blogs – Sam I am

Moved from Blogger to WordPress

May 052011

I’ve completed my move from Blogger to WordPress.

The transition was fairly smooth; I probably should have made the changes a while ago. Here are some of the actions I took to migrate the blog:

Created a new domain, wp.samgreenfield.com.
Installed WordPress using Dreamhost’s one-click install.
Exported my posts from Blogger and saved it to my desktop.
Used the tool blogger2wordpress to convert my Blogger export file into a file that I could import into WordPress.
- I used this tool rather than the regular migration strategy in WordPress because I wanted to remember the URLs and email addresses that users would have entered into my blog before. The built-in Blogger import in WordPress just created the users without any additional information.
Tweaked the export file so that categories were correctly imported.
Performed the import into WordPress.
Installed the Suffusion theme, because I think it looked good.
Linked the domain “http://blog.samgreenfield.com” to wp.samgreenfield.com. My thought is that if I ever want to switch blogging platforms again, it will be easier if I have a single domain that faces the outside world.
Set up Google Analytics in Suffusion; also installed the Google Analytics Dashboard.
Configured archive and category pages on WordPress; also made the “permalinks” similar to the old site.
Set up redirects from my old site at samgreenfield.com/log to blog.samgreenfield.com
Ran a script to vet the old links to make sure they were redirecting correctly.
- It turned out that around 20% of the links did not work correctly. Blogger removed words like “a” and “the” from the title; WordPress keeps those words in. Blogger and WordPress also handled title collisions differently. I did a mass database update for most of the posts and then fixed a bunch of them by hand.
- Some of the category pages also needed to be tweaked by hand to make sure that they were working.
Installed SSL on blog.samgreenfield.com so that I could use my username and password without getting them stolen.
- Purchased an IP address from Dreamhost
- Purchased an SSL certificate from RapidSSL. (Which doesn’t seem to work on Firefox, but I only really care about Chrome.)
Installed plug-ins to add more functionality to WordPress
- Jetpack from WordPress which add some cool features, like YouTube integration and $\LaTeX$
- Google XML Sitemaps, which allows Google to scrape my site more easily.
- Redirection, to manage some of the changes in links from the old site.
- WordPress Mobile Pack, which renders the site in a mobile-friendly format. (Check it out if you have a phone!)
- WP-reCAPTCHA, to make it a little more difficult for spammers to comment
- WP Super Cache, to add static cached pages of content
- WordPress HTTPS, to help secure the site while editing
- PhotoShelter plug-in, which will allow me to publish more easily from PhotoShelter
- Extended Comments Option, to help manage comments on the site

It was a fair amount of work, but it was a lot of fun. I’m still looking for the best way to selectively publish photos directly from my Eye-Fi.

Back!

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May 022011

Forgive me friends, it’s been over a year since my last post.

I’ve been busy over the past year. As I noted before, Google changed how Blogger published. I want the control of hosting the posts on my site, so I had to switch off of Blogger. I’ve done some work in porting my blog to WordPress; hopefully the transition should be relatively seamless. I’ve also been busy at work the past year. The size of my team has almost doubled in the past year.

I’ll try to post more regularly in the future. This blog gets around 30 page views per day when I changed nothing; I hope not to disappoint my dedicated readers.

Tim Bray on creating a website about yourself

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Jan 022010

Tim Bray wrote some good advice for someone who wants or needs a website for either personal or professional reasons: After Branding. I agree with all of the points he makes, and websites that don’t follow his advice tend to frustrate me.

Public relations in action

blogs, food 3 Responses »

Mar 052009

I read quite a few food blogs (see the list next to my blog on the right). Recently, I noted that one blog I was reading was plugging Anthony Bourdain’s show, No Reservations, on a regular basis. The descriptions were always written in the first person, but then I noticed in the comments that the author stated he was simply publishing exactly what he received from the producers of the show. I had a hunch and decided to do a quick search for some key phrases, like “rides in a tri-shaw.”

Some of the bloggers I noticed quoted the blurb from the producers as a true quote, others ran the blurb as their own post, and others created their own copy but used supplied phrases. If you have time, check out some of the posts to see what I mean:

I think finding posts like this illustrates how carefully one needs to read what people write. You never know if someone is merely republishing a press release, or even worse, regurgitating a press release without citing the original sources. I would be more inclined to watch the show if I thought people were giving passionate, true opinions.

Ironically, I’m pushing up the search rankings and readership of these blogs by linking to them.

Sam I am

Moved from Blogger to WordPress

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Tim Bray on creating a website about yourself

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Public relations in action

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