Updates on health

I’m Back with my New #Blog

Published on by dgkaye

It’s been quite an event! I’m sure many of you know, I’ve moved my blog. Some of you probably don’t know and may be wondering why my blog has been wonky for the last week or so.

I have been wanting to move away from my self-hosted blog for a long time, but dreaded the process – and I wasn’t wrong. Besides the fact that I’d get lots of messages throughout the last few years that readers were having a difficult time commenting on my blog, I’ve had so many issues myself with my old host. I paid substantial money for almost 8 of the 9 years I’ve been blogging, and when technical bad things were happening with it, the support I had was less than mediocre and I had to rely on the kindness of of some writing friends to get me out of a blog jam.

I decided at the longtime urging of my good friend and Fey sister, Colleen Chesebro, now was the time. With the advent of the new BIG WordPress update coming (something that always gave me blog woes), and the thought of me having to deal with scary blog stuff while I escape for a some winter sanity, Colleen convinced me to get it over with now. And it was far from easy.

I decided it would be easier down the road to move back to paid WordPress and let them deal with the headaches. And moving my blog from Godaddy was a nightmare! Colleen helped me a lot. First step was creating a blank WordPress.com new platform to move my content over to, except there were many hurdles. The trick I’ve learned, is to get a good WP happiness engineer – and that only took 2 or 3 until the right one showed up.

The plan was simple, export my content from old site and import into new blog – not so easy. My content wouldn’t load. Colleen was dealing with a WP tech with questions about the import problem and she said she’d get back to her. Well 5 days passed, no blog activity, stuck between two worlds on two platforms and after several days I knew nobody was answering back. And by that time, my old blog content was gone! That’s when the real chaos began.

After 2 days of calling Godaddy (now dubbed NOdaddy from me), first waiting 2 hours til a human picked up and more hours trying to explain I need my blog content and several useless support there, my blood pressure was rising. In the meantime, I was being coached by a WP tech as to how to bring over files MANUALLY. Yes, non backdoor techy me, trying to absorb technical jargon. By the second day of repeat performance, I finally got a WP angel who had spent almost 2 days coaching me of alternative methods to get this and that – to no avail. I finally got through to the WP tech that I was useless in this venture, especially with the SERIOUS LACK OF HELP FROM NODADDY. Let’s just say he went far beyond the call of duty and did things to make the magic happen that were not his job. He and I had a running chat going by email for 4 days! He got the ball rolling last Friday, and yesterday he finally finished getting almost 9 gigs of content over to my new blog, and Colleen went in to make it pretty. I didn’t lose anything, (except what was left of my sanity), my years of posts are back WITH the matching images.

I’m still learning Gutenberg editor tips, but surprisingly, I didn’t find it that complicated. And thanks to my friend Hugh Roberts, who posts excellent tutorials on the new editor, I had already got the basic hang of it.

So, I want to welcome you all over here to my new blog, where it should be easy sailing for readers now to interact. I also hope you will all hit the ‘follow’ button when you visit here. I have to say, it’s a bit discouraging seeing my followers go from over a thousand to 11 LOL – not a good look on a writer whose been blogging for 9 years. And I thank you all for putting up with the madness and coming back!

©DGKaye2021

109 thoughts on “I’m Back with my New #Blog”

  5. wow – what a nightmare! best of luck with your new blog. I am still using the classic editor, only using the block editor when necessary. At some point, I will make the switch, and I know Hugh’s posts will come in quite handy

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  6. What a nightmare, Deb! 😓 Your new site looks great, though and should be a lot easier to manage. 👌 I’ve heard many awful stories about GoDaddy and am glad I stuck with Bluehost all these years. Here’s hoping you get all of your followers back. 🤞

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  10. You must be really fit now by jumping over hoops and hoops, Debby. Yes, it’s a lot easier to load and make comments on WP. This blog looks great. I’m glad you found a happy engineer who walked you through. ❤

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  11. Congrats at your success moving! The site looks fresh and new! As I age, the transitions and redoes of websites, not to mention new computers gets more frustrating. It was three years ago, I think, moving to SiteGround from LunarPages. The new host was WAY better and made it relatively easy. My next challenge will be Gutenberg. That will happen sometime in the new year.

