You might notice that things are looking a little different around here – the reason being that I’ve moved the ol’ blog from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress install. This will allow me to do more with it – some things that will be noticeable to readers, others more back-end in nature – and will eventually allow for more integration with my other sites, like Canadian Beer News.
(This is the second time I’ve moved the damn thing – the first was a move from Blogger to WordPress back in 2007 – and hopefully, it’ll be the last.)
It still needs some tweaking – I haven’t decided if I’m completely happy with the theme, for example – but all of the old content is here, and everything seems to be working the way it should. If you happen to notice anything weird, please let me know.
Just wondering what your motivation was to move from Blogger to WordPress. I use both for different things, but am considering doing something like you… buying a domain, and maybe switching sides (although I’m happy with hosting my beer blog on Blogger for the moment). Cheers!
My main reasons were that I wanted to give the blog its own domain, which is easier to do with blogs hosted on wordpress.com than blogspot.com (or it was in 2007 at least – maybe it’s less arduous on blogspot now); and I was using WordPress for several other blogs/sites I was involved it at the time, and much preferred it to Blogger.
If you have plans to move to your own domain at some point in the future – whether via an aliasing set-up on a blogging service, or on a fully hosted solution – I really recommend making the move to WordPress.
And on a side note – I’m originally from PEI, and most of my family still lives in Summerside. So I’m glad to finally see a beer blogger from the Island, even though I know your selection other there isn’t the best…
Thanks for the reply, fellow Islander! Who would have thought there was that Maritime connection there. Cool. You’re right about the poor selection. It’s part of the reason I started the blog… to expose people I know to the beers I find, and to, hopefully, help to bring a greater demand for good beer on PEI.
As for the blogging… getting a domain through Blogger seems very easy. I chose blogger because I had an easier time with getting and tweaking a template that I liked… plus posting and managing is just less cluttered/busy. Is there anything specific you have found that WordPress does for you that Blogger can’t?
Cheers!
Steve
Well, I’ve barely looked at the Blogger/Blogspot back-end since I moved my blog back in 2007. So it’s quite possible that it’s improved since then. But at the time, I just found WordPress easier to work with and more flexible, with tons of plug-ins, etc. to make it do a lot of different things.
It’s really gone beyond being just blog software to more of a content management system, and also has the advantage that it can be hosted anywhere – i.e. if you buy your own hosting somewhere, you can install it and do a lot more with it than if you run your blog on WordPress.com. I’m not sure if this is an option offered by Blogger now, or if it’s still tied exclusively to Blogspot.
But really, if you’re happy with the Blogger software, don’t need to get into any crazy modifications or plug-ins, and don’t intend to buy hosting, you might as well stick with Blogspot. The fact that you can attach a domain to your blog will probably be sufficient for your needs.