I Wanna be a REAL Blogger :-)

I have been blogging here at Blogger for well over a year now... and I have to say, it's a great little solution for the beginner. It's simple and it's free, and everything is all tied up in one neat little package.

When I first started blogging here, I basically just wanted to test it out and get my feet wet. I ended up enjoying the whole concept, and got great feedback on it... so I just stuck around and kept on blogging.

But lately I feel like I have outgrown Blogger, and so I have (finally!) decided to make the switch over to WordPress. That's what all of the real bloggers use, right? ;-)


Some of the main reasons that I want to move to WordPress include:

• Stats! You guys know me - I'm a complete stats junkie! I would like to be able to track where my visitors are coming from, which posts are most popular, exactly how much traffic the blog is getting, etc etc etc. I feel lost without my stats!!
  
• My Own Domain While I realize that you can point your Blogger blog to your own domain, I decided that if I am going to invest in hosting and a domain name then I might as well use the one-click install and put WordPress on that account. Maybe I should have titled this bullet "Total Control" hehe... Anyway - it just seems to make sense that you would take advantage of all of the traffic to a blog and establish your own domain name, versus Blogger's.
  
• Categories! And boy do I ever need 'em :-)
  
• Options - Everything from custom templates to neat little add-ons. I love all of the cool options with WordPress. It just seems like WP users have so much more flexibility in design & features!

With this change, I also want to give the blog itself a bit of a 'facelift'. I need a good flexible template that is also visually appealing. I have two already that I will be choosing from - one that Teli created for me, and one that Andre and I had designed awhile back.

I also plan to market this one a bit more heavily - through SEO, "tags" (whatever those are LOL), networking with other bloggers, syndicating the content, etc. Blogs are great little tools, if they can be found!

And in addition to that... I really feel that my blog needs a bigger dose of Personality! I've noticed that my more personal posts tend to get a lot more comments. I also find that I enjoy certain blogs myself that have a lot of character - you know, the ones where you feel like you really get to know the author behind the posts.

A good example that comes to mind is Rae Hoffman. Definitely a 'model blogger' ;-) That's her newest blogging spot, by the way - you probably know her best from: http://www.causeiliketohearmyselftalk.com/ .


So here's my Action Plan (always got to have one of those!):

- Set up hosting at HostGator (it's less than $10/month!)
- Install WordPress (HostGator has a one-click install, easy!)
- Choose one of the templates and tweak it (eek! lol)
- Pull out Opti-Niche and soak in every last word! (Thank you, Teli!!)


As always, your comments and suggestions are welcomed!!