BLOG MOVING (AND RELATED THOUGHTS)

The big blog move has been on my mind since mid-May.  At that point, I wasn't sure if I wanted to return to blogging or not, but I did know that I wanted to move my posts to Blogger.  Independent of my final decision to get back to a regular blogging schedule, I've written a lot of posts in the last few years that I didn't want to lose.

I created my new Blogger account in mid-August and had a goal of completing the blog move (including closing my Typepad account) by the end of September.  Happily, everything worked out a bit faster than anticipated and the move was accomplished by the middle of September.

I thought it might be worthwhile to explain some of the reasoning behind the change and also what went into the move.

Switching to Blogger:

I really had no issues with Typepad, but was tired of paying a monthly fee and still wanted my blog to look clean and professional, which proved difficult (although probably not impossible) with a basic (free) Typepad account.  

In addition to the financial benefits of my switch to Blogger, I also wanted to make a clean break and start anew with only my favorite content and a new look.

Deciding which posts to keep:

There is probably some magical, digital way of moving posts from one platform to another, but I didn't even google to see if that option existed.  I didn't want to move every single post that I'd ever written and wanted to choose the keepers on a post-by-post basis, not by general category.  

I rather enjoyed my time copying and pasting posts from one platform to the other.  I read through a lot of my writing and took a nice little trip through the past few years of my life.  I didn't really go into the copying and pasting process with a plan for which posts to keep.  I wanted to allow myself room for gut decisions and wanted to make those decisions one post at a time rather than by topic or category.

I did keep all (or almost all) of my One Little Word, Around Here/Currently, and Capsule Wardrobe posts.  I kept a few of the posts that were about the "why" behind my scrapbooking and some that detailed specific documenting "how to" information, but I did not keep any of the posts that were just photos of my scrapbooking layouts.  I also left behind most of the link-up type posts with links to other sites.  

Using a design template:


I purchased a design template from Allison of Green Tangerine Design via Etsy.  Her templates work for blogger and the site looked lovely as soon as it was installed.  If I had found something similar to use with Typepad, I might have stuck with their platform, but it seemed like everything I found was only compatible with Blogger or Wordpress.  

Over the past few years, I have grown quite adept at using the Typepad platform to build and tweak my blog design.  While I think design work is fun, I often let it get in the way of just putting up a post.  I would spend hours considering a tiny detail of my site design instead of using my precious little free time to actually write a post.  

With my purchased design I have no need (or ability) to mess with the design.  Taking that option away leaves time for me to actually write my posts, which is the meat of this blogging business, right?  While I enjoy the design process, I don't want that to be the focus of my time and I'm already appreciating the "done" factor of this site's design.

Plus, I really like the way everything looks.  That was important to me.  

An additional and unexpected bonus to the design template is that I no longer have to resize my photos before posting them.  The template resizes them for me.  Hello time saver.

One downside of this move and using this template is that not all of the photos were moved successfully from my previous blog.  When I first moved things over, it all looked good.  But there are many posts that currently just have the image file names and no images.  I wish it was otherwise, but - meh - what are you going to do?  I'm not going to stress over it.  

RSS reader issues:

While I am still using the same custom domain that I had before (www.brookepetermann.com), if you previously followed me on bloglovin' or another RSS reader, you will need to click to "follow" me again.  If you use a feed reader, you may need to search for www.brookepetermann.blogspotcom. This is the direct link for following through bloglovin'.

I was concerned about the possibility of losing readers due to the switch and had intentions of posting a final "I've moved" post on Typepad before closing that account, but it didn't happen.  Again - oops! - but what's done is done.

Moving forward:

And I'm back at this business of blogging.  After nine years, it feels like a pretty natural part of my life.  When I'm not writing, I'm thinking about what I could be writing. 

My plan is to write four days a week - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  There might be weeks when I take additional time off, but I know that having a plan is a huge part of keeping me going and this schedule feels like a good balance between living life and sharing my life in this space. 

Thanks for being here and making the move with me.