There’s a bit of discussion around the blogosphere about subdomains and what to do when you’re tired of the restrictions. So here’s Syntagma’s two cents.

I started blogging, like many people, on a Blogger Blogspot subdomain. In those days I had no thought of monetization, just promoting a book I was working on at the time.

The advantages of Blogger is that it’s free, so you can make as many mistakes as you like without penalty, and it allows you to fiddle with the code and change the template. You can bring in third-party software and features, like Haloscan comments and trackbacks.

For each post, I used to hand code Technorati tags and a Permalink. The blog (also called SYNTAGMA) became quite a complex structure and attained a PageRank of 5.

However, I was moving on too, as bloggers do. I’d decided to enter the blog network business and needed to professionalize the whole system. But which platform to use?

I considered Typepad, but was put off by the subdomain: syntagma.typepad.com. Why leave one sub for another, however sophisticated?

I downloaded Wordpress, but the first instruction reads something like: “Change the configuration file to match your database and upload to root directory on your server”. Ummmm, what database, what root directory? And the code was full of serverside PHP instructions, akin to those dreaded CGI scripts.

I gave up and stuck with Blogger, while joining a couple of blog networks as a jobbing blogger. Although it wasn’t the primary intention, I found myself learning all about Wordpress. At Duncan Riley’s Weblog Empire I was able to poke around in the works and by examining Duncan’s code find out how things worked.

So here’s how to move from a subdomain to a Wordpress platform:

Syntagma Tutorial on Switching to Wordpress for PHP Dimwits

1. Getting a domain name — the easy way.
2. Finding a host — the easy way.
3. Discovering Fantastico — which does all the Wordpress configuration work for you.

1. There are domain name registrars who charge $30 a year for a .com domain. That’s how I started out. Then there’s Namecheap, an automated club-like system that charges $9 and throws in WHOIS nameguard free. The latter prevents your name being known by others — useful if you’re worried about personal security.

So get along to Namecheap, register, and play around with .com names. If you have a geographically-based business, say, in England, use .co.uk. Otherwise go for .com as you’ll get more traffic. Keep the name as simple as possible and, try to include your main keywords. RoyalAnecdotes.com, for example. Or, in that crowded digicam space: DigitalCameraLatest.com. Be a little creative, but avoid dots in the name if you can possibly help it. Dashes are better for the search engines.

2. Finding a host to manage your site on its servers is less easy. Some are way better than others. Some are downright dismal.

The first thing to look for is “Fantastico”, for they will ease you into Wordpress and do all the configuration work for you. There are others who do this, but let’s keep this simple. Fantastico also offers other content management systems, like Xoops, for example, but … ditto.

I eventually settled on site5, which had all the benchmarks I was looking for, plus multisite packages. These are useful for blog networks because all your sites can be managed from one control panel. But single site accounts are on offer too.

3. When you’ve set up your domain name and pointed it to the host server — just a few clicks at Namecheap — go to your host’s control panel and find Fantastico. Click on Wordpress from the menu, and follow the install process.

Now you’re dealing with Wordpress and you can play around as much as you like. It will take a while to familiarize yourself with the system, but then there’s a learning curve at Blogger and Typepad too.

It’s a lot simpler than it sounds. But, if you can handle Blogger, you can manage this process as well.

If anyone needs any more information, drop me a comment or an email.