About changing a blog into a website ...

UPDATE 05/05/14 :  www.palazzopizzo.com is back and pointing !


I have been experimenting a bit to combine my two blogs www.palazzopizzo.blogspot.com and www.palazzopizzoresidence.blogspot.com. And after having diverted the pointer I couldn't set it back. Now, I am waiting for a technical helper to enter required code names into the Domain Name System .... (update: it's done)

In the meantime, I continue searching for a solution. I need a static front page, a landing page that does not look like a blog. I want a welcome page that guides those to the blog who want to read my posts and those to our vacation rental who are planning a holiday in Southern Italy.

So I followed some intstuctions I found on the web to tweak Blogger to use a static page as homepage. (...)  It all worked fine, at least on my desktop and tablet - but not on the smart phone (too many redirection), also the loading became slow. And you still have a blogroll on your welcome page... so I changed all back.

Wordpress and Squarespace are the platforms that offer a bit more than blogger when it comes to templates (themes) and pages. But should I dump my partner of seven years? Blogger never let me down! Never. If you are just blogging, there is no reason to change. Blogger is even easier to handle!

My experience with Wordpress lasted two (!) days (!). I worked two days to set up my website (with the "Stay" Theme), learning by doing, no content, just the structure, when all in a sudden I saw RED. Wordpress had kicked me out! A red banner was saying: your website is suspended due to violation of our terms and conditions!!
That was it! No more access.
The website wasn't even finished!

Shouldn't this be enough of a hint for me to stay with blogger?
Blogger is free with unlimited space, Squarespace starts at 8$/month and Wordpress (.com) is free-ish. For the best looking templates you have to pay. For minor adjustments (blue font?) you need to pay. And you even need to pay to have your site free of advertisement as they have the right to place ads into your posts (while you would again violate their terms and conditions when having paid links). Want to point your own domain to your Wordpress.com site? You need to pay.

While editing this post, I received an apology from Wordpress for their error and any inconvenience. They somehow detected spam, and I will have to delete my cookies before opening the site.

After that I signed up for the 14 days free trial with Squarespace. They are great for stylish websites. But if you are a blogger, then you will miss what are basics at Blogger: spelling check, better statistics, x most read posts in the last x days, you also might like these posts-widget, and an archive! (BTW I use an invisible counter from www.statcounter.com for more details).

Shortly after I messed with my domain name, I also got mail from GOOGLE, saying that they "detected a significant increase" in 404 (Page Not Found) errors for PalazzoPizzo.com - I am flattered - will fix it!

The only two things that would make me change platforms are :
1) the need of a static internet presence increased while the the blog became secondary.
2) Google who owns Blogger might decide all in a sudden to close this platform.

Let's see how my trial with Squarespaces works out...
Hopefully, I can greet you soon with a new look!

Happy month of May!

A presto
S.