My domain and site transitions began with TheLovelyCurves.Com, but then I bought BeautieNerd.Com. I had all of my stuff there, but it seemed too impersonal, so I moved everything to nicoleisms.net (on blogger), a domain I bought a while ago.

Move your posts

Now, I think there is a way to export WordPress posts into a Blogger blog. The way I imagine it would be done is: In WordPress, go to Tools > Export. Then, use this app to make the export file usable on Blogger.  Then, go into your Blogger dashboard and under Settings > Basics press ‘Import Blog’. That should be it!

I only had a few posts I wanted to move over, so I did that manually.

ProTip: Windows Live Writer is great for writing blogger posts!

Custom Domains

If you’re going to be moving all of your posts over, all you have to do is set up your custom domain with blogger. Here are a few tutorials I used.

How do I use a custom domain name for my blog?

Custom domains simplified

WWW. and Naked Domains

Just wait a few, and your domain should work! If it doesn’t, revert back to the you.blogger.com and redo the addition of the custom blog.

What about my old domain?

To avoid losing my links, I wanted my old domain to forward to my new one. I thought it would be as easy as going into GoDaddy and forwarding it, but it wasn’t. If you do that, then your posts will get 404′s. Let me explain. If I have a post like this: oldomain.com/some-post, and I want to to forward to www.newdomain.com, GoDaddy will send it to www.newdomain.com/some-post, but some-post doesn’t exist! How do we fix this?

If your blog is small, there is hope! This is what I did: I made sure my old blog worked, and went into my old WP admin. I added a plugin named Page Links To. For the few posts thatI did move over, I copied that URL into the little blox that the plugin made.

So, now oldomain.com/copied-post will forward to www.newdomain.com/copied-post.

Any post that I didn’t copy over, I just wrote my new domain in the URL box. So, oldomain.com/non-copied-post will forward to www.newdomain.com!

To finish it off, I went into Settings > Reading and changed my front page display to a new page I made, entitled ‘Home’. Guess what I’m putting in the URL box?

This leaves us with a SEO friendly forwarding of an old domain to a new one, and the WP-admin is still accessible! Yay! I did all this over the course of a few frustrating hours, but it all worked in the end.

If you have any questions, or I forgot something, let me know!

When I did my research on InMotion when I was looking for a new web host a few weeks ago, I was not able to find one negative thing about these guys. After going over my options, I took the dive and went for InMotion.  The sign up process was fast and easy, even for a beginner. All of the options are evident and you know exactly what you’re paying for. I have never seen an ordering process this straightforward!

99% of the time, you get a welcome email with account info when you order a hosting account . Most of the time they are the same tedious email, buy with InMotion hosting, I found the welcome email to be very thorough, well organized and jam packed with more information than I know how to do with. To be honest, I see a lot of hosts that just throw you your account information, which can be very non-newbie friendly. Although I knew what I was doing, I feel that here, things seem to be more newbie friendly and easy!

In the few weeks that I have had two of my sites with InMotion, I have experienced superior uptime and am thoroughly enjoying the great features they have to offer. Among them are: Reliable Backups (Weekly or Daily), cPanel, Multiple levels of hosting when your sites grow, money back guarantee and so much more. With hosting starting at $5.95 a month, you really can’t go wrong.

You may have had experiences with shady hosts, feeling uncomfortable about using their servers  - because I know I have. At InMotion, I feel safe. I know my data is secure. I don’t have to worry about downtime or compromised security; instead I have a peace of mind that is unsurpassed.

I was recently reading an article (I like to read on my kindle, there is a chrome extension that lets me send posts to my kindle for reading. The computer screen just doesn’t do it. This is another one of the reasons that I prefer chrome to firefox.) that mentioned using GoDaddy as a blogging system. What? GoDaddy? I had to read it over to make sure I wasn’t missing something. I guess I can’t blame them – GoDaddy can be very convincing to unsuspecting folk. In my opinion, the only thing worth using them for would be domain registration. Actually, I prefer GoDaddy for domains than anyone else. But other than that, I’d avoid it like the plague for web hosting and such.
 

I guess people out there are intimidated by such a powerful machine. Perhaps others use other CMS’s that they like more. Whatever the reason may be, the question here is, can you – or anyone, miss out on the great things WordPress has to offer by not using it?
 

Let us know what you think – I’d love to hear your opinion.

Descriptive and Formatted Post Titles

Post Titles are the most important thing in a blog post. It’s the very first thing that a reader sees and with your title, you need to draw in your readers to make them want to stay and read your post. You need to make that person click on your title! If not, then no one will ever get to your blog. For example, which headline wold you be more atttacted to? This, ‘how to get readers‘ or ‘15 Sure-Fire Ways to Attract Readers‘? Check out these articles on writing better headlines:

9 Proven Headline Formulas That Sell Like Crazy

65 Exciting Words to Spice up Your Blog Headlines

Why Some People Almost Always Write Great Post Titles

Images and Post Formatting

When reading an article, the impending doom starts to set in once I see long paragraph after long paragraph without breaks. The text may be interesting and informative, but there are definitely ’sighs’ along the way. Some people don’t even take another glance if they see lots of text. Try breaking it up with images here and there. Other than images, frequent like breaks and formatting really do help. I’m talking about headings, bolded words, italics, that sort of thing.

Use Your Voice

When you write, make sure to keep a piece of you in your writing. Blogging is not like essay writing in the least. As a freedom from such tedious tasks, blogging helps you release your voice. Write as if you were speaking. That doesn’t mean use slang and obnoxious things, but things should be kept casual. Here, no one is checking for big words and transition words or theses.

