I have moved my blog from Blogger to Wordpress! 😄

For the past 7 years, I have been working on my site via Blogger. That site has bore witness on my beginning years as a "content writer" online. I have lots of happy memories blogging via that site. But the question you might have in mind is -

Why did I make this big move?

I have been playing with this idea for the longest time, and I guess the main trigger of this change was the Google+ deprecation. Google has been sending out notifications for the last several months that they will be shutting down this service, and are advising its users to download their user data or else it will be lost forever. Google has been known to kill its products even if it is still widely used (remember good 'ol Feedburner?) Since receiving this notice, I couldn't help but think of the future of Blogger. Technically I was not paying anything for Google to host my blog on their site. I have been uploading photos online for my blog for free. I wonder how Google is benefiting from users like me? Also for the past half decade that I have been using Blogger, there were minimal additions on the features that users can do on the website, so I had this assumption that Blogger is minority of Google's priority products.

And so I thought of the inevitable. I think this will happen sooner or later.I think I won't be able to bear to shut down my website. I have been working on this for so long and this has been part of who I am. I think writing will always be part of my life from now on. I think I have already proven to myself that this is something that I have been doing consistently for years and will continue to do so in the years to come. And so, I decided it's finally time to make the move and to level up!

Doing the Big Move

Moving from Blogger to Wordpress has suprisingly been easy. Although there is still a learning curve because of all the features that Wordpress has, the process as a whole is technically painless! Here are the steps that I followed that led to how my website is currently set up.

• Export your site content from Blogger. From the Blogger dashboard, you can download an XML file that contains all the data that you have on your website.

On the Blogger dashboard, go to Settings > Other > Import & back up > Back up Content

•  Import the XML file to your Wordpress site. Assuming that you already have one, just import the file that you got from the Blogger backup, and viola, your Wordpress site is now up! Wordpress automatically creates a copy of the photos that you have on the Blogger site so depending on the size of your website, it may take some time for this import to complete (mine consisted of 600+ posts, and I think it took 30 minutes for the import to be finished).

On the Wordpress dashboard, go to Manage > Import

• Set up a custom domain. Having the free Wordpress account is totally fine, especially for a new website. However for my case, I already have a domain that I own. The issue is that this domain still points to the Blogger website. I have to configure it so that it would now point to the newly set up Wordpress site. One great advantage of this is that your blog traffic won't be affected by your move to a new site. Since search engines have indexed your site using the custom domain, they would still just reference to the same site address. There were several steps done for this one to be accomplished, so I'm detailing them more below:
  • On your Wordpress dashboard, go to Configure > Domains. Choose 'Add a Domain' and 'Choose a domain that I own'. Select 'Transfer your domain away from your current registrar' and just follow all the instructions on the page. You would need to upgrade to a Wordpress Premium account to have a custom domain for yourself. Honestly this was a huge decision for me (uhmm because I have been blogging for free for years!). I had to think for days to check if this is really something that I wanted. Well I thought why not give it a try? A year's premium subscription costed me around 4,000PHP + 900PHP for the custom domain transfer.
  • Go to the registrar that manages your custom domain. For me, my custom domain is registered onNamecheap. I had to do a domain transfer request which took a week to take effect.

• Choose a theme. There are hundreds of themes available for Wordpress sites (more especially if you are on Premium!). The themes are all sleak and neat, and honestly most of them suited my taste. I actually had difficulty choosing among them because I liked them all!

• Transfer your affiliate links from your Blogger to your Wordpress site. I have a few ones on the site ( i.e. Trazy). Also if you want to preserve your page views and visitors counter, transfer the HTML/Script that does this so the count just continues for your new site!

• Link your site on your social media accounts. Previously I have linked my blog to my Facebook and Google+, but now I decided to trim the audience and just publish it on Twitter. 😅

• Follow your blog roll via the Wordpress Reader. I like the layout of the Wordpress reader. It's very easy to use. Through the WP Reader, you can very easily discover other sites based on the tags and the categories that you are interested in.

It's been a week since everything has been completed, and I'm loving my experience as a Wordpress blogger now. I love how comprehensive the Stats are, and how I am able to interact more with fellow bloggers now via the WP reader!

You know, with all these new experiences I have with the Wordpress site, I wondered why I didn't do it sooner! Well it's better late than never! Thank you very much Blogger, you've been a kind and dependable friend. But now, I have to move on.

Here's to more blogging fun and adventures! 🍻

While I am actually writing this post, I am researching on ways on how to protect the content of this blog. I have discovered that some of my images have been stolen on other sites and (as expected), no credit was given to the original owner. The feeling of resentment and hate  that I felt towards them was overwhelming. I have experienced this with Instagram in the past, and I have learned my lesson since then. But now it just got me more scared not just with images that I own and publish online, but also with the very content of this blog.

