Collar City Brownstone has MOVED to WordPress

Happy Tuesday!,

 I am still working on the switch from Blogger to WordPress but my Blogger site is not where you will find me anymore from here on in.  Please try to put up with me for just a few more days.  I am using a WordPress customized template called Pinboard and on my homepage the posts are overlapping.  I am still trying to get it worked out with WordPress support.  The new blog site URL is without the www in front of the name so it is http://collarcitybrownstone.com/

The old address with the www in it I will set to auto direct to the new URL as soon as I don't need to come on the old Blogger page anymore.  This account will never be deleted however because all the photos are linked to Picasa.  If I delete this Blogger blog the links will be broken.  If there is some way around that please let me know.  If I am never going to use this site again so it makes no sense to have it active.  I would prefer to delete it eventually.   

If you are "following" me from Bloglovin you don't have to do anything.  Bloglovin with update your feed.  

You can also subscribe directly from the new site at WordPress.  The link is above.

What do I think of WordPress so far?   There is a learning curve, but I do love it and I am glad that I made the switch.  You don't necessarily need to know HTML but it does help.  I know how to design websites so I think that is helping me to not tear my hair out.

It was very easy to bring over all of my blog posts and all of your comments into the new WordPress site.  However, all of my tags went into categories and the posts have no tags.  I am still going through every single post I ever wrote to tag and categorize them correctly for search engine optimization purposes.  The task is labor intensive but important.  

Blogger makes it easier to resize photos.  I have not gotten the hang of that yet in WordPress.  I am still familiarizing myself with the WordPress dashboard.  I still have to "master" to Pinboard temnplate as well, but that will come over time.  

I love the Pinboard template and it is FREE.  There are literally thousands of free WordPress templates so you do not have to buy one.  Out of the thousands of free templates, surely you can find one that you like in case you are thinking of switching.   The spell and grammar checks in WordPress is far superior to the one in Blogger.  As I am going through my posts I cannot tell you how many misspelled words Blogger missed.  Even after you try to go over your own writing you do miss so much.  Or sometimes you mean to write wander, but you write wonder instead.  Well, in WordPress that stuff is highlighted more efficiently.  This post is probably full of writing errors, so please forgive me.  If you are on Blogger try to find a really powerful plugin that catches spelling and grammar errors.  It is so worth it.       

An IMPORTANT word of advice is that if you do think you will end up making the switch, do it before your blog gets even bigger.  The more posts and pictures you have the bigger the switch project will be.  I can understand why some people pay professionals to do it for them.  I had over 500 blog posts and many, many, many, many pictures.  Besides going through all the posts to re-tag, categorize, fix spelling and grammar, I also have to fix many of the photos in the posts.  For example there are huge spaces between photos and also the text paragraphs.   I am also fixing the links on the new pages because right now they are taking you back here....LOL   It is an easy fix, but takes up time.

Overall,  self hosting WordPress.org is a lot more robust and I like that a lot.  If you are not interested in having a robust blog than Blogger or WordPress.com is for you.  You can still have a very professional and beautiful blog with Blogger and WordPress.com.  Remember that with Blogger, you don't own your content. 

I will always hold a special place in my heart for Blogger since it is where I started out.  I will never be a WordPress person who talks bad about Blogger as I have heard many do.  It turned me off a lot while I was blogging on here.  So I promise not to become "one of them".

I hope that you will come on over to my new URL at WordPress.  I also have a personal Pinterest page and a Facecook page for Collar City Brownstone.  You can find the buttons for those on the right hand side of the header.  You can also join me on GoodReads.

 Well, that's all folks.  This is probably my last blog post here on Blogger.  I will see you in my new neighborhood!

Love and Hugs,

Xenia
Collar City Brownstone
     
 

        

Single Focus Blogging

I love blogging and I do take it as serious fun.  I read articles online about how to build a successful blog.  I also downloaded a great book onto my Kindle that is all about blogging.  One of the things that keeps popping up is that you should choose a topic that you love and focus on that one topic creating a niche market of visitors and followers for your blog.  That bit of advice makes perfect sense to me.  The only problem is that I find it quite challenging to write posts about the same topic on a daily basis.  There are many bloggers who do it very well and I love visiting their blogs.  I love visiting blogs that focus on decorating and if the blog owner's style is shabby chic that is even better.  I also love visiting blogs that focus on Jane Austens books or vintage style clothing.  There are wonderful blogs that focus on DIY projects and crafting.

 

Collar City Brownstone started out as a blog about my Victorian Brownstone restoration and I am still involved with that.   I just could not come up with posts ideas about my home on a daily basis.  So I expanded to post about decorating too.  I love decorating but sometimes I am not feeling a home decor post in my bones either.  One day I came upon the Bloglovin website and saw many blogs that posted about many different subjects.   So I decided to just go with how I was feeling.  Now I post about anything and everything that I love or is important to me like reading, watching period dramas, Love - Jane Austen style, food and yes, of course, my Victorian brownstone remains a good post subject.

 
I also came to the decision that I need to keep this enjoyable and not stress myself out about how many followers I have or how many people are visiting Collar City Brownstone every day.  I do love and appreciate each and everyone who does stop by, but I must always keep in mind to remain authentic to who I AM.  I have to always remember to continue to write from the heart no matter what is the subject of the day.  I love to write and blogging feeds that part of me. 

I thought about blogging for a long time before I actually took the steps to create this one.  One day in 2011 I came upon Brooklyn Limestone and Mrs. Limestone's blog inspired me to stop procrastinating and create Collar City Brownstone.  Mrs. Limestone is one of the most inspiring bloggers out there on the web.  Mrs Limestone is also a wonderful person.  Be sure to stop by Brooklyn Limestone and say hello.  

Thank you for visiting Collar City Brownstone too.