From Blogger to WordPress (tutorial for newbies)

I wanted to help some people to discover WordPress so I wrote this small tutorial

Don't say I will start tomorrow. Start today! And forget Blogger and the other platforms!

Buy a domain name at Godaddy
A ".com" is the best option
".info" / ".biz" / ".org" (depending on the concept of your site) are maybe another option if ".com" is not available
Use Google to find coupons / promo codes (“godaddy promo” ; “godaddy promo code” ; “godaddy coupon”) in order to pay less

Order an hosting plan at HostGator
Hatchling plan ($4.95/month) will allow you to host 1 domain while the Baby plan ($7.95/month) will allow you to host an unlimited number of domains

Activate Wordpress with Cpanel
Cpanel > Fantastico DeLuxe > WordPress > New Installation > install WordPress (3 steps)

Find a new theme
Link (official) = http://themes.wordpress.net
Unzip the theme folder and upload it to "wp-content/themes"
Dashboard > Design > click on the theme you like
Some links (free themes)
http://www.freewpthemes.net
http://www.wpthemespot.com
http://www.wpthemesfree.com
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/wp-themes/
http://rockinthemes.com
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/
http://themes.blogflux.com
http://themes.rock-kitty.net
http://www.wpskins.org
http://www.wordpressgallery.com
http://qualitywordpress.com
http://ophelianicholson.com
http://www.skinpress.com

Add some plugins
Link (official) = http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
Unzip the plugin folder and upload it to "wp-content/plugins"
Dashboard > Plugins > chose the plugin you want then Activate
Some links
http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Plugin_Compatibility/2.5
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2007/12/best-wordpress-plugins-for-power-blogging/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/06/29/wordpress-plugins-tutorials-your-pick/

Tips & tricks
- To edit any file (header, footer, sidebar, post) of your blog:
Dashboard > Design > Theme editor > files
- In order to get SEO friendly URL
Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks > Common settings > Custom structure: /%postname%/
You will get a structure like this: domain-name.com/post-name/
Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks > Common settings > Custom structure: /%category%/%postname%/
You will get a structure like this: domain-name.com/category/post-name/

Now you’re ready to blog!

Wordpress: http://wordpress.org

I do hope this will help

 

Nice tutorial. Rep added.

 

Topic bookmarked.
And if you already are using Blogger? Can you pass the content to Wordpress, or every post again one by one?

 

thank you!! i'm really looking for this...

 

Import posts, comments, and users from a Blogger blog

Dashboard > Manage > Import > Blogger > Authorize

More information:
http://www.blogherald.com/2007/12/14/blogger-sucks-wanna-move-to-wordpress/

If you like, +Rep is cool

 

Good list Last one! (but certainly not the least) You must add http://www.dezzain.com/ www.premiumnewstheme.com and www.revolutiontheme.com and also http://www.darrenhoyt.com http://themasterplan.in/themes/the-morning-after/ for some amazing magazine styled, cms based themes. Keep it up!

 

I wanted to provide a tutorial and some of the best FREE ressources

 

Good job mate...I kinda regret putting the date in my Permalink structure.
Don't know if it makes sense to change now.

 

It's never too late. It makes sense to change even now

 

but what's the negative impact of the date?

I can see one positive, it prevents you from that odd chance of duplicating a permalink.

 

Thanks.
Sorry, noob question, what's +Rep?

 

There is no negative impact of the date indeed but there is no sense in using the default option too as they do not provide human or SEO friendly URLs

If you stress about duplicate URLs you can add the category to the structure or you can use the date and name based structure ( domain-name.com/2008/05/02/postname/ )

 

means your are adding positive reputation points to the member

 

Except revolution and premiumnews, the last three are free. No list is complete without magazine themes hey! Lol and omg you missed www.briangardener.com and www.wpdesigner.com damn it!

 

These themes are quite nice but not for newbies (title of the thread)

If you visit Brian's forum you will notice that I've bought the revolution theme and I gave up the customization process because of the lack of time and my priority was content!

As I have about 5 big projects with WordPress as CMS I can't spend a lot of time with customization and there are so many nice free themes available in the links posted of this thread!

Well. The purpose of this thread is not to deal anymore with this issue anyway

 

Nice guide. Self-hosted WordPress has a lot of advantages over Blogger, so appreciate you getting the word out. You may want to also redirect your old Blogger blog posts to your new WordPress installation. It's explained in this move from Blogger to WordPress article.

 

Thanks mate

 

I was concerned after reading the thread title and then the first post that you would not actually have the instructions on how to convert/import a blogger blog into a wordpress blog. But thanks for posting that as a follow up!

I use both Blogger and Wordpress for different things and I don't always insist that WP is better. It certainly gives you more control, but not always ease of use.

Here are some more advanced wordpress tricks/hacks that I found collected here -
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/40-most-wanted-wordpress-tricks-and-hacks/
- I haven't used any of them yet, but I've seen them reviewed here and elsewhere pretty well.

 

Thanks Lastbutnotleast,
I will try this method soon

 

Great job, rep added =).