 So now, I will change things a bit for this site. I put a lot of effort on every post that I make, and seeing them being posted up on other sites is horrible.

Most of content theft boils down to unawareness. If I myself took some of your photos/content to this blog, please let me know. I would gladly put it down for you.

I have decided to create another blog on another platform, particularly on wordpress. I have been wanting to have a blog there because I just love the layout of the themes there.

I would still write on this blog, but this will focus more on the steps that I am doing to achieve my dreams (obviously I have been very distracted for the past months).

If you have time, go check bestconsumedbefore.wordpress.com.

[UPDATE]
I have decided to still place here all posts that I think would be useful for everyone. The content of my second blog will be a surprise! :D (Clue: I will be doing a year-round project on the other blog!)

the old blog layout

I was browsing through sites for new photography ideas, and I happened to come along to this post about starting your very own photography project. I became highly motivated, so I am giving it a try!

So starting today, I would be doing the A-Z photo challenge project. It's gonna be a 'per-week' project. For this week, I would start taking photos that I associate with a word that starts with the letter A, then next week it would be letter B, and so on. This means this project will last for 26 weeks!

If you are a beginner in the field of photography, or just has the passion for it, please do join me in this project! :D I would be happy to post your pictures here, or post links to your photos. :D

If you want to join, this is what we're going to do. 

☝ You can post your photos on twitter and/or at Instagram and use the tag    #AZchallenge, or email me your entries. :D  

 I won't be doing this anymore because I've discovered that there's already an activity in instagram with the same tag. :O Instead, please just email me (katalinarosario@gmail.com) all photos that you wish to submit for this project

☝ By the end of the week, I would be compiling the photos (together with mine!) following the 'letter of the week' and post it here on the blog. 

☝ All photos should be original (you are the one who captured that photo). You can use any kind of camera (phone, point-and-shoot, DSLRs, or even a webcam if you wish). 

☝ You can also send more than one entry (send as many as you can!) 

☝ No gross and/or pornographic images. >< 

☝ Please include in your tweet or email the word that is associated with the picture. Use English words only, as this blog caters an international audience. 

☝ Do take note that by joining this project, you are giving me permission to post your photos here (and do some editing on it). You can put watermark on the image if you want. :)

☝ You can send photos of any letter at any time within that 26-week period. It would be my job to arrange and compile them. Publishing of photos would be a 'one letter per week' basis. If in case you had submitted a photo for letter B, but it's already letter D this week, it's okay. I would still include your photo and just update the letter B post.

This is not a contest or anything. It would be just a fun way of learning how to take photos, and also to test your creativity. I know many have tried this kind of thing online, but anyway I am opening this to everyone so as to keep my own motivation up until I actually conquer this 26-week project. :D

I'm excited on how this project will go! So with that, hold your cameras -- ready, set, and CLICK!

As a sneak peek of how things would go, here's my first entry for this week:






Come back to this site next week for more entries for letter A! :D


~o~

One Step at a Time | Personal Photography Project
A-Z Photo Challenge
Week #1 (October 30 - November 5): Letter A
Where to submit entries:
Twitter/Instagram: Use the tag #AZchallenge OR
Email: katalinarosario@gmail.com


I think this can also serve as my celebration in accomplishing to write a hundred posts for this blog! \(^____^)/

[Updates]

 Entries:
Letter A
Letter B
Letter C - Letter D
Letter E
Letter F, G, H
Letter I, J, K, L, M 

"As time goes by, there will be changes in perspective."




If you have no idea what this is all about, read this.


I reviewed the initial goals that I listed here when I started to create this blog. Some of them are still applicable as of today, but there are some that I believe have been excluded from my list of priorities. So as soon as this entry is posted, changes in my goal list will take effect and will now be composed of the following:


[☾] be a good astroscenic photographer
[✔] finish the Dong Bang Island 2nd Anniversary Memorabilia
[♬] learn to play the piano
[♨] learn to cook
[❦] diet
[☉] learn to develop an Android app
[☯] learn to write and speak in Korean (Hangul) *new*


I am suspending my attempt to learn Japanese for now, because Hangul has taken my interest more recently. I believe this is way easier to learn than Japanese. And besides, this is the language of several of my favorite musicians (JYJ, TVXQ! and 2NE1). I also watch some tv series from Korea so this will be extremely helpful.


Meanwhile, I am totally cancelling my idea of making a trip to Korea itself. Because of recent events, I have realized that I really don't have enough money yet to think of ways of splurging it. I need to save enough first to have a sense of security. Until then, I will focus on saving the money for more important things.


I am targetting to fulfill all of these goals (and more!) this year.


Aim high! :D