Switching from Blogger to Wordpress?

So, I started my blog on Blogger a few months ago and I think it's growing steadily. I think that I eventually want to move to my own domain name and publish on Wordpress, rather than using the blogger website and having the ".blogspot.com" address. So, a few questions:

1. Am I right that in the long run, I'll do better with my own domain and wordpress rather than using blogger? i.e., am I just putting off the inevitable if I continue to use the blogger platform for a few months? I am decent at understanding/writing html, so I've been able to customize the blogger site to some extent, but I want to be able to have separate pages for a recipe index, blogroll, etc!

2. Am I better making the switch now, when my blog is still new, rather than when it's been around for a while and I'll be disrupting a larger number of readers (hopefully!)?

3. Am I going to lose readers if I make the switch, or is it pretty seamless?


This Post was written by Katy from sugarlaw.

(General) Ideal Posting Frequency?

Hi everyone -

What are your thoughts on posting frequency and how it affects your traffic/readership? In other words, let's say I get three full stories drafted. Should I post them all the same day? One a day for three days? One every other day? Does it even matter?

Looking forward to your comments!

This Post was written by Laura from The Fro Fro Blog

Blogger Formatting

Hi Ev'body...

I am super frustrated at Blogger and hoping one of ya'll can help me out.

Every post I have written lately has been automatically formatting as double or triple spaced.

When I write a phrase, then hit "enter" ONCE it naturally goes to the next line, but when I look at the HTML the word "div" appears in brackets at least twice before and twice after every word.

I end up going back and manually deleting the "div", which is taking ages and getting me all grumpy.

Does anyone know if I somehow set this up to happen in formatting? Can I UNDO that? What are my options.

Thanks so much all!

Rachael


This Post was written by Rachael from Fresh Approach

(Misc) 2007 Food Blog Awards

Just a note to let you know that we have put the first of many announcements up this morning re: the 2007 Food Blog Awards. We have moved up the schedule slightly this year, to keep it away from the holidays as much as possible. Let the fun begin!

Written by Cate of Well Fed Network and Sweetnicks.

It's a great feeling...

...to go into work at a restaurant that's just been awarded its first Michelin star. So excuse me for feeling really chuffed this morning. Thanks to all my friends in Food Blog S'cool who gave me so much encouragement over the past year or so.

This Post was written by Trig from Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef.

Invitation to be a Fo*dBuzz.com "sponsored" blog

Hi everyone-

I recently received an invitation from Fo*dBuzz.com to be a sponsored blog (replace * with an O, obviously). I want to find out if any of you received such an invite, if any of you have chosen to be sponsored, and what your experience has been. I'm nervous about this... I have mixed feelings about my posts being syndicated on other sites, namely I worry that it might cut into the actual traffic to my site and that someone else is making profit by running ads on what are essentially my posts hosted on their site. Yet it could be a good way to get some new readers. The site looks legit, though I've never heard of it before. It looks potentially really interesting, actually. Still, I'm nervous about this. Any feedback or suggestions?

Here is part of the original e-mail:

Foodbuzz would like to sponsor your blog, and invite you to join other food bloggers as a Featured Publisher in our Foodbuzz Publisher Program.

The basic benefits include promotion and exposure of your blog on Fo*dbuzz.com, above-competitive compensation for ads, community networking, and ad campaign management.

What are some questions I should ask or things I should look out for to make sure this is worthwhile for me?

This Post was written by Tovah (aka Isaiah) from Gluten-Free Bay

Just a guy named Yuri

This morning I woke up to the following comment on one of my recipes:

IP Address: 193.239.152.85
Name: Food for Heaven. Cooking recipes
Email Address: sally@foodforheaven.com
URL: http://www.foodforheaven.com
Comments:

I've made this soupe today and was really impressed. It was perfect!
Thanks for your tasty recipe!

Cooking is also my hobby, so we are kind of tasty-friends :)

I almost always check the URLs of comments before they post, and sure enough, this one turned out to be an aggregator, using content from my site and Kalyn's.

The nerve! First throwing up a Wordpress site with our feeds, and then leaving comments on my site to promote it?

When I demanded that Sally take down my content, I got this from "Sally Moore":

Hello, Elise.

I thought it would be great for you to have your recipes on my website. I added link to your website after every recipe, so people could read the whole entry at elise.com
But if you don't want to promote your website this way, it's your choice. Food for Heaven is becoming a great portal.

I won't post your materials anymore. I thought you're kind of woman who prefer friendship and collaboration. I was wrong.

