Need Help From Blogspot And/Or Wordpress.Org Pros

I couldn't think of anywhere else I could ask this and get the real honest help I need...so thanks Wizzley for being there!

Sorry for the length, but there is no other way to explain this..................

If you can believe this, a year ago today I had never tried blogging, never wrote a Lens or Hub, etc...I just stumbled on blogging, etc. and jumped in. I did create lenses on Squidoo but spent most of my time learning, learning, learning. 

Looking back, I am so happy with the progress I made to date, and the income I'm making in my first year...not enough to live on yet but it is starting to come together.

Anyway, I'm a bit anal and methodical, so after using Squidoo to learn basic "blogging" concepts, SEO, keywords and affiliate marketing, I decided my first blog on my own would be via blogger. I absolutely know about the importance of self-hosting, but it was a first experiment to get the practice in that was necessary before tackling wordpress.org all on my own.

After I was comfortable with blogger/blogspot, I was ready to create my real site (cheap-rv-living.com) on wordpress.org. What a challenge! Still learning, tweaking, etc. but that's ok...it takes time. So as you can see, I took my time and evolved slowly, going from lenses to blogger to wordpress.org, making sure I felt as confident as I could be.

Here's the thing - my self-hosted blog (cheap rv living) is growing slow and steady - not great but everything I do improves its rankings a little at a time. My blogger blog, however, is my big money maker and it is about buying gifts in my niche. Yep...my biggest Amazon earner and Adsense earner is stuck with Blogger!! Ugh.

Now I've read five bizillion articles on how to transfer blogger to wordpress.org, but let me tell you it is terrifying with all of the affiliate links, etc. I have to believe that some of the reason my blogger blog does so well is because it is loved by Google, much more than my wordpress.org blog that has to really prove itself.

So Jim and I have gone nuts with trying to think outside of the box. With blogger, you always have to worry about them shutting it down - or self-promoting too much, etc. But I bought the domain and the blog is a success...now what? Also, transferring it to wordpress is scary because we are afraid we will take a huge traffic hit in doing so.

So what do you think about this idea? There are still .org .info etc available with the domain name that I like. What if I slowly build up the same type of site over on wordpress.org, only bigger and better (no duplicate content, of course-promote different items) and if wordpress does well, then I can start slowly deleting posts/articles on blogger and just moving them to wordpress one at a time, over a period of months?

This blogger blog really took off without much backlinking, etc...that's why I feel it might not do as great on its own on wordpress. Plus, the more you read about transferring from blogger to wordpress, the harder it appears (lots of clean up work with links, etc. that is way over my head).

Thanks for any ideas - again, the blogger blog was a huge, huge money earner for us this past holiday season...afraid to mess up such a good thing!

PS I haven't posted for awhile, so the length of this post makes up for it, eh? Sorry again about the length...

Robin

Keep your Blogger Blog and write a new one as well. No duplicated material just complimentary. That way you might have two domains in the same Search Engine results. I do this all the time.

Make them very different in format. So if Google decides not to like one during an algo change, you'll have the other.

Thanks Digby!

Ok...that leads to two questions...(open to anyone)

1. Given that .com is taken on my blogger blog, any expert advice on the best one to grab, if available (.org, etc)
2. Here's the thing - my gift blog is extremely unique because it is not your average product review - I talk about why we want the product and its features, but I do so in a funny and sarcastic way such as "leveling blocks - why any day above ground is a good one." You get the idea. I don't want to create the wordpress.org site in a professional, "not me" way - it wouldn't be fun anymore. So I would have two sites where I'm the narrator of product reviews, keeping my first person presence and humor, etc? If someone clicked on both of these blogs wouldn't they think "what the?!" because here I obviously am, on two gift sites?

All of my blogs/sites are really personalized, so my readers get to know us and connect with us, even when selling affiliate products. Just confused how to run two similar blogs without turning off readers, even when the products being reviewed are absolutely different products (again, no duplicate content).

Thanks! Robin

The blogs don't have to have the same url. I'm wouldn't even interlink them. One goes down in the SERPS it'll bring the other down. Build two separate domains. I don't think anyone will hold it against you.

Digby,

I sent you a message...thanks so much for your replies!

Robin

Digby is giving you good advice. If something is making you money don't move it ! But yes I would buy a second domain - although both sites may start off very similar - you'll find they will both find their own voice with time. It doesn't come across as weird to readers  -if they notice at all, most won't - they will think you are a real expert who can be found eveywhere! 

Thank you Lissie!

That makes sense...and I sure prefer thinking that someone seeing me in two places will consider me an "expert" instead of "there's that goofy rv gal again!"

Thanks again for your reply,

Robin

Oh, just in case nobody mentioned it, back-up your blogspot blog regularly. If the worst thing happens and Google takes it down, you can always import the contents into another, self-hosted, blog!

Thanks, Sam!

Always a good idea to back up...I've got to get into a regular routine with that!

Lissie: 23. Jan 2012, 14:24

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Digby is giving you good advice. If something is making you money don't move it ! But yes I would buy a second domain - although both sites may start off very similar - you'll find they will both find their own voice with time. It doesn't come across as weird to readers  -if they notice at all, most won't - they will think you are a real expert who can be found eveywhere! 