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    1. Hi John. I’d heard from many that Siteground was the better of most hosting sites. But really, I’d had enough. It seems when we’re self-hosted, self problems come with it. I don’t want the headaches anymore. And oddly enough, Gutenberg is nothing to tackle after what I went through, lol. 🙂

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  14. Fantastic, Debby. For all of its faults, WordPress is still the best platform out there. And I’ve heard numerous nightmare stories from folks who tried to move away from GoDaddy. Congrats! You made it!

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  17. I’m impressed that you went through that nightmare and came out of it still able to entertain us with your description of the process! Well done on making the decision to move to what appears a considerably more user-friendly and rational platform. The blogging world is your oyster! ❤

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  23. Techy stuff for us non-techy types gives us the hives. You made it through and lived to tell about it. I’m happy for you, and your numbers will be up again in no time.

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    1. Lol, thank you so much Pete. Funny, when I was on the old platform. it never told me how many followerers. I never cared about things like that. But in process of migrating it showed me over 1100 and when it was done, it showed 11, so I did find that a bit alarming, lol. But it’s back to the correct number now. 🙂

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      1. The follower number is misleading as so many of our “followers” again after they sign up to our blogs. I ignore that, but I focus on active followers who regularly engage. Those are the type of blogging friends I hope to attract.

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      2. Absolutely Pete. That’s why I never look at numbers. I enjoy the engagement with other writers. But seriously, when I saw ’11’, that really hurt, lol. Glad it was a temporary glitch. 🙂

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  27. I had no idea you were up and running again with a new blog until I saw one of Sally’s recent ‘Daily Blogger’ posts. Welcome to your new blog, Debby. I’ll be hitting that ‘follow’ button after finishing this comment.
    Of course, you know where I am if you need any help with the Block editor. As Colleen famously once said in response to a comment on one of her posts about the Block editor, – ‘It’s not hard to use, just different.’ I’ve always loved that quote from her.
    And thank you for the mention.
    Happy Blogging.
    xx

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    1. Hi Hugh. Thanks so much for the kudos and your assistance offer. Thankfully, the worst is over (hopefully), now just tweaking here and there. And I’m getting quite used to the new platform. But I do know where to go when I need you, lol. ❤

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  29. Welcome back to WP, Debby, but what a nightmare for you. I get so impatient when I have tech issues. Anyway, I’m following you again and look forward to your posts. Don’t forget to breathe, slowly. 🙂 Hugs!

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  30. Followed!! I’m glad that you were able to find the perfect Happiness Engineer. I’m impressed about his commitment to you in getting it right. It looks great. 🙂 And it’s done! All new content now gets to help build up the new site – yay!

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  31. There you go, Debby. A classic learning experience. Oh how you’ll laugh, looking back! Not. Good to know you’ve landed safely on planet WP. Now all I need to do is find the follow button on my phone…

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    1. Hi Judith. Lovely to see you drop by. I know you’ve had your hands full for awhile. Yes, my blog is much easier for readers now, and nothing for me to deal is a pleasure. I’m getting my year-end stuff prepared, but I’m still here, as blogging and communicating has become a lifeline. I will blog until a week or so before I get out of here for a long winter break. And I’m aiming to get to the UK later next year. Fingers crossed! ❤ xx

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      1. Oh, it would be wonderful to see you in the UK, Debby. This is so much easier to reply to . I’ve not been on top form lately but did email a week or so ago, just to check you were okay. Perhaps I didn’t press send!! Eyeroll!!

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      2. Thank you my lovely friend. And I’m so glad my blog is easier for everyone! Now, about that email, lol, I didn’t get it – just so you don’t think I didn’t reply! LOLOL in good time my friend. Hugs xx

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  34. Well this explains why I wasn’t getting posts from you anymore! Yikes what a time you’ve had! You must have chosen WP.com but pro, so you didn’t have their branding in the URL? I use GoDaddy and like them a lot but I back them up with my genius tech guy, Andrews. Even though he lives in the UK, he does all the heavy lifting for me, takes my emails, helps when I’m in trouble. He moved my self-hosted blog back to hosted and then undid it when I changed my mind!

