BLOGBloke: Blog Hosting for only $10/Year: Blokester Blowout
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
That's a fantastic deal. Do you know if it stays at $10 for year two, or does it revert to full price?
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
Yes I believe it is. They also have a 1-800 number you can call.
Mike @ Twenty Steps
· 2 years ago
I read through the T&C;'s and you get the $10 a year deal for life. Hurry up, though, as there are only 9 packages left!
Glad you went with the deal, BB. It really was too good to miss, eh? If you need a hand setting up WP, let me know and if I can I'll try to help out.
P.S. The new Blogger commenting system reeeealllly sucks!
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
As of today there are only 3 packages left. Better grab one now or they will all be gone. Thanks again for the tip Mike.
Debbie Dolphin
· 2 years ago
Seems like a great deal for PC users. Still having problems locating a great deal for iMac users who want to try WordPress.net before they buy a hosting service!
In the meantime, my Blogger Blog has been successfully transferred to WordPress.com. I am very very impressed with the quick learning curve after the initial setback (8 hours to find a solution) and another 8 hours to learn about the Dashboard features, transfer posts, publish a new post, etc.
Next on my list is the unbelievable tedious task of checking and fixing the internal links in all posts. Who said this switch was going to be easy? I hope that fixing links will be the end of the transfer process?
I was amazed to read this shocking tip: "Please don’t ever completely delete your old blog. Urls formerly used as blogs are frequently snapped up by p*rn sites who catch unsupsecting visitors, surfing in on old links from your friends and readers." Looks like another mess that has escaped the All Seeing Eye of Google???
For now, I am writing posts on both blogs until I discover how to keep my traffic and google juice. So far, everything found on this is as clear as mud! Another issue is redirecting RSS subscriptions.
Debbie Dolphin is also Broadcasting her Blog at New England Lighthouse Treasures! For laughs, will two identical Blogs improve or confuse my Google juice?
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
Debbie, be careful 'cause running two identical blogs will dilute your pagerank.
Also, the operating system used by the hosting service is irrelevant to what you are running on your own computer. So go for it girl.
Debbie Dolphin
· 2 years ago
It was confusing when I saw the Bluefur Toolbar was only available for Windows and could not find anything at their web-site to clearly state their WordPress works with all operating systems. I am in a holding pattern waiting for a call back from their customer service dept. because I also need to know if their WordPress dashboard is the same as WordPress.com and if all Blogger Posts can be transferred automatically.
I knew there was a potential for taking a hit on the Google Page rank in the short term while checking WordPress features but in the long run with so many WordPress benefits the Google Page rank might be become better than Blogger.
Another a key advantage is my WordPress Blog loads 8 times faster than Blogger! Blogger @ 87.4-sec. versus WordPress @ 10.6 sec. for 56k modems.
Html Size Blogger 145 Kb WordPress 1.8 Kb Total Size Blogger 387 Kb WordPress 45 Kb
For visitors to my Blogger Blog, they need at least a T1 line for the Blog to load in 10.5 seconds!
Another benefit I discovered is WordPress XHTML is VALID! Are you listening, Google???
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
This will be confusing at first but before you know it, it will be like riding a bicycle.
The WP dashboard will be similar to the one you are currently using. There will be more options available, like for example the ability to change your code and add more plugins. They will also give you support in setting up your blog.
So far I'm impressed with the service.
Kathy Frederick
· 2 years ago
I'm writing to report I'm officially on WordPress. It was a nightmare migrating. It would be too much to explain here, but I did want to mention that while I do not intend to delete my Blogger blog, I did at least initiate a request to stop indexing that blog. I hope this was an adequate and appropriate response to the question "What to do with the Blogger blog."
I had a scare with my RSS feeds today, but someone helped me figure that out. I panicked because no one could access my newest feed items until I changed it at Feedburner. Also, I changed something in Blogger, too. I'm sorry I can't be more specific. My head is spinning and I don't know which way is up.
