I have big plans for 2014, especially the first quarter of 2014. Crucial to these plans was/is a move of this blog to Squarespace. In fact, I'd hoped by now that I'd be writing this post from my newly designed space. But alas, I'm not. I'm still on Blogger.
Blogger as a initial platform served me well. I was able to share my thoughts and visions with little overhead. But, at some point in a blog's life, the editor is faced with a decision about how to facilitate growth. For me, that decision came this past summer.
I discovered that my Intra-site search was no longer indexing posts prior to May 2013. For me, this was a problem as I have a lot of evergreen content that I refer readers to (I've been sharing tips here since 2008). When I couldn't find the Chanukkah prayers on my own site and I knew without a doubt I had shared them, I knew it was time. Time to move on from Blogger.
Moving platforms is not for the faint of heart. Each platform has their own pluses and minuses. I decided to move to Squarespace because it doesn't require me to stay on top of security fixes for a myriad of plug-ins. I love the extensibility that WordPress has; I just don't love the very real risk my site will get hacked and owned.
This choice means that a lot of the HTML coding I've done and am used to doing here on Blogger isn't an option on Squarespace. There are workarounds but suffice it to say the codebase doesn't map cleanly. For example, all of my nofollow links reverted to regular links. If you participate in any affiliate programs or have sponsored content this is a big problem. The FTC doesn't allow anyone to buy links. A link that's not set to nofollow counts as a purchased link.
I'm still going to be moving to Squarespace and I'll be putting in a lot of time and effort behind the scenes along with my husband getting the blog ready for you. It's frustrating because instead of focusing all my energies on amazing content I have to choose. Content or clean up. I hope you'll stick around. Posts will be a little sporadic over the next few weeks, but I guarantee you're going to love the new space as much as I do. It's just a little further off than I had hoped.
Is your progress towards them going according to plan?
P.S. Don't feel like commenting? Strike up a conversation with me elsewhere: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, or Pinterest.
Credits: All layouts designed by and images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for The Road to the Good Life.
