A Quick Question (or Two) for Readers

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Many of you have blogs and have experienced the highs and lows of administrating them.

I’m at a serious crossroads in that I recognize that some of my directory choices for this blog have made it nearly impossible to search by either Technorati or Blogger. Asking questionsBecause of how I structured the blog a few years ago, those search engines are not tracking the blog correctly, failing to find older entries once Blogger has archived them.

What this means is that I’m considering putting the entire blog into one directory within my larger Web site. While this would fix the ability of some searches to find things on the blog, it would break every link ever made here, something I’m loathe to do. It would also displace the main page for the blog, fouling up blogrolls everywhere. More than 180 blogs link here and this would confuse people, even if I do a redirect.

Has anyone moved an established blog along these same lines? What has been your experience? I really don’t want to lose readers, but in the same regard, the blog as it stands isn’t optimally set up. I feel like I’m trying to change my college major with only a semester left till graduation, if you know what I mean. Any advice I could get would be greatly appreciated.

If I do make the move, I’m also thinking about shifting to different blog software, killing two birds with one stone. Since I already have my own Web space/domain and have not been using Blogspot, Blogger has some limitations I’d love to jettison. As a result, I’ve considered graduating to WordPress, but have been stymied by their supposed “Legendary 5 Minute Installation.” (I can tell you one thing, the folks behind WordPress should talk to Apple about ease-of-use issues because they have a ton of them regarding getting started!) Any comments on the use of WordPress would also be helpful.

Thanks!

13 thoughts on “A Quick Question (or Two) for Readers

  1. If you can move away from Blogger, that is probably a good thing. There isn’t much point in using it when you’ve got your own web space. WordPress, Movabletype and the like will give you a lot more options. I’ve been playing with the new kid on the block, TextPattern, and have been impressed with it’s capabilities, and especially it’s WYSIWYG interface.

    As you said, you’ll have issues with Trackbacks and the search engines will take a couple of weeks to figure out what’s going on, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

    And if you’d like help installing WordPress, I can usually do it within the 5 minutes…

  2. Tim (et al.),

    After getting all these MySQL errors—my main complaint—my ISP just told me that for my $14.95 a month Webhosting, I don’t have MySQL functionality. So I’ve been banging my head against the wall for weeks for nothing.

    This revelation does not make me happy. Especially since I’ve been a customer for almost nine years. I don’t think I am prepared to pay even more than I already am (my 2-way satellite Internet connection runs a whopping $69 a month, but will not host my site.) So I’m already paying almost $85 a month for what I’ve got. Oh well, I guess I’m stuck on blogger unless there’s a non-MySQL option for me out there. Anyone?

    Thanks.

  3. Rick Creech

    My advice, move hosts. There are too many hosts that offer low priced solutions out there. Also, MySQL should be standard anymore. I use wordpress and I love it. Have you ever thought about leaving your blog where you have it for link purposes, and then starting a new one where you want it, and then transfer your old stuff to the new one. This would leave your current site as an archive only. I don’t know, anyway you look at it, it won’t be easy 🙂

  4. Well, I was going to suggest mod_rewrite, but if you’re hosted you may have some trouble getting that done. It’s something to suggest to your hosting service, though.

  5. brian

    Ugghhh, I feel for you.

    I think you just have to take the plunge, figure out which solution is best for you and go for it. It will be painful but if you plan to keep this up for a while it will be worth it. And like Rick said, you can always leave this one up for archive purposes.

    Now, my 2 cents on hosts and blog software :

    – I run Moveable Type right now but just got through installing WordPress to play with. WP was a way easier install. I did it in about 15 minutes and most of that was setting up a new database.

    – 14.95 is a heck of a lot to pay with no MySQL databases. I pay a little more than that per month and get 8 databases and the ability to host up to 8 domains. If you decide to switch, I can make a few recommendations.

    Hope you get everything straightened out!

  6. Brian,

    Recommend away!

    I was looking at Site5 earlier this evening and they looked promising. Lots of nice scripts for doing things automatically—like installing WordPress. I’d love to get a domain up for my writing biz, too. And earlier this year I was experimenting with a new design for this blog (oh, the pain of it! Knowing what I wanted to do and having no CSS or XML skills to implement it—and no cash, either. Sorry, Tim!)

  7. I have been going through Globalcon for a few years and have been very happy with the price and the service. My questions are answered quickly and my requests are met (within reason) quickly as well.

    The Standard plan will set you back 9.99 a month, and it does include the domain name transfer. The plans they have are here. If you ask them about their service and Reyner responds, tell him “Hi” from CoffeeSwirls!

  8. brian

    Dan,

    Fluid Hosting is my current host and I cannot recommend them highly enough. I had some bad ones before but I can see myself staying with these guys for a while. They are a little more expensive than your $5.95, unlimited everything, “budget” host but make up for it in outstanding customer service.

    Some other hosts that I can’t vouch for personally but which come recommended are iPowerWeb, United Hosting, and Lunar Pages.

    Site5 seems ok from looking at their page, but I haven’t heard of them before. You can peruse the forums over at Web Hosting Talk or Host Hideout to try to get some information.

    Oh, I just remembered that Joe Missionary just switched from Blogspot to Living Dot who specialize in blog hosting. You might drop him a note to see how that went.

  9. To everyone who’s posted about this:

    Thanks!

    I appreciate all this info and I’m following up on them all.

    I really loathe moving things, but I can tell I’ve outgrown my host.

    I’m looking for a host that is Mac/Windows/Linux friendly because I use all three. That is proving harder to find, so I’ll look at what you have given me and keep on checking this issue out.

  10. Candleman98,

    Wow! ICDSoft looks really good. For $10/month you get an extraordinary amount of options. The consensus is their tech support is outstanding. Nothing but good things said about them in other areas, too. My only qualm is that their servers are in Hong Kong. Don’t know how I feel about that.

  11. candleman

    Dan,

    Last time I got space for a client, you had the option of Hong Kong or servers State side..although I can’t remember exactly where they are. I have been extremly happy with them, and since I am familar with their control panel and setting up MySQL databases using their system, I may be able to help with that somewhat.

    PS Can you email me your email address privately…Mine is swr1@rcn.com I want to run something by you about a book my wife and her foster father are writing. You can get a feel for it here. Just wanted to “pick your brain” so to speak, about where to go to get something like this professionally written and published.

    Thanks!

    {{{Candleman}}}

  12. I use ViUX Hosting to host my site who charge $4.95 per month, it’s hosted on Windows, but they support PHP and ASP. I’ve found them pretty good for hosting, and the technical support options are good including liveChat – which I found very helpful (The package I’m on is their starter pack). I did wonder about moving my blog to WordPress or similar – and I got it set up quite easily, but then decided to stick with my own homegrown custom system, as it was easier to adapt!

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