Anyway, I'm mostly done now. I just have to "pretty up" my new WordPress theme and stick my picture up there. It was hilarious when people asked me "Where's your picture?" as though they don't already know what I look like. I think having my picture there branded my blog in a way, and people are demanding it back! Kind of a cool thing to happen in the midst of my misery.
OK, I'll shut up now.
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
Congratulations Kathy. I'm still tinkering with my new theme, but my impression is I think I'm gonna like Wordpress.
Debbie Dolphin
· 2 years ago
For fun, my Blog has three locations! (at Blogger, WordPress.com, and at BlueFur.com) --- talk about backing up a blog!
For now, WordPress.com was made private until I can determine how to safely delete the blog so phishing p*rn sites are unable to use the link.
Missed the $10 special by $10...fortunately, both Bloke and Bluefur answered my concerns first before diving in.
I needed extra help to get the theme uploaded. There are some features that need to be changed in the theme's heading...hopefully, the theme author can help but....
At BlueFur.com, the Theme editor claims the style.css file is not writable therefore it can't be edited. Nor can I find the HTML file to edit anywhere. My goal is to remove the header link that over-writes the header image.
Another bizarre issue is my theme isn't widget-aware because there are no sidebars that can changed. Huh? If the right column with the Blogroll, archives, etc. isn't a sidebar than what is it?
Were you able to import your Blogger posts automatically?
Debbie Dolphin
· 2 years ago
Header Image Link Overwrite solved with a lot of help from a friend... we found the needle in the haystack of Mike's code!
Thankfully, the Migration Mission was easily completed using these steps 1. Automatically Import Blogger to a WordPress.com Blog 2. Export WordPress.com to a xml file 3. Import xml file to WordPress at BlueFur
For reasons unknown, Blogger does not migrate directly to WordPress at BlueFur. Hopefully, this tip will help new WordPress Patriots?
Still need to redirect all internal links and change Google Juice. With any luck, Blogger will be a history Blog next week?
Hopefully, my trial by fire will help others sail the sea of transition smoother.
I know after everything is setup, WordPress seems to be a Blogging Breeze to use when writing or editing posts!
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
Yeah, I'm really liking Wordpress too.
I've also notice the overwrite block on editing my code. How did you overcome it? I've been modifying the code on my hard drive and then uploading it.
By the way, widget-ready themes depend on the template, not BlueFur. Migrating directly to BlueFur will probably require a plugin for that. But your way will also work because Wordpress.com already has the plugin.
Debbie Dolphin
· 2 years ago
I hope your Overwrite block is in the Header image? If so, open the header.php file
Locate this line: -h1- -a href="-?php echo get_settings('home'); ?-"--?php bloginfo('name'); ?--/a--/h1-
which is the Home Link address of the Blog --- change the line to: -h1--a href="-?php echo get_settings('home'); ?>"--/a--/h1-
And, the line could be deleted as well... We left the address code in for reference in case I decide to change the Header image later and need to reuse the link address.
Note: I needed to change some code characters to trick Blogger into accepting the PHP code! -------------------
We learned the hard way of changing the code from my hard drive and uploading the files. After considering adding some widgets, I decided that I can live without them for three reasons:
1. my Blog loads so fast without them compared to a random Blog that was bogged down by 7 widgets.
2. do we want readers to be distracted with so many widgets when they visited our blog to read our content?
3. Besides me, I received positive feedback about the Sapphire Theme and layout from some Blogging Buddies!
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
ALL of my code is locked out. It must be an issue with BlueFur. I shall give them a call tomorrow.
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
Ah, I should have known better. It's simply a matter of changing the file permissions in the cPanel. You can read more about it here.
If everyone knew how much more reliable WordPress is, than Blogger would have never succeeded in the hearts and minds of Bloggers!
Can we hear an Amen, Google?
PS. has anyone found a good source explaining how to redirect links and traffic?
Kathy Frederick
· 2 years ago
Unfortunately, I was unable to redirect my links properly. So anywhere my links are shown as junkdrawerblog.com\post title.html, they're broken. I have to live with it. Nothing I can do. I feel, in that regard, that I'm starting over. But I still don't have regrets about changing to WordPress, difficult as it was. I'm just so thrilled to be concentrating on my writing again!
