So ... It's Been A While

I didn't intend to stop posting for over 2 weeks, but that's exactly what happened when I decided to make some major changes to Divulge and Indulge. Although I didn't completely step away from the blog (I spent a lot of time reformatting, resizing pictures, figuring out a new look, and working on my recipe index and "About Me" page), I didn't have time to sit down and write until now. But, while I missed writing posts, the time away was actually good for me. I feel refreshed and full of ideas, and I honestly haven't felt this way in a long time.

First on the agenda is to address the changes to this blog and my move to a new platform.

After a lot of thought, I decided that I needed to make some changes to Divulge and Indulge. I did some research, weighed my options, and made a choice based on what I thought was best for me.

And now here I am on Blogger.

It's funny because so many people make the switch from Blogger to Wordpress, and I chose to do the opposite. Since this is such an unusual move, I wanted to take some time to explain why this worked best for me.

Image provided by Unsplash (unsplash.com) and edited by me.

1.  Customization

This is one of the biggest things that drew me away from Wordpress. I should note that I was using the free version of Wordpress (wordpress.com), so my options were extremely limited. I could pay $30/year for an upgraded version of wordpress.com, but that would really only allow me to change the colors on my blog. If I wanted to further customize my blog, I'd have to start paying a monthly fee to self host. I was looking into this for a while, but as I was looking around to see what types of designs were out there for a self hosted Wordpress site, I began to realize that blog designers tend to charge a lot for Wordpress customization (typically at least $100-$200 more than what they charge for Blogger customization).  

I really just wanted a nicer looking blog. I wasn't prepared to go the completely custom route just yet (I'd have to put a lot more thought into the design), but I definitely wanted something less generic. As I continued looking into my options, I noticed that a lot of blog designers offer great premade Blogger templates at reasonable prices. When I realized I could get something nice without shelling out tons of money, I felt like moving to Blogger was starting to make more sense.

2.  Cost

This is obviously a continuation of my last point. I wasn't paying anything to use wordpress.com. And while I'm willing to put some money into my blog, I'm not willing to spend hundreds of dollars right now ... This is just a hobby, after all!

Blogger was attractive to me because it's free to use and it offers a lot of the customization options I wanted. If I used Blogger, I could purchase a great template and have it installed for less than $100. If I stuck with Wordpress, I'd have to go the self hosted route (a.k.a. spend more money) and then pay even more to get a nice design. Yes, there are premade templates out there for Wordpress that are reasonably priced, but I'd still have to deal with the purchase of a domain name and a monthly fee for self hosting if I wanted to use one of them. Nothing out there works with wordpress.com.

3.  Potential to Make Money

As I said before, right now this blog is just a hobby. I currently don't make any money from it, and there's a good chance that I'll never make money from it. (And that's okay.) However, I don't want to close myself off from ever making money from my blog ... And by using wordpress.com, I was doing just that.

According to my research, there is only one way to make money from a wordpress.com blog: an ad service similar to Google AdSense. Sponsored posts, affiliate links, etc. aren't allowed on the free version of Wordpress. That obviously limits the potential to make money from your blog if you're using that platform. I don't think that switching to Blogger will automatically mean I'll start making money from my blog (I'm not completely delusional!), but I do think it will at least allow for that possibility in the future. (And yes, I realize I could also do this if I stuck with Wordpress and went the self hosted route, but, again, I'd have to spend more money than I'm currently willing to.)

4.  Skill Level and Time Commitment

I'm proud of myself for figuring out how to migrate my blog from wordpress.com to Blogger. It was relatively easy to do, though I had to spend a lot of time fixing links and adjusting the formatting. It was frustrating at times, and it made me realize that I definitely don't have the patience or skills to deal with this kind of thing all the time.

Blogger, like the free version of Wordpress, seems to automatically update and kind of keep itself running. If I chose to self host, I'd be responsible for all updates, security, and backups. (And guess what ... That costs more money!) I feel like some of the things I'd need to do to maintain a self hosted Wordpress blog are beyond my skill level and could potentially force me to spend more time updating and tweaking than actually writing. And that's not really something I'm interested in.

I don't necessarily think one platform is better than the other because there are pros and cons to using both. For me personally, though, Blogger offered the things I was looking for at the right price (free!). I know this wouldn't be the right move for everyone (particularly since it's much easier to move from wordpress.com to a self hosted Wordpress site than it is to move from Blogger to a self hosted Wordpress site), but Blogger seemed like the right fit for me right now.