Monday, April 12, 2010

Time to move to a host? problems with blogger

I'm not trying to upset anyone but I feel like we have or may soon outgrow solely using blogger. I realize that we don't have a ton of traffic but it will be easier to increase the traffic and keep regular visitors if we upgrade to a host.

Problems that I currently see with continuing to only have a blogger site

1. the site looks less professional
2. lancashiregaming.blogspot.com is just too long to remember.
3. Unable to create a proper store for the amazon affiliate store.
4. I foresee problems finding posts in the future. already I dislike the way things are setup.
5. and the biggest problem is that it hurts our branding potential.

I found a host that only costs 1.95 per month and dreamhost also provides a free 1 yr. domain registration. I would be willing to pay for it, at least until the site starts making money. The host does support word-press but I'm not sure about blogger. meaning I would have to port everything over but that's no big deal. tell me what you guys think in the comments please.

3 comments:

  1. Honestly Forsaken,

    I wouldn't mind having a more professional site for the club, but understand, we are by no means anywhere close to the realm of professionals.

    I think the format of a blog works perfectly for the type of site we need for the club. Something where all users are on equal ground and where communication/discussion is the priority.

    I don't know much about the whole amazon store thing, but I'll take your word for it. but a few thoughts about the traffic to the site...

    the biggest obstacle I foresee for the club is simply.. content.

    why are we worrying about being able to search for content, when we barely have enough content that's even worth reading? (not that there is some standard for readable vs. nonreadable), but I hope you get my drift.. we need more content in general for the site. Then we can worry about how would people search for ... say.. army building tips.. or.. painting tutorials, etc.

    I think looking ahead is a great practice, but honestly, I don't want to have a super elaborate site, with nothing in it.

    I simply do not buy into the thinking that blogger is holding us back from our potential. There are numerous gaming sites like ours that utilize the blogger format (long address and all) that have 500+ followers. and its not because of format.. its because of content.

    I've been trying to really push everyone in the club to post what they are thinking, strategies, army building/painting progression, general questions, and of course rants.

    I am also unsure of this.. 'branding potential.'

    all in all, if you want to pursue this avenue, I think you should. Don't let my misguided ramblings deter you from your vision. Can we construct this site on a different host while still maintaining a semi-active blog roll here? and switch over when needed? my vote is for doing all the ground work before jumping the gun.

    we don't' need a new host before the design. so lets set up the new design as you talked about (I guess you'll be spearheading this) and have everything ready and do it all at once. makes sense to me.

    in the meantime.

    everyone needs to keep up with the content of the site. go go go!

    - Brother C

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  2. Plz read -
    http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/12/blogger-integrates-with-amazon.html

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  3. Yeah I'm not sure now is the time to transfer over to an official site with extra costs and what not.

    I think there is still a ton we can do with this blog, I know we can change the formatting and everything about the site. Might have to get brother C to do it, cause he's the author or just use his account to change it. But I know there is much more we can do to make this look more professional.

    I think we have tons of great articles already, given that we haven't been around for very long. We have a very active blog.

    I do want to encourage everybody to keep up the good work with posting. Post everything, your thoughts, your lists, your tactics, your paint projects. We are doing great with it in my opinion.

    It's definitely something to keep in mind tho, I wouldn't be opposed to our own domain and site down the road, but for now, I think this is working and could still get us further.

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