A little WordPress blogging update

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I’ve spent lots of hours recently updating my blog. Moving it. Redesigning it. Working out how to make it look the way I want it to. Phew! Its hard work! But I love that kind of thing so I’ve actually enjoyed the challenge.

Anyway, I thought I’d share some info in case anyone wants to know.

Warning: Blogging stuff coming up.

So if you really want crafty stuff instead, skip to the bottom now.

A few things I learnt in my move that might help another blogger:

• My cute new header and colour scheme came from the Pretty Little Thing theme from Genesis. Yes, I paid a little money for it. Yes, I think it was worth it because I could not have done it myself without a LOT more hours of work. There is a great user forum, too. StudioPress Themes for WordPress
• I set up hosting with Hostgator and found them super helpful. I used their chat help about 10 times over the weekend and always got a quick response from a real person who was very patient with my newbie questions and often told me extra things I didn’t even know I needed to know.
• I used Sharon Hujik’s ebook to step me through the process – see the cover over there in my sidebar? Again it was worth the little bit of money to have something to refer to and included extra helpful tips as I went along.Click here to visit Sharon Hujik.
• I also used tips from Blogging with Amy. She has a knack for explaining things in a way that makes sense to me and gives plenty of detail. She has a series of posts on setting up a WordPress blog from scratch, plus some new posts on transferring your blog.
• I used Sharon’s instructions to move my feed but found today that only a partial feed seemed to be coming through in my reader. I found that if I dropped the “atom” off the end of the URL she suggested, it fixed it. So if you have trouble, give that a go. Also sorry to the readers who keep getting my last 10 posts each time I change my feed settings. I think its because I made changes so my apologies. Hopefully I have it right now.
• I discovered that I could send out an email to all my Google Friend Connect followers to tell them of my move. You’ll find the create a newsletter button at the GFC admin page.
• Something useful about widgets:  I had a few gadgets in Blogger that were HTML code. To put these into WordPress, use a “Text” widget. Once I worked that out, moving most of my gadgets was a breeze.
• I’ve added a bunch of Plugins on the advice of various sources. They include
  • • • CommentLuv
      • G.A.S.P.
      • ReplyMe
      • SEO Smart Links
      • Subscribe to Comments
      • TwitterLink
      • WPtouch
      • AddThis
      • XML-Sitemap
      • Feedburner Feedsmith
      • Genesis Favicon Uploader
      • Google Analytics for WordPress
• If you’d like links for any of these, please ask, but I’m sure you can find them with a quick search.

End of bloggy details

Enough blog stuff!

I’ve been crafting, too.

I have added a couple of items to my store and will add some more tonight. Another mugrug. Some Christmas gift bags. A scarf. You’ll find them at CraftyMummy on Madeit.

I also finished a baby gift for a very new baby boy. I’ll share the pictures tomorrow, as well as the process I used to create a cross stitch pattern.

I have plans to make some more needle cases soon for my store, plus a tutorial so you can make them yourself. So if you don’t win my giveaway tomorrow, perhaps you can buy or make one instead.