Yeah, right. Turns out in the long header of the email, it was actually sent by a guy named "Yuri Zakharov", confirmed when I got another email from Yuri himself with the same IP address.

So, just a warning to everyone, the sneaky aggregators are trying to promote their stolen goods on our own sites, leaving happy, friendly comments from people with happy, friendly names.

If you've received any comments recently from FoodForHeaven, you should know that it's just a guy named Yuri who thinks we are stupid enough to buy into it.


This Post was written by Elise from Simply Recipes

Sidebar photo not showing up but link working

Hi, I had linked a photo (a jpg logo) in my sidebar to the relevant post - the link works but the logo/photo is not showing up. Why is that? How can I remedy that?

This Post was written by Sra from When My Soup Came Alive

show/hide the blogger navbar

It has been bothering me for a while that my email address is in full view at the top of the page whenever I am logged on to blogger or google. I do realize that it is only viewable by me and that others see their email addresses at the top of the page. However, if I were to log in to blogger or google on a shared computer in a public place, anyone could easily take note of my email address. I get plenty of spam as it is and don't really like the idea of adding even more.

Also, it has come to my attention that the "next blog" link may turn up a blog with really questionable content. I really dislike the idea of linking to unknown drivel. (I don't mind linking to drivel that I KNOW about... ;-))

I have searched and searched for a way to disable the "next blog" link and change the navbar so that the user nickname rather than the email address shows.

I did not find anything about that other than some hacks to remove the navbar entirely. I'm reluctant to do this as it is likely to be a violation of the blogger TOS.

However, I did find a very nice little javascript at Derya's WebResource.axd. I have modified it a little so that the words change depending on whether the navbar is visible or not. The nice thing about this is that it cannot be construed as a violation of the TOS because of the visible link to the blogger navigation bar.

I thought others who have their blogs hosted by blogger might like to use this "show/hide the navbar" option. Here is the coding to copy and paste somewhere above <head>:

<!-- Show/Hide navbar header coding begins -->
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
var showHeader=false;
function ShowHideNav()
{
showHeader=!showHeader;
var nav=document.getElementById("navbar-iframe");
if (showHeader)
{
nav.style.visibility="visible";
nav.style.display="block";
}
else
{
nav.style.visibility="hidden";
nav.style.display="none";
}
var nav=document.getElementById("warning");
if (showHeader)
{
// when the navbar is visible, the phrase after innerHTML will be seen
document.getElementById('warning').innerHTML="Please be wary of "next blog" link - there is questionable content on many blogs";
}
else
{
// when the navbar is invisible, the phrase after innerHTML will be seen
document.getElementById('warning').innerHTML="to search the blog; sign in and out of blogger; etc. etc.";
}
var nav=document.getElementById("showit");
if (showHeader)
{
// When the navbar is visible the word will be "Hide "
document.getElementById('showit').innerHTML="Hide ";
}
else
{
// When the navbar is invisible the word will be "Show "
document.getElementById('showit').innerHTML="Show ";
}

}
</script>
<style type="text/css">
#navbar-iframe {
visibility: hidden;
display: none;
}
</style>
<!-- Show/Hide navbar header coding ends -->

And here is the coding to copy and paste somewhere below <body>

<!-- Show/Hide navbar body coding begins -->
<small><span id="showhide" onclick="ShowHideNav();" title="Please be wary of "next blog" link">
<b><u><span id="showit">Show</span> Blogger Navigation Bar
<a href="http://derya-webresource.blogspot.com" title="derya-webresource.blogspot.com">...</a>
</u></b><br />
<span id="warning">to search the blog; sign in and out of blogger; etc. etc.</span></small>
<!-- Show/Hide navbar body coding ends -->

The result is the following phrase when the navbar is invisible:

Show Blogger Navigation Bar
to search the blog; sign in and out of blogger; etc. etc.

that changes to this when the navbar is visible:

Hide Blogger Navigation Bar
Please be wary of "next blog" link - there is questionable content on many blogs

The words "Show" and "Hide" are housed in a span with the spec id="showit". To change those words, go to the first piece of coding and look for var nav=document.getElementById("showit"); and see the notes below.

The second phrase is housed in a span with the spec id="warning". To change those words, go to the coding in the header and look for var nav=document.getElementById("warning"); and see the notes below that.

I hope this all made sense!!

