In case it hasn’t caught your eye already, the site has not only received a fresh coat of paint, but a complete overhaul.
The overhaul is courtesy of a switch of platform from Blogger to self-hosted WordPress. A long time ago, I had justified the decision to start with Blogger, but at some time you outgrow the restrictions of a mass platform. In my case, I can’t say that it is due to the traffic or content, but on account of the irresistible scratch to tinker. A self-hosted WordPress blog provides the utmost freedom in that sense to basically do what you want to every aspect of the website, and that’s what I have done.
However, it doesn’t come for free, unlike Blogger. The first thing is to literally have a home for the blog, and that comes through hosting. In this case, I made most of a Black Friday deal on LowEndTalk to bag a lifetime shared hosting deal. It isn’t going to blow anyone’s pants in terms of specs, but it is probably good enough for a humble blogger and his sparse visitors.
Setting up WordPress though was much easier than anticipated, the migration from Blogger more so. In a sense it was ready to go with a simple import and owning a custom domain made it extremely simple to retain the permalinks so that hopefully the Google searches don’t land you to a nonexistent page.
What didn’t end up being easy was the entire process of customization and optimization. While migration of posts is one thing, setting up the newer elements is quite another. You can probably see that the site is more flamboyant than it was previously, and that comes at a price. It took several hours to get a look that I could stick by, even though it may not be easy on your eyes (beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, doesn’t it?)
At the same time came the need to make the site responsive enough on a basic server. This meant another tens of hours spent on optimizing each aspect of the page, image and general resource loading process. It isn’t going to set PageSpeed on fire, but that is a price to pay for operating on a budget. But looks are everything, ain’t it?
To sum it up, it’s a new home, a new platform and a new look, but the same old me. There is more to discover, but until then, feel free to find your way around and drop any criticisms my way. Until the next NEW content, adios!
