Many of you know that I have been blogging on the TypePad platform for more than five years – on this blog and few I have since abandoned. While I will still recommend TypePad to small businesses who are new to blogging, it is time for this blogger to get on a faster horse if he is going to accomplish some higher objectives.
For quite some time I’ve known that WordPress offered greater capabilities than TypePad and other platforms such as Tumblr. However, more features requires either more skill, more time to learn, and more money to hire someone to help you – and probably a combination of all three.
Nevertheless, the time has come – and the process for making it happen was much easier than I expected – thanks to the talented team that I had the good fortune to work with.
More Than a Move – A Sharper Focus
One of the aspects of any kind of move is it gives you the opportunity to decide what to bring with you and what to leave behind – as Bob Seger wrote and recorded … what to leave in and what to leave out.
As a content marketer, I wanted to bring every single piece of content with me – with all of the permalinks intact.
Just like WordPress, Typepad makes this possible by enabling you to forever own your blog content by mapping it to a unique url that you own – regardless of which platform it is attached to.
This is one reason why I will still recommend Typepad.
How do you move all of that content and keep the permalinks intact? I searched far and wide and can tell you there may only be a few companies on this planet that can reliably help you to get this done. Thankfully, I discovered the team at Foliovision who made this happen without a hitch – and for a very reasonable investment at that.
In addition to Alec and his Foliovision team, it was also my good fortune to work with John Hawkins at 9Seeds to design my new site on the premium Genesis framework. His patience and flexibility made designing this site more like a walk in the park than a necessary visit to the dentist.
Thank you to Chris Brogan for introducing us, and thanks again to Jefferson (Peper) Pasqual for creating my awesome new logo.
More Relevant Content
You can still find all of my work going back nearly five years in the Archives section, but really, how useful are those categories?
I’ve come to realize that while subject matter categories are helpful, I can more effectively help you by serving up the most relevant content in the specific topic areas that my small business clients tell me are most relevant to their success.
While this is still a work in progress, that is what the bottom row of buttons on this blog will deliver. These are the specific areas that my clients and community members like you are most interested in (or should be), and consequently, where I am placing my focus moving forward.
Moving Forward
As social media matures, it’s time for all of us to find our focus. To best help you, I’m going to concentrate on the topics most relevant to this community – those that I am also most passionate about – specifically, social media, content marketing, SEO, business trends, and other forms of online marketing.
So, for example, if you need a basic business plan, I will do my best to refer you to a trusted colleague that specializes in that.
However, if you have that in place and want to fire it up with solid online marketing and take full use of the power of new media and the general trend towards social, we should probably talk.
Thank you for being here and making the move with me.
I look forward to learning how I can help you build a more productive and profitable business. Please leave a comment to let me know how, and of course, feel free to share this with your friends.
And if you haven’t noticed, one of the cool new features of this blog is the Wibya bar (at the bottom of your screen) that makes it easy to share .
If you are new here, please consider subscribing.
Until tomorrow, Jeff
I am following you for a while and you are such an inspiration! from your business mission to your different moves and ways to adress the new medias.
Congratulations for the upgrade, the logo says it all. I’m still building my company and my service offering. Instinctively, I was going the same way, to get the business upscale and more serious but keeping in mind who I am and why people follow and will follow me.
Thanks for sharing all you share.
Thanks Emmanuelle – The move was a decision that took some time to make – and I’m still working through some issues, but I’m confident I’m on the right track for better serving my community.
Jeff
Welcome to WordPress Jeff! I had some experience with Typepad, and I never thought badly of it, but WordPress has been my favorite for a long time. Using it as a CMS can bring great functionality to a site.
Thanks Frank – it will allow me to accomplish much more. The Hello Bar above and the Wibya Bar below are just two examples that I could not have done at my former home on TypePad.
i’m confused on two issues:
1) “download” – i chose typepad years ago because i must be web-based, zero downloading (use any computer i want)
2) multiple blogs – i have developed multiple blogs in typepad – because i need to use very different Category sets / otherwise the Categories list would be in the hundreds and totally useless (like many in wordpress are)
QUESTIONS:
1) if i choose linux hosting at godaddy and use wordpress there, can i actually use it in web-based mode (just as i do with typepad) (ie, zero downloading on my own system) ???
2) can i create multiple blogs – for purposes of using different sets of ‘categories’ (just as i do in typepad) [the issue here is not 'domains', in typepad i simply do domain mapping of sub-domains for the multiple blogs]
i’m unable to find these issues addressed in the wordpress vs typepad discussions
as an actual (vs theoretical/test) user of typepad, you would actually understand my questions
thanks very much for your work
Everything you want to do can be done with WordPress. In my post today – Typepad vs WordPress – Pros and Cons I included a link to InMotion Hosting. That’s where my blog is hosted. Just as Typepad hosted it previously, they do now. So, nothing is hosted here – I’m working out of the cloud just like with TypePad. You can host multiple blogs with no problem.
Check out the new article – it may clarify a few more things.
oops – another very important reason i chose typepad years ago over wordpress was ability to choose whatever date i want for an ‘entry’ / my thing is not ‘blogging’ per se – but the key was the ability to build websites
QUESTION: is it as easy in wordpress to choose the date of the entry/post as it is in typepad ?
Yes, scheduling a post for a future date/time is easily accomplished in much the same way.
I have been reading your posts on wordpress vs typepad, they have been very helpful. I still am not sure which is the best for the purposes I need it. I read the pros and cons post and the own your own blog post are there any more in the series that I can read. Do you have any suggestions where I can find more information? thank you
I have started my blog using wordpress but for my new blogs i am thinking of using typepad because they have many features which are easy to deal if you don’t have good technical skills.I’m planning some niche focused blogs but there is one problem I don’t have good technical skills and neither I have a lot of money to spend on designing.I need your advice Jeff that how should I proceed is it o.k to start my blogs using typepad or i must start with wordpress?
Hamza – As you can see it is possible to successfully move to WordPress from TypePad. And I will agree TypePad is easier for those that are challenged by the technology because you can always submit a ticket for help.
The only thing to be sure to do is be sure to map over a domain you own. That’s easily done and explained in the knowledgebase.
Or you can go here: http://bit.ly/qgRpEB
Good luck,
Jeff
Thank you. Suggestion would be having people being able to log in via their Twitter etcetera. I just came across your blog so you have covered this. I came here for the WordPress versus Typepad.
Thank you again.
K, bye
Thanks Christopher – glad you found some value here. I have been a little slow catching up on comments due to the holidays.