----------------------------------------------
This Post was written by Elizabeth from blog from OUR kitchen (I also have a blogger blog where you can see this script in action. Look for the link just below the header.)

edited 7 November to add comments in the coding

Check Posts for Unwanted Drafts

Something is up with this blog and autosave. Every time it autosaves it is saving as a draft so there are multiple drafts of all recent posts on the post screen. If you have posted recently take a minute and delete the unwanted drafts. My short post below generated four autosaved drafts, only one of which was the complete post that I published.

FJK

Digital SLR recommendations

I'm finally fed up with the limitations of my point and shoot camera and plan to upgrade to a digital SLR in the near future. I'm looking seriously at the Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP and would like to hear from anyone who uses it. All opinions welcome, as well as thoughts on any other digital SLRs on the market. I'm planning to learn about shooting in RAW so I prefer a camera that supports that format.

I would also like to hear thoughts on macro lenses or all-purpose lenses that might do well with macro shots, as well as lighting equipment.

Is that too much to cram into one question??? :-)

Thanks so much!

This Post was written by ANDREA from ANDREA'S RECIPES.

Camera opinions sought

I know this has been covered before, but the posts I found were a bit old and they keep coming out with new cameras....

My trusty Olympus Stylus 410 has died and I am looking to replace it with something else that I can keep in my pocket, whip out at restaurants, take on exotic trips, photograph food, friends and gargolyes and generally use as an all purpose camera.

What would you recommend and why?


I've been flirting with a Canon Power Shot SD 800 or 850 with image stablization

OR the Pansonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 with a monster 10x zoom

or the new Sony cybershot dst100, but I'm open to other suggestions.



If you have any experience with these cameras I'd love to hear about it. If there is another camera you'd swear by that fits my needs and pocket, I'd love to know about it.



Thanks

Picnik for photos

I think that the subject of how to edit photos to include copyright notice 'watermarks', frames, and the like has come up here a few times. Someone asked me about a similar thing recently, so I thought I'd put what I told them here too.

There is a very nifty tool called Picnik that does these things very easily. They didn't have the text overlay feature before, and I requested it a while back (I'm sure they got lots of requests for this) and now they have it.

I've put up a quick and dirty demo of what can be done with the free version of the tool on my flickr page - integration with flickr is seamless, and they say they have Picasa integration too. (They have a pay version which I haven't signed up for yet.) The photo editing tools like sharpen, color correction and so on seem to be pretty good too. Not as robust as Photoshop of course..but there is a price difference. I do use Photoshop myself but this should be great for most users...I think I'll use it when I'm on the road without my laptop.

(I have no ties, commercial or otherwise, with the site, etc.)


This Post was written by maki from Just Hungry and Just Bento.

Warning about Blogger AUTOSAVE!

Just want to let everyone who uses BLOGGER to be sure to save your work ELSEWHERE - do not rely on the "new and improved" autosave function.

Apparently, there is a "known issue" with it eating up work, rather than saving it. I just lost hours of work. Don't let this happen to you! * fingers crossed* it will be on the server and refreshe when I sign back in.

I also had trouble with Blogger not recognizing my name/pwd. Perhaps these are only coincidently coincident.


This Post was written by Jacquline from Leather District Gourmet (yes, it was lots of progress I'd made on my "Teach a Man to Fish" round-up! Wahhh!)

Another Scraper

I have found another feedscraper that is jacking some of my content to drive their adsense.

URL = recipe dot wpbloggers dot com

You might want to see if your stuff is there. Google has been modifying it's algorithm to kill splogs and scrapers but this one is obviously put-putting along fine.

If you have stuff there, in the name of blog-swarm splog reporting, I suggest reporting to google adsense... They have this link at the bottom of their page to "report abuse" .. riiiiight.

Click the "ads by Google" and then keep looking for the "report violation" text link toward the bottom.

This Post was written by Nika from Nika's Culinaria

Quickie?

At the bottom of any comment section here, there is a link to take the reader "Home". Can someone tell me what the HTML code is for that function and where in the old blogger template I can insert it?

Thanks,

This Post was written by Jacqueline from The Leather District Gourmet.

Problems with blogroll in wordpress

Hello,

I used wordpress to host my blog and it works well overall, though it will not display my blogroll. I have many links in the system though it just doesn't load in the sidebar (using widgets)

Has anyone had a similar problem?


This Post was written by Conor from Ithinkfoodisgreat.com

Hits And Visit Depth On Weekends

Do you guys find that your hits go down but your pages/visit go up on the weekends? It seems logical enough, that fewer people are web surfing, but those that are have more time to visit deeply. Anyone have suggestions for how to drive more folks to your site on those lazy weekend days?