I agree. It's one reason I always tell people to buy a domain name to use with your blogger blog, even if you're not sure whether you're serious or not - but too late for that now!  If your blog is successful, it probably has some good backlinks, plus fans know where to find it - you don't want to lose that.

Hi Marisa,

If you don't mind clarifying, I DID buy a domain name with my blogger blog. It does not have blogspot.com at the end. Just rv-gifts.com...plain and simple. Does this change things, in your opinion?

Thanks!

frugalrvers: 24. Jan 2012, 21:19

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Hi Marisa,

If you don't mind clarifying, I DID buy a domain name with my blogger blog. It does not have blogspot.com at the end. Just rv-gifts.com...plain and simple. Does this change things, in your opinion?

Yes it does, because you can export all your content from your Blogger blog, transfer the domain name to a self-hosted Wordpress blog, import your content from Blogger, and your fans will still be able to find you. 

However, I'm not sure whether the URL's of each blog post will stay the same if you do that.  It does if you import from Wordpress to Wordpress, not sure about Blogger to Wordpress - does anyone know?   If they do stay the same, then you could transfer with no penalty.

Marisawright: 27. Jan 2012, 01:31

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frugalrvers: 24. Jan 2012, 21:19

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Hi Marisa,

If you don't mind clarifying, I DID buy a domain name with my blogger blog. It does not have blogspot.com at the end. Just rv-gifts.com...plain and simple. Does this change things, in your opinion?

Yes it does, because you can export all your content from your Blogger blog, transfer the domain name to a self-hosted Wordpress blog, import your content from Blogger, and your fans will still be able to find you. 

However, I'm not sure whether the URL's of each blog post will stay the same if you do that.  It does if you import from Wordpress to Wordpress, not sure about Blogger to Wordpress - does anyone know?   If they do stay the same, then you could transfer with no penalty.

I have done this with one of my minor blogs, there is a hack to redirect the urls of the domains also. But I must admit I would be very hesitant to do this with a main money making blog! Whilst readers might still be able to find you, what is about search engines, PR and link juice you have acquired?

Thanks Marisa and Sam!

I honestly did, to the best of my ability, research this topic up and down. Agreed, it is easy to "transfer" it from Blogger to Wordpress, but then you start reading about how there is so much cleaning house to do. For example, Blogger urls end it the .html. People talk about broken this, broken that...and you really need to be quite educated in all of this "stuff" to pull it off yourself. So though we are confident we could move it, the end result could be a pile of goo that is of little value anymore.

Because I like the tone and feel of this Bloggers blog, if I start a new one on wordpress I really want to keep to the same style, because it works and is fun to write. That is why I was concerned about having two similar blogs (different products, of course-no duplication) where I talk the same, etc. But having it in wordpress would allow me to also promote other gift ideas like zazzle, allposters and whatever else I come up with as it evolves. Currently, I'm pretty leery about posting too much, too often given so many items go to Amazon.

Hoping that my blogger blog continues to thrive, at least if I get one going and moving on wordpress, if a year from now it is doing really well, I can just slowly move focus over to that one. But I think we've decided to leave it alone and not move it because of the clean up and risk involved. Hope that is the right decision (yikes).

Sam: 27. Jan 2012, 03:50

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 I have done this with one of my minor blogs, there is a hack to redirect the urls of the domains also. But I must admit I would be very hesitant to do this with a main money making blog! Whilst readers might still be able to find you, what is about search engines, PR and link juice you have acquired?

It's not about search engines, PR or link juice - it's about having access to the greater functionallity of Wordpress,  There are so many useful plugins and software packages for Wordpress that just don't have an equivalent on Blogger. 

Plus the OP is worried about Google's ability to shut down her Blogger blog at any time - which honestly, I don't think she should worry about.  Do you?  Personally, I've never heard of anyone having a Blogger blog shut down unless they were using duplicate content, or using it exclusively for promotion of their Hubs (just a list of links).

If that's the only issue, then I would be making sure I regularly exported my content (so I've got a backup in case of disaster) but I would just carry on - it may never happen.

frugalrvers: 27. Jan 2012, 09:09

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Agreed, it is easy to "transfer" it from Blogger to Wordpress, but ... Blogger urls end it the .html. People talk about broken this, broken that...

... But having it in wordpress would allow me to also promote other gift ideas like zazzle, allposters and whatever else I come up with as it evolves.

 

Why do you think you can't promote zazzle and autoposters on Blogger? Creating affiliate links on Wordpress and Blogger works exactly the same.

If the complexity of creating affiliate links bamboozles you, then just sign up for Skimlinks - you can use it on Blogger, and all you have to do is create a plain hyperlink and Skimlinks creates the aff link for you (they can do links on behalf of  all the big affiliate networks).  They take a cut of your commission in return - but then ask yourself, what is your time worth?

  Besides, Zazzle and Allposters are kid's stuff.  They're perfect for a rev-share site because they cover a wide range of topics, but on your own blog, you should be moving up to big girl's affiliate marketing - ShareASale, Linkshare, Commission Junction, direct affiliate programs with RV-related companies.

Just Google "RV affiliate programs" and you'll find there are quite a few.  You could also sign up with Skimlinks (it's free) and then you'll be able to browse their merchant list - they have a lot of merchants for auto parts etc.

I wrote a couple of Hubs, one on how to monetize Blogger and the other on Skimlinks, which explain things in more detail.