    I’ve subscribed, sighed with you that this is done, and cheered that you are back in my blogosphere!

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    1. Yay Jacqui. Thanks a lot. And wow, you are the first person I’ve heard from that has anything good to say about Nodaddy. But then again, as you mentioned, you have a tech guy. I didn’t. It was time to go. And yes, I paid for the WP site, no wordpress dot com on the URL. Thanks for re-following. 🙂

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      1. I’ve been with them a decade. Had one nasty problem, but Andrew smooths most of the rough edges. Overall, the sites always works, they fix things quickly, and they’re a ton cheaper than WPEngine where I had been.

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      2. Oh? That’s interesting, and I’m glad to hear it. Like you said, you have tech help and that makes all the difference. I can’t count how many hours I’ve lost to ‘search and fix’. 🙂

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  36. I’m glad I’m on your email list, Debby! Good move on your part! I self-hosted at the urging of other bloggers in 2016 and I regretted it (BlueHost was fine, but too many expenses, etc), I lost followers, blah-blah, then in 2017 my blog broke. Thank goodness those Happiness Engineers fixed it and put me back to rights to WP dot com. People warned me that WP dot com was going to go away and take all my content, yadayada, which has never happened. I believe WP dot com is a great plan and I bought the premium plan (due to all the images), and again, I don’t regret these decisions. I knew you’ve had issues before so good for you to get back to the basics of blogdom. I read that Jacqui has her own tech guy and that’s great but 99% of us don’t and need WP to do the hard stuff! So do I refollow you or does the email continue to send notices like before—obviously that’s how I got here, duh! Now you can focus on writing and engaging rather than the stupid stuff 🙂

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    1. Yes, I followed you and tweeted and I’m sure everyone will find you again. Next post, leave a big colorful box at the top of your post to remind people to follow your blog! Yes, I find block editor intuitive and Hugh’s posts are great tutorials.

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    2. Yay! Hi Terri. Thanks a lot for the kudos, and for sharing your own scary experience! Funny huh, that self-hosted or not, we’re still on WP, so why not let them look after the gruel? Like you said, majority of us have no tech help, and I can’t count the hours over the years that I wasted trying to figure out what the heck. And like you said, not to mention, the cost! Thanks Terri. And yes, if you subscribed to my email before, you should have gotten my Tuesday weekly send of previous week’s posts. If you didn’t get it today, you can sign up again, also, hit the ‘follow’ button and you will see me magically now in your reader! Hugs xx

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  38. I’m a follower! I hope you’ll be happy in WP. I am, except for that classic editor thing. I can still use it, and I will be in big trouble if they finally really take it away (and why do that, if many of us NEED it?) Whatever. good for you getting the move done. Now relax and prepare for your relaxing time off.

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    1. Thanks bunches Pam. I was petrified of the new editor. But I’ve been hearing it’s going away in the new year, so I thought there’s no time like the present to jump in. It’s a lot of trial and error to get the right blocks for some things, but, if I can do it, anyone can. LOL ❤

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  39. HI Debby, congratulations on getting this done. Nothing is ever easy in life. I prefer my two free WP platforms for blogging but I have a paid website which the wonderful Tandy Sinclair from Lavender and Lime blog keeps going for me.

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    1. Thanks Robbie. And I don’t know how you handle all those blogs, you’re such a dynamo. And of course, websites are much easier to handle when you have the tech support, because there’s always something. 🙂 xx

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  40. Looking good, Debby! But what a nightmare!! You are brave to tackle such a huge endeavor and deal with all the steps, stress, frustration, and time sink. I don’t think I would be up for it. Every little blip and hassle is driving me up a wall these days and I only manage by using ways around the actual issues. Luckily, you can relax soon and you have a fabulous support guy at WordPress.

    I see you have almost 1,200 followers, so maybe that eventually switched over as well? Plus, I did get your new posts in my inbox. Still, I signed up again to make sure I keep following you. Enjoy the new hosting service and an easier blogging experience with less complaints – from you or your readers. 🙂

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    1. Yay! Thanks so much Liesbet. Thanks for letting me know you were still receiving the emails, so I know that is really connected, lol. Yes, it was a job, like moving a house but online lol. Happy to be here now hassle-free! ❤

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