This blog is published using Blogger (a Google company) but hosted on my own website so I can make sure things operate the way I want and not the way they want. This includes being able to fix individual files and graphics when they go wonky and such.
In March, just 60 days away, Blogger will no longer support FTP blogs hosted offsite. This means I need to find a second solution (also see this post from Blogger). Maybe someone out there knows how to make what I have (DreamHost) work with their new hosted plan, but I am at a loss how to make it happen. I’d prefer it just because it’s way less work, I keep all my Google rankings and traffic.
That solution needs to include:
- Moving the complete blog to a new blogging format but keeping all posts and comments
- Keeping the same URLs that already exist (to preserve page rank)
- Keeping the blog’s look about the same
I can actually install WordPress on my site. That’s easy. I’d just set it up to run in a directory called “q2” until we had it working, then we can swap directory names. What needs to be done is:
- A custom WordPress theme
- Conversion of all posts and comments
- A lot of hand-holding and cleanup until it’s debugged
- Maybe help with some other stuff (scripts, etc.)
The blog has over 800 posts representing nearly 100MB worth of files, and well over 1,000 comments (many of which are on just a few threads). This blog appears to be larger than the conversion tool WordPress provides can handle. I’ve Googled extensively on this, and it’s overflowed with problems and there’s questions as to whether it even works at all anymore. Keep in mind you’ll need to make sure it’s a recent post as in early 2009 they changed how it all works. I don’t really like Blogger so much anymore but changing at this point seems to be quite a chore.
I need someone who’s really good at what they do, and someone who is experienced at WordPress (and Blogger too ideally). This job will pay. I’m not asking for a freebie if we go the conversion route. Just let me know what’s involved and what you think it would cost.
Hopefully someone out there thinks this blog is worth saving and can help.