As you all know from my announcement at the Pinworthy Projects Party on Friday, I made the move to WordPress.org over the weekend.  I’m still working on figuring out all the ins and outs so please be patient over the next few weeks {months!} as I tackle the learning curve.

I did want to come in a share a few things about my move in case you are contemplating a similar one {warning: this is long and picture-less}…

1) Why I moved?
I will be honest and tell you that the decision to move was definitely a struggle for me.  I liked the comfort and ease of using Blogger.  I’m not a coder or an html wiz so the idea of working in WordPress seemed really daunting.  BUT, there were downsides to Blogger too.  Blogger friends were having their blogs randomly deleted or marked as spam…Blogger technically owned all of my content…there was some functionality that I knew I just wasn’t getting but would want as my blog grows.

2) Do I think I should have moved sooner?
Honestly, no.  There are some costs associated with the move and, while minimal, they are costs.  I think it is important to make sure blogging is something you LOVE and really plan to do for the foreseeable future before making the jump…unless of course you just have a bunch of money you need to use.

3) How much does it cost?
This was a big concern of mine.  I make some money from the blog but definitely not tons and I was scared the switch would eat away at most of the money I do generate from the blog.  Here is a general breakdown of the costs for me:
Domain Name: $10/year {I already had this}
Hosting: $4.95/month {I use Bluehost and paid 3 years in advance…more on that in a bit}
Migration: $150 {I used Kristi from Linaeur Designs and she is FABU!}
Akisnet: $10/year {This is optional and you set your own price}
Total: $348.20
I made no changes to my blog design this go around but that would, obviously, have been higher.

4)  How long did the move take and was it easy?
I can’t say enough about how great Kristi is.  She was totally patient with me {while probably thinking I was a nutcase}.  She did all the work in less than 24 hours and {most of it} while I was sleeping.
For my part, I got my domain name {technically, I already had this} and signed up for hosting {first through Host Gator but because of some issues I ended up with Blue Host instead}.  Then, I forwarded a bunch of info from those two things to Kristi and she did the rest.
The biggest thing with the move for me was waking up the next morning and not being able to access my blog.  That totally wasn’t Kristi’s fault and people other places COULD access it.  It just takes awhile for different servers to update and I was apparently on a slow server.  It only took Kristi about 5 emails to talk me off the ledge 🙂

5) How do I like it?
Like I said, I am still adjusting to the changes but so far, I love it.  It isn’t nearly as difficult to figure out as I expected which is a relief. I’m sure you’ll be seeing lots of Facebook posts and Tweets asking for recommendations for different plug-ins and such but, overall, things are going well with it…heck, I’ve gotten 2 posts + this one out since the move!

And now, a big plea from me:  With the move, the only thing I lost was my Google Friend Connect widget so technically 850+ followers.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you would now consider following me via Linky Followers OR BlogLovin {or heck…both would be fabulous!}.  You can find those over in the my right side bar.
I’ll be running a bunch of giveaways over the next few weeks and that will be an entry method so go ahead and get a jump on it.
Of course, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest following is awesome too.