As you all know, I just recently moved from Blogger to WordPress. I have to say my thoughts the first week using it are very favorable. I love the new look of my site. I also love the widgets (yes, I’ve been up late searching through the vast options out there), and I just love learning something new in general. If you are afraid to take the leap because of the learning curve, do not worry. It’s not that difficult. It’s just different. I thought I would be moving over and needing to learn more HTML coding (although I do want to learn more of that), but that’s not the case. The widgets do almost all the work for you. In some aspects it’s even easier than Blogger. It’s definitely a lot more versatile in any case.
photo credit: Peregrino Will Reign via photopin cc
I have a few widgets/plug-ins I found and installed that I really like! Thanks to my friends in other Facebook groups and my awesome designer from Just Married with Graphics, they helped me to find useful widgets and have given me tips about WordPress in general. Here are a few of the widgets I like (and as I said there are many):
Jetpack:
I really like this plug-in that helps me to track my stats. People said I could use GA or Statcounter, but I like the different views you can see with this, as well as other useful tools with the widget.
Akismet:
Thank goodness for this plug-in! I was getting spammed like crazy the first few days! I was thinking this was going to be highly annoying, but this plug-in took that all away! Phew!
Shareaholic:
Someone mentioned to me that there was no way to share my posts through my social media channels (I hadn’t even noticed yet), so this plug-in definitely came in handy. I know there are others out there like this now, and I may research them. I like this one, but the +1 button doesn’t work like I would like it to.
Top 5 Posts:
This is a widget that I added to my sidebar. I really like it! It shows me which posts are popular right this minute.
Other Thoughts:
- There was an “Easy Instagram” plug-in I downloaded, but unfortunately it did not work.
- I want to learn more about SEO!
- I wish I could size photos easier in here.
- Need to learn how to use the “nofollow” plug-in better.
- My RSS feed was not working for the week, but hopefully we are back up and running today! Not sure what happened.
- My pageviews are down (probably for multiple reasons; FB, RSS, posting less this week); I’m sure once I start posting more they will head back up.
- Overall impression so far, I’m glad I made the move and can’t wait to continue learning MORE! I’ve ordered two books to be delivered soon about using WordPress.
I’ll let you know more in another week as to what I’ve learned and if my first impressions have changed at all! If you’re a WordPress user, which widget or Plug-in do you love?
Glad you like it so far! Shareaholic can be a bit buggy…a lot! But it has its perks. I stopped using it for a while, but haven’t found a great replacement yet so I went back to it…for now. 🙂
Good luck on your continued exploration!
Great post !!! I think we all want to learn more about SEO, LOL
Glad you are enjoying it! I’m a newbie in terms of learning wordpress, and just use the WP-hosted site so far and I’m still confused 😉
Thanks for all the info I have really been considering to switch over to Word press 🙂
I love wordpress. I’m glad you are enjoying it.
I’m always telling people that once you switch and give it a bit of time, you won’t look back!
These are great! I love Askimet too. There would just be so much spam without it. Glad to hear you like being on WordPress. It was an adjustment for me but now I can’t imagine blogging any other way.
Thanks for the widget info I am still on the fence as I switch my blog over… I still don’t know if I will stick with blogger (for a dot com) or switch to WordPress. Did the switch mess up your stats?
Dentintely Yoast and Seo all in one pack. I have both and helps so much with SEO.
I Love those plugins. The jetpack one just didn’t work well with my theme. I was sad to let it go. But I use Askimet and sharaholic too. I also love FLARE, it is a great social sharing tool. It’s on my site, as you scroll down the page it pops up on the left side. You can also have it show the share buttons at the bottom and top of posts too. You can check it out if you like. I like it a lot.
The nofollow plugins all nofollow an entire page, instead I just go in and manually add all the nofollow html after links. it doesn’t take too much time. It’s works well.
I HIGHLY recommend the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin. it will really help you with the SEO work that blogger used to do on it’s own. ti takes a bit to get used to, but it has really helped boost my pageviews.
When I transferred to wordpress my pageviews dropped too. But as you get going with the new site, they will come back up.
I really love the new look. 🙂
I love being on WordPress. I was very scared to jump into something that with one wrong move you could delete your whole site but then I found a lot of plugins that helped put all of my craziness at ease(:
There is a plugin for no-follow too(:
Have fun with it and your blog looks awesome!
Love wordpress!! Love Askimet and Jetpack!!! Congrats on the move.