My latest issue is with OpenID. I know I'm using the correct OpenID URL for my blog, but I'm getting a rejection whenever I try to use it on a Blogger blog, like right now. ARGGGHH!!!
Kathy Frederick
· 2 years ago
Oops. Sorry. Just realized my mistake with OpenID. In order to make my blog's URL my OpenID, I have to add code to my new WordPress template. When my URL worked before, it was because I was still with Blogger. D'oh!
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
Kathy, check out this post about maintaining your links and google juice:
But I am not sure if I have total redirection lift off?
Unfortunately, changing my permalinks to /index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.htm did not work.
http://www.clazh.com/move-from-blogger-to-wordpress-and-maintain-permalinks-and-traffic/ never explained how to update your .htaccess now. So, I restored the default setting to restore my post permalinks. And, now my Technorati tags point to http://nelighthouse.wordpress.com not http://lighthousestars.com/
Is there a easy solution to point my Technorati tags back to my domain? And, I am not sure Technorati tags are mission critical since they have not tagged my posts since September and have not responded to any of my eMails.
PS. Google does it again with OpenID failing after the switch to my new domain!
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
You will have to make your .htaccess file writable by changing the file permissions in your CPanel. Read here:
WordPress Mission Control reports New England Lighthouse Treasures has completely left the launching pad of Blogger with a slight course correction heading to the new Frontiers of WordPress!
PS. Now I understand why WordPress Bloggers are very frustrated with Google's OpenID! This is the second time I received a "Incorrect OpenID url" message after entering the Sign-in using WordPress and Blog Name: http://lighthousestars.com/. (And, this was tried both before and after signing into my OpenID account!)
I need to Sign-in to my old Blogger account to post my comment on any Blogger Blog.
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
You are most welcome Debbie... Houston out.
Kathy Frederick
· 2 years ago
Bloke -- I think I should still worry about OpenID after moving to WordPress. Whenever I leave a link on a Blogger blog, I want it to point directly to my own blog, not my Google profile, right? I know I need to add code to my new WordPress template, so I can use my OpenID when leaving a comment on Blogger. Don't know how to do that.
Also, I'm afraid to mess with my link formats now. I'm afraid I'll screw something up since I've bothered to go back and change the format of each link within my blog. Not sure if I fully understand the problem and solution. I guess it's like this: I have many posts in my blog that contain links to other posts within my blog. When I migrated over, those internal links were still showing up as title-formatted. I had to change all of them to p=XXX formatted. But any post that's floating around with a title-format (BloggingZoom, StumbleUpon, etc) is broken. Is there a way to fix those, so they point to my new p=xxx formatted post? I'm sorry if I'm not making sense.
Kathy Frederick
· 2 years ago
Bloke -- Quick update. I was able to change my permalink structure in WordPress so that links no longer break. I used the custom structure, /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html. After I made this change, most of the posts began working again. Not sure why some didn't. I might have to manually modify their post slug or something. The important thing is most of them DID work, so I'm a happy camper today!
blogbloke
· 2 years ago
Kathy, from an SEO perspective just using the /%postname%/ like I mentioned above is best. I'm still not sure what your concerns are over OpenID. All you need is to be logged into your Wordpress account like I've done here.
Kathy Frederick
· 2 years ago
Bloke, I can't use my WordPress login because I haven't set up delegation on my site, so that I can leave http://www.junkdrawerblog.com in the nickname field (or using the OpenID login). When I choose WordPress, it fails when I try to put my blog's address in the Blog Name field. (Incorrect OpenID url). Is that WordPress field referring only to wordpress.com users?
Blog Bloke
· 2 years ago
My tests also default to Wordpress.com so I recommend using OpenID for Blogger blogs.
Blog Comment Poster
· 2 years ago
This comment was posted automatically using Blog Comment Poster. Check out its site to learn more and start building backlinks to your websites today.
