Comments on: RW Makeover #2: Viva La Blog

By: creativelyselfemployed.com

creativelyselfemployed.com — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:26:16 +0000

I blog solely for the enjoyment of it, and have two blogs.
http://www.kristenfischer.com/myblog.htm
and the blog for my book:
http://www.creativelyselfemployed.com/blog.htm

Jen, so cool to find another Jersey writer! Congrats on your book!

By: Susan J.

Susan J. — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:54:18 +0000

Sorry to hijack the conversation, Jen! For some reason, IT determined that it wasn’t worth doing all the redirects, so we handled it individually. Now the big problem is Blank Box Syndrome.

By: Linda R. Moore

Linda R. Moore — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:08:29 +0000

Susan J.: next time that happens (if it does), you can create a redirect on your own site rather than having to go back and fix dozens of posted links. You use your htaccess file and basically tell the server that when someone visits X bad link it goes to Y good link. I have dozens of them from moving pages around for about five years.

I did have trouble with the permalinks at first. In fact, Raven’s Roads, which I first set up on WordPress last January (before that it was just a static HTML site) is still not quite how I want it, and I’m thinking of starting with a fresh install.

You can get the people at WordPress to install it for you, too. It’s part of the package.

Just don’t stick with the ugly default theme.

By: Susan J.

Susan J. — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:07:43 +0000

@ Terry: The main problems we ran into were 1) our permalinks were not set up correctly at first so we had to go back and fix a lot of messages left on other blogs and forums (a nightmare that would never happen with Blogger) and 2) the hyperlink box is screwed up so we have to hand code many of the links (has something to do with tiny MCE, which is foreign to me). Our IT department doesn’t know how to fix the second one, so if anyone has suggestions, let me know!

By: Terry Heath

Terry Heath — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:11:12 +0000

@Susan J.: WordPress has become much easier to use over the last year with the addition of widgets to control your sidebar elements. Just make sure you use a theme which supports them (widgets). You can use the hosted blogs at wordpress.com (similar to blogger), and pay $15 a year to use your own domain (which you register separately).

@vineet nair: WordPress truly is more flexible than any blogging platform I know of, and I’ve dug into them all. But the main thing could be that in Blogger commenter’s names are linked to their profile. Comments are encouraged when readers get a link directly back to their own site, and especially if the “nofollow” is removed (which you can do on WordPress by the use of a plugin).