, I went the last of about a dozen ideas), but then I had to decide which blogging platform to use, and then tweak the template for that platform.
After much internal debate, I decided to stay with the Blogger.com platform purely because of its simplicity. My original intent was to move over to the WordPress blogging platform, as I did with my new Curry Elvis Cooks website/blog site. However, because I wanted to use my own template, and because of a shortage of time, I chose to stick with the Blogger.com platform.
Surprise, surprise. After about 16 solid hours of frustrating tweaking, I have my new template set up for BlogSpinner V2.0, but the comment form is not active (even the comment links are showing). I have new found respect for all those generous souls that create templates for various blogging platforms and give them away free. (Mine will be made available after I finish tweaking it.)
Overall, though, because I am currently more familiar with the Blogger.com platform, I spent less time on setting up the new BlogSpinner blog than I would have if attempted to tweak my template for WordPress. Had I not been concerned with a custom template, however, I would much rather have used WordPress because of the ability to set up post categories.
I'll be documenting, step-by-step, setting up a blogger.com blog on a custom domain name (i.e., not on blogspot.com) in a free e-booklet. I'll do the same for setting up a WordPress blog. Keep watching this space; I'm a little work-lagged from revising all of my blogs and websites, and helping other bloggers getting set up. (Every piece of content I promise will eventually get posted. Please be patient.)
(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/
- Having to set up and configure a new blog.
- Having to rebuild search engine rankings for the new URL. This means
- Having to create a new template to personalize the site so that it doesn't look like a cookie-cutter blog.
- Possibly setting up a new blogging platform.
All of my research into search engine opitimization and marketing suggests that once you've built up a URL, you want to stick with it, primarily because of any search engine referrals you are receiving. However, blogspot.com-based URLs have lately been under attack by blog engines and directories due to some perception that a lot of them are splogs (spam blogs). Some engines/ directories are outright not listing new post from blogspot.com blogs.
As well, I wanted to group a number of writing-related blogs together under one banner. The only way to do that, of course, is to set up a new domain (CountWordula.com). Unfortunately, this means I have to rebuild my search engine rankings for the new BlogSpinner URLs through the same techniques I used for the earlier BlogSpinner V1.0).
In addition to a new URL, I wanted a new template. It was relatively easy to sketch out a new design (actually, I went the last of about a dozen ideas), but then I had to decide which blogging platform to use, and then tweak the template for that platform.
After much internal debate, I decided to stay with the Blogger.com platform purely because of its simplicity. My original intent was to move over to the WordPress blogging platform, as I did with my new Curry Elvis Cooks website/blog site. However, because I wanted to use my own template, and because of a shortage of time, I chose to stick with the Blogger.com platform.
Surprise, surprise. After about 16 solid hours of frustrating tweaking, I have my new template set up for BlogSpinner V2.0, but the comment form is not active (even the comment links are showing). I have new found respect for all those generous souls that create templates for various blogging platforms and give them away free. (Mine will be made available after I finish tweaking it.)
Overall, though, because I am currently more familiar with the Blogger.com platform, I spent less time on setting up the new BlogSpinner blog than I would have if attempted to tweak my template for WordPress. Had I not been concerned with a custom template, however, I would much rather have used WordPress because of the ability to set up post categories.
I'll be documenting, step-by-step, setting up a blogger.com blog on a custom domain name (i.e., not on blogspot.com) in a free e-booklet. I'll do the same for setting up a WordPress blog. Keep watching this space; I'm a little work-lagged from revising all of my blogs and websites, and helping other bloggers getting set up. (Every piece of content I promise will eventually get posted. Please be patient.)
(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/
