This week was another web ‘first’ for me.  I moved this site to a new host!  It really wasn’t very complicated, but I ran into a few speed-bumps.  I’ll run through a few things I had to do.

There were 2 major obstacles for me.  First off, I’m running WordPress for this blog, and needed to move my posts, etc. to the new host.  Second, I needed to make the URL point to the new host, and not this old one.

Moving WordPress

First off – before you do anything else – back up EVERYTHING.  Back up the files on your host, your databases, settings… anything you can think of.  It’ll save you later if anything goes foul.

I had done some online research for ways of moving WordPress.  Some would have you create the exact database names, tables, etc. on your new host, but that seemed like a lot more work than I was interested in.  I decided to try the ‘easy’ way, first.  The easy way was simply to do an export from the WordPress Admin panel that can then be imported into a new WordPress installation.  You can do that by clicking Export under the Tools menu in your sidebar.  Once you’ve performed the export, you have a file that you can import in to a fresh WordPress installation that will restore all of your post content.  That covers your content, but you’ll also need to copy the folder with all of your media over.  You can find that at root/wp-content/uploads/.

That covers most of your content, but there are a couple additional things that’ll help you get your new install to match your old one.  First is plugins.  Back up all of your plugins to your local drive, then upload them to your new host.  Once they’re uploaded, you’ll just need to activate them from the admin panel.  Some of them will of course need some additional configuring.  Once your plugins are good to go, you have one last thing you may choose to do.  If you’ve used any Text widgets, you might want to copy the code out of them so you’ll have it for your new install.  This might include things like AdSense, graphics, etc.  I forgot to do this when moving my site, and it was a pain to recreate what I’d done previously…

Now that you’ve got all of your goods ready to use on your new install, you’ll need to install WordPress at your new location.  I’m switching from GoDaddy to Host Gator.  One of the best things about Host Gator is Fantastico De Luxe.  It’s kind of like cheating, it makes installing WordPress REALLY easy.  It handles the creation of a My SQL database and the process takes about a minute.  Now for the catch… you can’t get to your admin panel.  It’ll redirect to your current WordPress install on the old host.  It’s time to change the nameservers.

Changing Nameservers

There are probably ways to do this seamlessly, but I couldn’t find any — and I had the luxury of changing over a site that doesn’t get a ton of traffic.  A little down time was fine by me.

When you change the nameservers, you’re pointing your URL to the place where your website is hosted.  In my case I needed to point them to my new Host Gator installation.  You’ll find the nameserver addresses on your Host Gator control panel.  Once you have that info, go in to the GoDaddy Domain Manager.  Click on the domain you’re changing, and click Manage for the Nameservers section.  Add your two new Nameservers in the fields.  You’re done!  Now you wait.  This process can be quick… or it can take a while, up to 72 hours.  Check your site often to see if the change has taken place ( probably an hour or two ).  This is a good time to upload your Uploads folder, Plugins, and Theme so they’ll be ready.

Once you’re rerouted, get into your WordPress install and Import the file you Exported earlier.  Then install your theme and activate your plugins. Next check your settings – permalinks, blog address, number of posts shown, etc.  Check your site, you should be good to go!

I’ve read this method isn’t foolproof.  You can run into issues with links changing, etc.  If it doesn’t work, you may have to opt for one of the more complicated methods.  Cross your fingers, maybe you’ll get lucky like I was.

I’ll hit on it in the future, but if you need cheap, reliable hosting check out Host Gator.

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6 months ago I would have thought the idea of purchasing a WordPress theme was pretty inane.  I’m by no means a great designer, but I’ve been able to toss together sites, or tweak existing themes to meet my needs.

I recently learned of the Thesis Theme.  Turns out there are a LOT of blogs that are using the theme, but it’s so easy to change to suit your needs that it’s not always that obvious.  There are a few reasons that people give Thesis rave reviews.  I don’t need to go into details here, but I’ll note a few of my highlights.

My favorite thing about Thesis is that it gives you a bare bones site and lets you add or subtract from there.  Changing fonts, columns, and a bunch of other layout elements is easy, using your WordPress dashboard.  You can use the same template across several websites, and they can all look completely different!  The number of easy options that you can change through the dashboard is GREAT.

The other major thing you’ll read all about when learning about the Thesis Theme is the SEO.  The thesis theme is a really clean runnin’ wordpress theme.  They’ve stripped it down to be really friendly to Google and the other search engines.  I can’t vouch for that, necessarily, but I recently had a blog I created end up indexed on Google in under a week, coming in at #6 for the top keyword.  Impressive to me, considering I wasn’t even done designing the site yet.

The downside…  there is a steep learning curve for Thesis.  The use of “hooks” for design elements is one that you’ll have to learn about before you’re able to change your header, or move parts of the layout around.  Luckily there are a ton of tutorials on the ‘net to help you out, and I’ve been able to do anything I’ve needed to do so far.

Just a heads up, I’ll be writing quite a bit about Thesis in the upcoming weeks.  Just little things as I tweak and figure things out!

**NOTE** When this post was written, I this blog was not yet running Thesis. However, it is now! Almost every site I work with runs Thesis on WordPress. Use the dropdown menu at the top right of my blog to view some of my other sites.

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I’ve only been using WordPress for a short time.  I’m constantly finding new plugins that add great options and features.  I think part of the fun of having a blog is constantly adding new Widgets and Plugins.

When I started this site, I instantly installed several plugins to get me up and running fast.  In case this could someday help somebody else… here they are!

In no particular order…

Great Starter Plugins for WordPress

Askimet.  This one is obvious, and now comes with the WordPress install.  You’ll just need to activate it.

All in One SEO Pack – This one is great!  It helps you give all of your posts the proper metadata that you’d put on a normal webpage, like a Title, Description, and Tags.  It also manages your the titles of all of your other pages.  It’s really nice to have.

Google XML Sitemaps – This one creates a Sitemap for your site.  This is really helpful to get your site indexed by the search engines.  It also notifies Ask.com, Google, MSN Live Search and YAHOO about any changes or new posts.

Sociable – There are several options for icons, etc. to let others Share or Subscribe to your content.  I’ve tried a few, and this is my favorite.  It puts little graphics for the many Social Media sites across the bottom of your posts.  You can pick from a huge list of popular sites, then you can even reorder those to your liking.

WordPress Database Backup – This one just does what it needs to do.  It helps you back up your content on a regular basis.  It even runs on a schedule, so that you don’t have to remember.  Because, really, who remembers to back up their databases?  I wish I could find a phpBB plugin like this!

**Update** I’ve added a list of 6 additional plugins that are great when getting started with WordPress. Be sure to check them out, too!

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I just created the favicon for this site!   If you don’t know what it is, the “favicon” is the tiny graphic that shows up to the left of the URL on your browser.  It is also used in your bookmarks, and it becomes a major part of the branding of a website.

Since I just did it, I’ll run through the quick and easy steps to get it done.  There are other ways to do it, but this has always worked for me, and it’s quick.

To create a favicon.ico graphic in Photoshop, you’ll need do download the plugin from Telegraphics.

Now it’s time to create your graphic.  The final product is only 16px square.  You have to be pretty basic, or your graphic ends up being a jumbled mess.  I like to crunch down my site’s logo, or use a letter or two.

To make the graphic live, just drop it into your root directory.  That’s it!

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