Mike
· 1 year ago
Kathy - What sort of permalink problems are you experiencing? I tried to figure it out from your previous comments but got a little lost :( I'll see if I can help out.
premier secured
· 1 year ago
hello, nice site!
unlimited hosting
· 7 months ago
Great stuff. Nice to read some well written posts. A long way between them.
All Comments
Glad you went with the deal, BB. It really was too good to miss, eh? If you need a hand setting up WP, let me know and if I can I'll try to help out.
P.S. The new Blogger commenting system reeeealllly sucks!
In the meantime, my Blogger Blog has been successfully transferred to WordPress.com.
I am very very impressed with the quick learning curve after the initial setback (8 hours to find a solution) and another 8 hours to learn about the Dashboard features, transfer posts, publish a new post, etc.
Next on my list is the unbelievable tedious task of checking and fixing the internal links in all posts.
Who said this switch was going to be easy? I hope that fixing links will be the end of the transfer process?
I was amazed to read this shocking tip: "Please don’t ever completely delete your old blog. Urls formerly used as blogs are frequently snapped up by p*rn sites who catch unsupsecting visitors, surfing in on old links from your friends and readers." Looks like another mess that has escaped the All Seeing Eye of Google???
For now, I am writing posts on both blogs until I discover how to keep my traffic and google juice.
So far, everything found on this is as clear as mud! Another issue is redirecting RSS subscriptions.
Debbie Dolphin is also Broadcasting her Blog at New England Lighthouse Treasures! For laughs, will two identical Blogs improve or confuse my Google juice?
Also, the operating system used by the hosting service is irrelevant to what you are running on your own computer. So go for it girl.
I knew there was a potential for taking a hit on the Google Page rank in the short term while checking WordPress features but in the long run with so many WordPress benefits the Google Page rank might be become better than Blogger.
Another a key advantage is my WordPress Blog loads 8 times faster than Blogger!
Blogger @ 87.4-sec. versus WordPress @ 10.6 sec. for 56k modems.
Html Size Blogger 145 Kb WordPress 1.8 Kb
Total Size Blogger 387 Kb WordPress 45 Kb
For visitors to my Blogger Blog, they need at least a T1 line for the Blog to load in 10.5 seconds!
Another benefit I discovered is WordPress XHTML is VALID! Are you listening, Google???
The WP dashboard will be similar to the one you are currently using. There will be more options available, like for example the ability to change your code and add more plugins. They will also give you support in setting up your blog.
So far I'm impressed with the service.
I had a scare with my RSS feeds today, but someone helped me figure that out. I panicked because no one could access my newest feed items until I changed it at Feedburner. Also, I changed something in Blogger, too. I'm sorry I can't be more specific. My head is spinning and I don't know which way is up.
Anyway, I'm mostly done now. I just have to "pretty up" my new WordPress theme and stick my picture up there. It was hilarious when people asked me "Where's your picture?" as though they don't already know what I look like. I think having my picture there branded my blog in a way, and people are demanding it back! Kind of a cool thing to happen in the midst of my misery.
OK, I'll shut up now.
For now, WordPress.com was made private until I can determine how to safely delete the blog so phishing p*rn sites are unable to use the link.
Missed the $10 special by $10...fortunately, both Bloke and Bluefur answered my concerns first before diving in.
I needed extra help to get the theme uploaded. There are some features that need to be changed in the theme's heading...hopefully, the theme author can help but....
At BlueFur.com, the Theme editor claims the style.css file is not writable therefore it can't be edited. Nor can I find the HTML file to edit anywhere. My goal is to remove the header link that over-writes the header image.
Another bizarre issue is my theme isn't widget-aware because there are no sidebars that can changed. Huh? If the right column with the Blogroll, archives, etc. isn't a sidebar than what is it?
Were you able to import your Blogger posts automatically?
Thankfully, the Migration Mission was easily completed using these steps
1. Automatically Import Blogger to a WordPress.com Blog
2. Export WordPress.com to a xml file
3. Import xml file to WordPress at BlueFur
For reasons unknown, Blogger does not migrate directly to WordPress at BlueFur.
