WORDPRESS - MOVING BACK TO BLOGGER!

It's nearly driven me to drink!

It's with an aching head and a lot of soul-searching that I've decided to admit defeat and move my blog back to Blogger.

WHY?

• WordPress.com doesn't support a lot of widgets, in particular the Followers widget (can you believe it?) so I have no idea whether anyone is actually following the blog, never mind who they are! So I felt very isolated.

• WordPress is very picky over code. An awful lot of the widgets and customisations I love (scrolling marquees, Amazon lists, Ebay marquees, my Etsy scrolling link) won't work - WP doesn't allow java code etc.

• Videos (YouTube, Vimeo et al) are really difficult to install. More often than not, the link didn't work, so I had to give up on them.

• Customisation: unless I PURCHASE my blog, I can't alter the colour or size of the text. Although WP does allow some customisation, you have to be an expert able to write CSS style sheets to be able to achieve this - and again, I don't think it works unless you buy your blog. I'm self-taught, not an expert, and it really is too complicated for me!

• Full customisation - yes, if you buy one particular template (around £150) and also only if you host your blog yourself, ie: site it on a hosting service, paying an annual fee. Then WP will allow you to put in widgets etc, as we know them... to a point... You'd need to read all the whys and wherefores on WordPress.org (not WordPress.com - they are two separate entities!)

•  Images: yes, they do have a limit. Then you have to pay. Ditto for videos etc. Plus they are difficult to install! Worse than Blogger - you have to set whether you want the pic linked (meaning someone can hot-link your image - so, how secure is that???) plus size, plus position, name etc. And sometimes it opens in another window, sometimes it doesn't (this is sounding awfully familiar...) and sometimes it wants to default into a gallery. Plus it's difficult to get in to edit - I found it easier to delete and start over.

So I'm very disappointed to have to admit defeat. 

I can write a bit of code, I can design and install Blogger backgrounds and coding for numbered comments, signatures et al - but I have to say I've had enough. I've given it a good two week's trial, and it's beyond me!

I've sorted my security issues with Picasa by setting my albums (which I didn't know I had) to Private, and will be using LiveWriter more often (see the Links list below this post to read more).

So I've reimported the posts from Techniques (sent to WP) onto 1stFloorFlat and will be deleting the WP very shortly... after yet another redirect message. I'm so sorry for messing everyone about.

MOVING FROM WORDPRESS TO BLOGGER

Guess what? WP will happily import from Blogger - but isn't so happy about you leaving them. However, I found this really helpful app which does it for you!

Download your WP code to your desktop, then browse for it using the button on the app exactly as shown. Once you've got the code in the window, click Convert and download that to your desktop. Go to Blogger > Settings and click Import Blog, browse for the converted code, hit Enter, and that's it! Simples! 

Here is the link: Wordpress2Blogger.