5 ways to set your unique blogging voice apart
5 Ways to Build Your Blog’s Voice

Keep Your Readers In Mind

When writing, keep your reader in mind. Who are you writing to? Kids? Teens? Adults? Your writing should be appropriate. When writing with adults in mind for instance, don’t use simple talk. Or, think about what they would like to see. Who is your audience? You need to revolve your blog design and posts around them. After all, its your readers that can make or break your blog. You need to keep them coming back, keep them interested. Give them a reason to stay.

The Art of Writing Damn Good Blogs

Grammar and Spelling

Although the blogosphere is your oyster, its bad practice to publish a post with grammar and spelling errors. Yes, I have done it before too, but I have learned that it’s best to get posts proofread. That way, someone else can catch errors that I have overlooked. Most browsers and blog platforms have spell check, use it! If you have mistakes in your writing, people can see you as inexperienced and unprofessional. Now, I know that some bloggers first language is not English, so people reading their writing would be able to nitpick at grammatical errors. In this case, its crucial to have someone else proofread your work. This is in the best interest of your readers. You want to make it as clear as possible. If they have a hard time reading, then they won’t want to come back, or may look at you harshly.

5 Tips for Blogging in English

That’s all for now! I hope that you were able to learn something, I know I did! Does anyone else want to add to this list? Are there any methods that you are using in your blog posts?

Rooeh.net

Rooeh.net is ran by Roo (no surprise there) who has created herself a blogging empire at only age 18.  She is a prime example of a great execution and determination in teen blogging.

Her History: I first started to learn how to code when I was six and Neopets (does anyone still remember that?) was all the rage. My friend showed me how to change my user lookup with a few lines of simple code and from that point on I was fascinated with the idea of creating beautiful layouts with only the use of a keyboard and mouse.

It’s been 12 years now and my designs have changed greatly, so much that I can’t even recognize some of my earlier layouts. Currently, I’m focused on promoting my boutique of handmade accessories, Studio Rooeh, which is a project that grew out of my love of reading other crafters’ blogs.

Words of Wisdom: My advice to all those reading this is very cliché – Be yourself, and don’t stop trying! No one starts out knowing everything. It takes years of practice to hone your coding skills, build up self confidence, and gather a following of subscribers. Don’t be discouraged by whatever critiques you may receive, however, don’t turn a deaf ear to them either. The key to success is knowing how to use people’s criticisms in order to better yourself!

So there you go!

What more of inspiration could you need?  Find you niche in the internet world and don’t give up on it.  Being a blogger is one of the ultimate hobbies anybody could do and being a teenager in the internet world only adds more difficulty to sticking to the hobby.  If you can push through the wall that stops most enthusiast in their tracks, you can accomplish a lot and add a lot of experience into your portfolio.  Hey, you can even meet some mentors and friends along the way!

What can you do?

Blogger

Bloggers here would be able to contribute 1 to 3 posts a month, on their own time. You get links back on the posts you write, on a staff page and as a link exchange. You also would be able to reference what you write in a portfolio and get your work published!

Areas of interest:

• Tutorials (Photoshop, HTML/CSS)
• Inspiration Posts
• Resource posts (Roundups)
• Articles
• Photography (How-To’s)
• Craft Articles (or anything creative)
• (We would also be looking for people to submit resources, like graphics, layouts, etc)

Site Helper

Anyone with a few minutes to spare can be a site helper! This is what we would like!

• Submit posts to Social Network sites (RT’s etc)
• Be active in the forums
• Suggest how we can do things better around here
• Or just link to us on your site!

If you think that you can be a part of this team, then we would love to have you! You can contact us with this form, or leave a comment below! You can even get in touch with us if you have any ideas or questions! I can’t wait to start building a team! Thanks everyone!

Oh, one more thing. I am looking into offering service hours for your time. No, not all of you need them and some of you may not know what they are, but some of you do. For example, in my school we need  a certain amount of volunteer hours to graduate. Again, I’m looking into it, so it may be a possibility!

Edit:

Thanks Jared for reminding me! If you can’t become part of the team, you could guest post! Guest posting is at your leisure, and we never pressure you to get things done fast. It’s all when you can! Well, you can drop us a line for that or take a look at  our guest posting page.

An example of someone doing this right is Glen from ViperChill. ViperChill is a blog that he runs, soley dedicated to helping and informing his readers on viral marketing – you know, building your blog, making money with your blog. Glen isn’t out there for the money – you will find NO ads on his site,  just content. But he still gives readers the options to stay updated, because he blogs for his readers.

After all, that’s the reason you blog – to share your thoughts with people. So, regardless if your blog has three readers or three thousand, make sure that you give them some kind of option to stay updated. That was my two cents, how about yours?

Some Advantages:

…And plenty more. WordPress proves to be flexible and easy to work with, wherever your a serious n00b or a PHP Expert. So if your looking for an easy and great software for your blog, WP is one great way to go!

What’s your favorite CMS/Blogging Engine? Do you use WordPress?

Amy – $5 via PayPal

Enoma & Michelle – Advertising

In case you were wondering, I used Random.Org, even for the few people that entered. I’ll be emailing winners asking for info soon. Sit tight!

In case you were wondering about the title, I’ve written a post over at Tomorrow’s Web! It’s called “Why Women and Girls are Under-Represented in the Design Industry“. Click here to read it!