This Post was written by Michael Natkin from Herbivoracious.com (formerly The Vegetarian Foodie)

Creating a Drop Down List

Hi there. I'm trying to create a drop down list such that when people want to search for recipes they can by category (i.e. appetizers, vegetable dishes, main meals etc.). I tried searching the data base for drop down lists but came up with no posts. Can anyone give me some advice, please. :)

Cheers!

This Post was written by Heather Chase from The Culinary Chase

You say Entertaining I say Nightmare!

Just saying the word ‘November’ makes the entertaining challenged run for cover. From now until January 2^nd (The official start of the January Diet Campaign) these poor souls are awash with anxiety and culinary hurdles.

The easiest way around this conundrum is to entertain in restaurants or have your party catered. This method is rather expensive. If you are entertaining challenged have one large party and bang out as many pay backs as possible. In this vein you could do “co-mingling” entertaining. In its purest form this is a pot-luck. You supply a clean house and beverages and let your guests bring the rest. Be forewarned that without guidance your guests might all bring a chunk of cheese or desserts. Don’t forget lots of saran to wrap all those goodies up and give back to your guests (keep the ones that you like- they owe you). A variation is the "orchestrated foraged" party. This uses more gas and ingenuity but by tearing around your fair city you can create an “I can’t cook but I can party! menu. With a little bit of planning (you’re the hostess you know when the party is) you can order some excellent items from Zabar’s to intimidate your guests. Nothing like a little smoked sturgeon to show you care. Just gather as many exotic pre-made ingredients that your budget will allow and don’t forget that ever popular crudités (that says healthy) and your party will scream “Look I’m entertaining and having fun!”

There are die hard foodies like me who would rather be spit roasted than use someone else’s candied nuts. We stubborn stupid cooks feel that each entertaining event puts our sauté pans on the line. Having been a caterer means that I can’t do pot-lucks or cookie exchanges. And each year the entertaining bar is raised. I want to give a party like I used to be hired to provide. I rent dishes, wine glasses buy snappy invitations with R.S.V.P.’s and pick special stamps. The guest list is a pot pourri of people. There are always those tiresome neighbors, the boss who thinks he knows it all, and special friends to talk to while the rest of them face off.

The thing I hate about entertaining is that I have to clean the house and do the cooking. Catering was so simple. I showed up with the food and the house was clean. I didn’t have to mingle just make sure there was enough food and the kitchen was spotless when I left.

When we entertain, invariably my Not So Silent Partner with wine glass in hand, will decide to give the newbie’s a tour of the chateau. Is our bedroom with its 14’ butterfly on the wall or my office with 4 6’bookshelves filled with cookbooks necessary for all to see? So I dutifully clean all the nooks and crannies wishing we could do a series of parties since I went to all this trouble. But the hardest thing for me to clean for guests is the kitchen table. You see our kitchen table is a living being dedicated to reading. Layers of food magazines, NYT book review sections, and catalogs grace the marble surface. It takes months to get the right mix of medium so that no matter when you sit down you can exhume a never read piece of literature to fit your mood. Did I mention the random scraps of paper that garnish like a sprinkle of parsley on a dinner plate? I digress into my own entertaining quandary.

What I wanted to discuss was not only the impending doom of Thanksgiving, Christmas, (Hanukah, Kwanza) and New Years; but a little known French holiday that will ease your entertaining woes and put you at the top of the 2007 social circuit. Don’t tell anyone but Nouveau Beaujolais is the answer! On the 3^rd Thursday of November (a week before Thanksgiving) at 12pm the Beaujolais region of France releases its first wine of the season. Yes, the wine has been shipped to your favorite wine shop but they can’t sell it before 12pm your time. In some circles nouveau beaujolais is considered a precursor to how good the wine year will be.

All you have to do is round up 3 different vineyard’s wines put paper bags around them; label them 1, 2, 3 rent some wine glasses (red cups won’t do!) and away you go! The menu? What’s easier? Cheese, fruit, store bought paté (for that gourmet touch). If your French side is clamoring for attention you can make gougere or fondue. You will notice that no EVOO was spilled nor “chunked” potatoes were “smashed” for this event but it was oh, so easy!! Dessert? You’re off the hook- a wine party doesn’t need it! Voila! A party! Your guests vote on which Beaujolais they like the best and then after the fabricated award is given to the wine and the suspense is done you can continue to drink in earnest. Now the secret to this party is the date. No one is thinking of a party before thanksgiving and your party won’t get lost in the holiday shuffle. When your friends think back on their holiday season and the endless holiday buffets they “enjoyed” they will remember your party first with glowing nostalgia and a well done!