Hopefully, this tip will help new WordPress Patriots?
Still need to redirect all internal links and change Google Juice. With any luck, Blogger will be a history Blog next week?
Hopefully, my trial by fire will help others sail the sea of transition smoother.
I know after everything is setup, WordPress seems to be a Blogging Breeze to use when writing or editing posts!
I've also notice the overwrite block on editing my code. How did you overcome it? I've been modifying the code on my hard drive and then uploading it.
By the way, widget-ready themes depend on the template, not BlueFur. Migrating directly to BlueFur will probably require a plugin for that. But your way will also work because Wordpress.com already has the plugin.
If so, open the header.php file
Locate this line: -h1- -a href="-?php echo get_settings('home'); ?-"--?php bloginfo('name'); ?--/a--/h1-
which is the Home Link address of the Blog --- change the line to:
-h1--a href="-?php echo get_settings('home'); ?>"--/a--/h1-
And, the line could be deleted as well... We left the address code in for reference in case I decide to change the Header image later and need to reuse the link address.
Note: I needed to change some code characters to trick Blogger into accepting the PHP code!
-------------------
We learned the hard way of changing the code from my hard drive and uploading the files. After considering adding some widgets, I decided that I can live without them for three reasons:
1. my Blog loads so fast without them compared to a random Blog that was bogged down by 7 widgets.
2. do we want readers to be distracted with so many widgets when they visited our blog to read our content?
3. Besides me, I received positive feedback about the Sapphire Theme and layout from some Blogging Buddies!
http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions
WordPress is a Bloggers' Dream!
If everyone knew how much more reliable WordPress is, than Blogger would have never succeeded in the hearts and minds of Bloggers!
Can we hear an Amen, Google?
PS. has anyone found a good source explaining how to redirect links and traffic?
My latest issue is with OpenID. I know I'm using the correct OpenID URL for my blog, but I'm getting a rejection whenever I try to use it on a Blogger blog, like right now. ARGGGHH!!!
http://www.clazh.com/move-from-blogger-to-wordpress-and-maintain-permalinks-and-traffic/
New England Lighthouse Blog at Blogger
now redirects to
New England Lighthouse Treasures
at my domain: http://lighthousestars.com/
But I am not sure if I have total redirection lift off?
Unfortunately, changing my permalinks to /index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.htm did not work.
http://www.clazh.com/move-from-blogger-to-wordpress-and-maintain-permalinks-and-traffic/ never explained how to update your .htaccess now.
So, I restored the default setting to restore my post permalinks. And, now my Technorati tags point to http://nelighthouse.wordpress.com not http://lighthousestars.com/
Is there a easy solution to point my Technorati tags back to my domain?
And, I am not sure Technorati tags are mission critical since they have not tagged my posts since September and have not responded to any of my eMails.
PS. Google does it again with OpenID failing after the switch to my new domain!
http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions
Then make a custom permalinks like thus:
/%postname%/
Read more here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks
WordPress Mission Control reports New England Lighthouse Treasures has completely left the launching pad of Blogger with a slight course correction heading to the new Frontiers of WordPress!
PS. Now I understand why WordPress Bloggers are very frustrated with Google's OpenID! This is the second time I received a "Incorrect OpenID url" message after entering the Sign-in using WordPress and Blog Name: http://lighthousestars.com/. (And, this was tried both before and after signing into my OpenID account!)
I need to Sign-in to my old Blogger account to post my comment on any Blogger Blog.
Also, I'm afraid to mess with my link formats now. I'm afraid I'll screw something up since I've bothered to go back and change the format of each link within my blog. Not sure if I fully understand the problem and solution. I guess it's like this: I have many posts in my blog that contain links to other posts within my blog. When I migrated over, those internal links were still showing up as title-formatted. I had to change all of them to p=XXX formatted. But any post that's floating around with a title-format (BloggingZoom, StumbleUpon, etc) is broken. Is there a way to fix those, so they point to my new p=xxx formatted post? I'm sorry if I'm not making sense.