Moving to WordPress: First Steps

Hey, friends!  Since moving to WordPress, I’ve been contacted by lots of other bloggers who have questions about my experience and are considering making a move themselves. I thought it might be helpful to share with you exactly what you need to do if you’re thinking of taking the plunge.

1. Find and hire someone you trust.

At first, I wanted to be as cheap as possible and thought I could figure out how to do it all myself.  Maybe with enough time and energy, I could have, but it would have taken me ten times as long and I’d have had a hundred times more stress.  Think about it, girls…if you’re making the move, it’s probably because you really want to take this “my blog is my job” thing seriously.  Your blog is like your baby.  It’s a huge deal.  Do you really want to be responsible for the process if you don’t know 100% what you’re doing?  I found Laura Summers, my go-to-girl, when she spoke at an Online Blogging Conference I attended through The Blog Workshop.  She handled all the details for me and made the move go extremely smoothly.  Once my content and domain were transferred, I got to play around {I’m still in the process, actually} and tweak things and make it the way I wanted it to be, but Laura did the “dirty work” behind the scenes that I wasn’t equipped for. She put me at ease and had everything under control.  Find someone you trust and let them put you at ease too. If you’re interested in talking with Laura, I’d be happy to give you her contact information, as I can recommend her wholeheartedly.

2. Choose a theme you love.

My first job after Laura and I decided to work together was to find what theme I wanted to use.  This can be ridiculously overwhelming because there are SO. MANY. OPTIONS.  I belong to several Facebook groups with other bloggers and I asked the gals in one of them what themes they personally had just so I could see what the themes looked like when they were customized with my friends’ logos and colors {I have a hard time visualizing that on a template}. I found {and was provided with} my theme at Creative Market.  I’ve been a fan of Creative Market for awhile now and downloaded some of their fonts and graphics, so it seemed like a natural place to look when I wanted to find a theme.  My friend Carrie had suggested looking at themes by BlueChic Designs, and when I did, I immediately fell in love with “Sally Store.” The colors were the same as the ones I’ve been using since I began One Artsy Mama, and it had a fun whimsical feel. There are tons of options out there; some are elegant, some are sophisticated, some are funky, some are very plain. It all depends on which one feels right for you.  Creative Market has a great variety to choose from, and there’s even a place to ask questions where the designers can respond. Once you make your choice and purchase it, you can send the files directly to the wonderful person you hired, who will take care of installing it.

3. Choose a date.

On the day when you make the switch, there will be a period of several hours where you can’t produce any new content, plus it may take you a day or so after you’re in your new “home” to get comfortable and start publishing again.  So, don’t schedule your move the day before a sponsored post is due or right in the middle of a big event on your blog.  I knew I wanted to move more than a month ago, but waited until One Crafty Contest was over.  I also purposely chose to move on a Friday so I had all weekend to work out any kinks, and I didn’t schedule any sponsored posts until the following Wednesday so I knew I wouldn’t miss any deadlines.

4. Play around in WordPress

Composing and scheduling posts and setting up widgets in WordPress isn’t hard, but it is a different platform than Blogger, so there’s a learning curve.  If you get a chance to play around in WordPress before you switch, it will make it that much easier to move forward once you’re in your new “home.” Ask a friend who has WP if they can set you up with a login so you can play around with drafting a post.  Before switching, I had used WP for my contributor posts on Lots of Buttons and Somewhat Simple, so I already had an idea of where things were, which was really helpful.

Those are the first steps you’ll want to take if you’re going to make the move!  Once you get there, there’s plenty more to do, but we’ll talk about that another day! 🙂  I know when I was considering moving, I felt like the whole process was this big, fuzzy, muddled question mark, so I hope this gives you a clear picture of what the first part of the process looks like.  If you have any questions for me about my experience, feel free to leave them here or send me an email at dancers4life{at}gmail{dot}com.  I’d love to help walk you through the process!

Hugs & Glitter,

Disclosure: I was provided with my theme by Creative Market.  All opinions are 100% my own.