Migrating from Blogger to Wordpress with Redirects

If you know me, you know I also run a travel website. I had started that website using a boring template through GoDaddy's Website Tonight. Being a cheap-ass and not wanting to pay for more than 5 pages, I started a blog on blogger to keep all my travel articles. Then, I simply linked back and forth between the two sites. It worked fine, but looked very clumsy. Once I started to get some regular traffic... 3-4 visitors a day-- YES!... I thought it was time to combine them into one, clean, self-hosted Wordpress site.

So, here's how I did it: Keep in mind, this is a VERY short outline of what I did. I'm happy to reply to comments about specific points in more detail.

First, I couldn't figure out how to do the custom domain on Blogger, but if I had, that could have been my first step. I didn't, and it still worked out okay.

1. I bought a hosting account on GoDaddy... the economy version. I set that up with a domain name I already had. (different from the Website Tonight URL, so I could do step 5) If you don't already have a domain name, you can buy one here, (and save yourself a few steps later on).

2. Found a free Wordpress theme I liked (or you can buy one), and downloaded it to my computer.

3. Installed the latest version of Wordpress on my new hosted account using GoDaddy's one-step install.

4. Used FTP to upload the new theme, then activated it.

5. Copied all my content from the website tonight URL onto the new Wordpress site, keeping all the page names the same. I found this easiest using the control-c/v in the HTML view.

6. Once the new site looked the way I wanted and had all the Website Tonight content on it, I downloaded a backup to my computer, copied all my pages in HTML format into notepad files, and deleted the old Website Tonight account.

7. Then, I went in to the new hosted account and changed the URL to the one the Website Tonight account had been using. (this is the one that has been indexed by Google, and has some link love already, and is the name I really want to use)

Windows and Linux Hosting Configuration 2.0
-Log in to your Account Manager.
-In the My Products section, select Hosting.
-Next to the hosting account you want to modify, click Manage Account.
-In the Settings section of the Hosting Control Center, click the Domain Management icon.
-Select your primary hosted domain, and then click Change Primary.
-Enter the new primary domain for your account, and then click Ok.

8. Since WP is URL-specific, this part got a bit tricky... I then had to go in and uninstall WP from the URL I signed up with, and re-install with the desired URL (the one I just changed to). I did have to rebuild all my pages, but it was really easy using control c/v in HTML view. Some of the info was picked up automatically with the new install. So, this only took a couple of hours the second time around. I had installed WP 2.6.5 the first time, and WP 2.7 the second time. If I had done 2.7 both times, I think it would have kept all the info with no extra steps. Or, if I didn't already have an active domain name I wanted to keep using. Live and learn.

9. Next, it was time to import the blogger posts into the new hosted WP site. Do this from the WP dashboard.

10. The fancy, make-it-all-fabulous part is next! This link is the way to go... http://laffers.net/howtos/howto-redirect-blogger-to-wordpress
It says it's for migrating to Wordpress.com, but it worked perfectly for migrating to self-hosted.

11. It's done! The original website and blogger blog are now merged into one, clean, interactive site.

12. Make sure to get in and play with the WP site, check the privacy settings, the default was set to 'hide from search engines', so I changed that!! Then, add some plugins for more personality and functionality.

For you non-bloggers, this is all a foreign language, I know. But, if you're considering making the switch yourself instead of paying $1500 for someone to make the switch for you, hopefully this is helpful. If not, it's a good reminder to me what I did. Good luck!!

Snacks for the Road

As I'm getting things ready for the road trip to Iowa tomorrow, Christmas Eve, I asked Cooper to remind me to get some snacks for the road.

"Do we put them on the ground (for the road)?" he asked.

And The Evil Mommy...

My 4yo son wanted me to take him to the sticker book store. I told him, when we went yesterday, to get what you want because we won't be coming back here until at least next week. He's been asking me all. day. long. to take him to the sticker book store (Barnes & Noble) again today. I keep saying 'not until next week'. So he drew this picture of me. Apparently, this is what I look like when I say no. I'm such an evil mommy.

(those are tears, which I didn't start shedding until AFTER I saw this picture and almost peed myself laughing.)
Isn't he a great artist?! I think he captured me perfectly!

Too Much Sap

4yo son Cooper: Mom, I have sap.
Me: Sap? You mean like sap from a tree?
Cooper: Yeah, but it's nose sap.

Daisy, Dandelion. Same Thing.

I got my first fresh-picked flower from my 3 year old yesterday at preschool. As he handed me the dandelion, he beamed, "I picked a daisy for you!" (Daisies are my favorite)
"It's beautiful," I gushed, "Thank you!"
On the way home, he pointed out all the houses that had beautiful daisies in their yard. "We don't have any daisies in our yard. We should plant some!"he said.
Yeah. Daddy would be thrilled!!

Got my first official writing job today!

Yay!! While Coop was at preschool, I was chatting with the editor for MomTalk.com and receiving my first official deadline as a contributor to their site. I also get to link back to my travel site to help increase my profile. (I also have a friend working on a mom-site that she's asked me to write on, but it's still in beta testing so I can't share the name yet.) So, if these keep up, I'll have my site and 2 mom-sites I'm writing for. Very exciting!!! The nice thing about the mom-sites is that they're run by moms, so they get the whole lack of schedule thing. I'll let you know when I get my article submitted and published.

Plus, last week I received my first payout from the ads on my travel site! So, my goal of being paid for my writing by my 40th birthday has been reached. And my goal of having an assigned article has now been reached. Now, let's just keep it rollin'!!

My 3 year old can read

I had to bring my 3 and a half year old son with me to my doctor appointment, so I brought some things for him to do during my exam. I brought a dot-to-dot book and a few books for him to read.
I know he can read, he started sounding out words at 2-1/2. By 3-yrs old, he had mastered silent e and was working on vowel teams. He now understands punctuation and how it tells you how to say the sentence. Exlamation points are his favorite. This is no shock to me.
It was, however, quite a shock to our family doctor. She abandoned my exam to gush over his reading skills. She said he's reading at a first grade level... at 3-1/2! Her son is in kindergarten and is an advanced reader, she said. Then added that my son is reading the same level books that her son is... and her son is 5. She kept gushing... "He's gifted! Really! He is! You should look into programs for him."
Of course, I'm proud as a peacock, even though this is not my doing. My son has always been interested in letters... how they sound, and how they work together. My job is to keep it fun for him. We play I-SPY with sight words in a story. I buy books about bugs, Spongebob, and gross body functions... stuff boys like. I'm super-enthusiastic when he gets it right.
I'm a very proud mama today!