A "SHADOW" BLOG ON WORDPRESS.COM

Over many months of blogging, I have made many, many changes to our original “default” blog template - changing colors and fonts, adding “widgets” and short strings of computer-speak to tweak the templates to my taste. I don’t want to lose those customizations, so I saved my blog templates to a file on our laptop. Blogger makes this easy: on the Layout tab of a Blogger blog, pick Edit HTML and use Backup/Restore Template. This saved file will be backed up to our external hard drive monthly.

Next, I used the Geeks On Tour video instructions to set up a WordPress.com account (Wordpress is another online blogging site), to create “backup” blogs, and to copy all my blog posts to the new WordPress blogs. Here is what Semi-True Tales looks like on Wordpress, using one of their standard formats (called "themes"). Someday, when I have the time and interest, I'll poke around the Wordpress site and customize these blogs - but for now, backing up my Blogger posts is my only priority.

The Geeks video was very clear, and I was able to set up the account, create the two new blogs, and copy all the blog posts safely to these new backup blogs in one evening (you need to have reliable, high-speed internet access to do this without frustration). I’ll copy new posts to the backup blogs monthly, or weekly when we are on the road and posting frequently. If I ever lose access to our Blogger blogs, I’ll be able to switch easily to the Wordpress blogs.

I would not have known how to do this if not for the Geeks. If you want to learn how to do this, do it SOON. The video is currently available for free viewing on the Geeks website, but the free video changes regularly.

I had only one task remaining (next post)...