I’ve used both platforms with different blog experiments but love wp the most. My one thing I know is that too many plugins can cause you nightmares and sometimes they conflict with each other. Love your new site!
Thanks for sharing all of this great information. I need to switch from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. I’m just frightened to self host!
I still have to install Jetpack – gulp!
I use all the plugins you mentioned, except the jetpack….for myself I find WP to be very user friendly. But I have my daughter as a backup to help me if I need it also. Sharaholic does come with its own issues, but luckily they usually seem to work them out quickly 🙂
I can teach you how to use Nofollowr, send me a message when you want to learn. It’s super easy. Also, do you have SEO by Yoast {or something like that}? I highly recommend that one. 🙂
Dawn
I need a good Instagram one too. Let me know if you find one!
Good to hear that its not as difficult as you thought it would be! That is what I am nervous about… need to make that move!
I’m in the process of learning WordPress myself and it isn’t as difficult as I had expected it to be. Still definitely has a learning curve, but at least when I do plan make the leap for my personal blog, I won’t be too scared!
So, apparently, everyone who takes themselves even semi-seriously as a blogger should be on WP. We have been putting it off but will be making ti move soon!
Good post, very informative.
A few months ago, I started making the switch to WP, but felt that I didn’t know enough and got scared. I’m still on Blogger, and have a half-started project sitting idle on WP. What books do you recomment for newbies like me?
I am reading an e-book right now on Learning WordPress with Genesis. I also ordered a book called Dominate with WordPress. I’ll let you know how it is!
WP is all I’ve ever used but love it and feel confident on it – never was able to do serious “computery” stuff before but feel so able on WP! I like the WP SEO plug-in – it gives you a green light if you’re good to go or a red, yellow, orange if it could be improved, it also tells you HOW you can improve your SEO when you hit “check.”
I switched over to WordPress almost a year ago. I will never go back! WordPress is great and has so many things you can add to your blog to make it awesome!
That’s awesome Kristin. Your new blog looks so nice. I remembered when I went from Blogger to WP. The one thing I had a hard time was getting all of the great followers (who use Blogger) to break out of the Blogger bubble and come follow me over to WP- I miss seeing all of their faces on the right hand side- you know what I mean? I’m not sure if WP has that.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing more of you take on WP 🙂
Thanks so much for this post! Sarah and I are seriously considering moving over to wordpress.
I love the new look and cannot wait until I can afford to hire Just Married! I don’t think you’ll ever look back and wish you still had Blogger. 😉
Glad the experience is going well! I made the transition myself a few weeks ago (from hosted WordPress) and it’s not as intimidating as I thought it would be. Plus the blogging community is amazing with the way they share their tips and ideas when it comes to WordPress. And I agree, the site looks great 🙂
I love learning, but html is not my friend, thank goodness for great widgets. Just wish I could get sharaholic to play nice on my blog again.
I love the new site. It looks great. I think we will all have more success when we master SEO and SMO. Enjoy the new site.
Great post and great info!! I’m so glad that you’re liking WP!1 It’s so much easier to use, and there is so much more you can do with it!
I started out on free blogging sites (not Blogger), then made the switch to WordPress. I have since tried Blogger for a few affiliate marketing things and such, and it frustrates me so much! I love the flexibility of WP, and to me, it’s much more user-friendly. Like you said, it is just different and takes some learning, just like Blogger does.
My favorite plugins are Flare, Contact Form 7, Akismet, and the NoFollow plugin.
It looks great. I’m a big chicken, to scared to move and set in my ways. Maybe sometime this year – I think I say that every year lol
Your site looks great! I’m glad to hear your transition went well and you’re having fun with your site. WP rocks!
Glad you’re liking it thus far and embracing it. I haven’t looked back since switching over 2 years ago. I love WP. Your blog looks great.
I also highly recommend Yoast. It took me awhile, but I love it now.
When I first made the move, I regretted it for months. Blogger was so much more user friendly, but now that I’ve been on WordPress for almost two years, I’m totally used to it and wouldn’t go back!
Congrats on the move! I like yoast, and intense debate (for comments, and comment luv) there are millions of great plug ins, many that I have tried.. . Check out the broken link checker.
Your new site looks great! One of my must-have plugins is Comment Reply Notifier, it lets your readers know that you’ve replied to their comment. Great for building community!
I switched last year and I really love it. Best thing I ever did!