Part 4: A step by step of my WP to blogger switch

• 5/14: Why I decided to make the blogger to WP leap.
• 5/15: WP themes, hosting options and costs (I am using blue host.)
• 5/16: The blog design process with Kira (She just opened Primp my Blog for all your design needs!)
• 5/17: A step by step of my WP to blogger switch
• 5/18: Advice for a new blogger thinking about switching to WPI wanted to give you a general timeline of how the Blogger to Word Press switch goes down. This is what I did, obviously, this is not the only way (or even the right/best way!)

1. Make the decision to switch. This took me about a year!

2. Decide on a web server (or host). Way too many details here. (I am using blue host)

3. Install WP to your new server. (This should be a 5 minute step, although in the end, I did not do it right, and Suhas from blogger2wordpress did it for me.)

4. Import your blogger blog to word press. Depending on the size of your blog this takes about 5-20 minutes. Suhas ended up re-doing this for me too, and he did not loose any posts or comments! The first time I attempted the import this happened…

1. WP has to be installed to upload themes. Your next step should be to choose a theme. I choose Suffusion. You can see lots more on that here.

2. Find someone to help you with your custom graphics (see our process here). I highly recommend Kira from Primp my Blog for all your design needs!

3. Install your custom graphics and build your site. Suffusion makes this easy.

4. At this point, I made a post on the old C.R.A.F.T. to let folks know that my Google Friends Connect was about to go away, and gave other options to follow C.R.A.F.T. This was the saddest part of the switch for me.

5. Once your site looks how you want it to look, it’s time to Redirect your blog to the new Word Press site! This is when I got really nervous, and decided to find help. Suhas was wonderful. He was speedy and patient. Like I said above, he ended up re-installing Word Press to my server and re importing my blog. He charges $100. Totally. worth. it.

6. Since he re-installed Word Press, I had to re-install the site. It was a good exercise for me… ha! It didn’t take me nearly as long the second time around, and least I knew it was all done correctly!

7. Update your nameservers. This is the official thing that will make people able to view your new Word Press blog! Log in to your godaddy account (or whoever you bought your url from) and set your new nameservers to your new host. Call GoDaddy. They’re nice and will tell you what to do. *While you’re in your GoDaddy account, make sure you home address is not listed in your contact info. You don’t want your home address and phone number showing up in whois.com. Your e-mail, address, and phone number (change some digits!) are public information.  See:

1. Changing your name servers is easy, but allowing the nameservers time to make the change takes foreeever. and is totally out of your control. Basically,  different regions of the world will be able to see your new site at different times.

2. The last thing official thing I had to do was clear my browser history. The fancy word for this is cache. Here are directions for that. It’s easy-ish. You can do it!

3. Add some plugins and get ready for a speedy learning curve!

The one thing I wanted to know before I started was how much does it cost? Here’s the breakdown:

• Hosting: $178.20 for 3 years (59.40 per year)
• Custom graphics: $64.00
• Migration: $100.00

Total cost $342.20
Did you know you had to do all of this stuff to make the Word Press switch? Are you thinking about making the switch? I hope I made the process seem fairly simple, and I really hope that you decide to make the leap and join us in the Word Press world!