Sonia Simone from Remarkable Communication was the commenter who hit the magic number, winning her choice of book from the Confident Writing store. (She chose The Writer’s Block, though somehow I don’t think she needs it!)

Thanks to everyone who comments here.

Your ideas, suggestions, recommendations, questions, answers, motivation and feedback are the fuel for this blog’s fire.

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count

Intention is what we wish to accomplish with our writing.  Call it the writer’s soul.  We can write to affirm and to celebrate, or we can write to debunk and to destroy; the choice is ours… Nobody can make us write what we don’t want to write.  We get to keep intention.

William Zinsser, On Writing Well

A contribution to the theme of writing with freedom

I’m also hoping that I might get some ideas and tips about how to improve on this process for the next big move: shifting the Confident Writing blog. This first move was just the warm up. 

The notes below are fairly technical and complicated so if you’re not interested in migration issues… just skip this post.  I’ll be back with the normal fodder on Monday!

I’m gearing up to move Confident Writing from Typepad to Wordpress.  I’d read enough about how other people had done this to know it wasn’t a totally easy or painless process so I thought I’d do a warm up with a blog site that wasn’t currently ‘live’ and that I wouldn’t fret about so much if I did something daft in the middle of the process. 

So last week I moved my first blog: Coaching Wizardry from Tyepad to Wordpress.

The notes below record what I did and why; which bits worked (or didn’t); things I haven’t yet cracked; what remains to be done. I’m describing this as a non-expert move because I’m not saying this is how you should do it – just that this is the way I did it. 

It’s also non-expert as it’s in as plain English as I can manage, and – wherever possible – I used the easiest solution I could find.  I could see there were more effective solutions for some of the problems I encountered but didn’t know enough about the back end of blogs to be able to use them (or even understand the instructions!)

The main problem with making the switch is that the urls change when imported.  The two platforms have a totally different approach to setting them up.  A Typepad version looks like http://coachingwizardry.com /2007/12/inspirational-q.html

Importing to Wordpress gives  you http://coachingwizardry.com/2007/12/inspirational-quotes-living-life-on-purpose/

I haven’t found an easy or foolproof way to beat this.  I ended up changing the ‘post slug’ (see notes below) manually, which is the most time consuming and laborious part of the switch.

Without further ado here’s what I did in a 20 part move.

Warming Up

1. Get used to WordPress before you start.  I don’t think I could have done the switch myself otherwise. These notes are based on using self-hosted WordPress.org rather than the free blogs.  Which means you also want to have your own host, be used to managing the interface, know how to upload WordPress, be familiar with using plugins… etc

2. Read up. I spent quite a lot of time reading how other people had done it.  This is a mixed blessing – you’ll realise it’s not easy (and it did put me off for a while) but you’ll also get an idea for the issues and problems that might come up as you move.  Forewarned is forearmed.

3. Set up a dummy blog. I created a site where I could practice these steps before I did the final version.  This also gave me the chance to see any obvious issues with the blog content (like sorting out my categories before moving) and to try out different themes and pick one I thought would work.

4. Set up the domain on your host and download wordpress  so you’re ready to import.

5. Tidy up the exising blog.  As I was using the same domain for the new site I wanted to minimise the time I was working on the switch (when the site would be down to visitors).  So I did some of the tidying up before I moved – removing any redundant posts and pages, sorting out the categories into a manageable and meaningful list.

Making The Switch

6. Grab the Tyepad version of your urls. This is the boring and laborious part of the process but it’s important.  It’ll help you with internal links and (some not all) external links to your blog.  Save the 15 character part of the url.  In the example above http://coachingwizardry.com /2007/12/inspirational-q.html the 15 character part would be inspirational-q  I went through and cut and pasted these extracts into a notepad file.  It saved a bit of time later (and saved me getting confused with switching back and forth between sites).

7. Export the content from your Tyepad blog.  This bit is easy. (And if you’re not worried about links you can just press import and start working on your new site). In Tyepad it’s manage, then import/export and follow the instructions.  Save to a notepad (or equivalent) file.

8. Edit the internal links in your export file.  This was a great tip that saved me time later.  Internal links all seem to have the coachingwizardry.typepad.com/coachingwizardry/ format which means they’ll point back to the old Typepad site rather than the post on your new site.  It’s easier to change them in this file than one by one after you’ve imported them, so, using ‘replace’ in your text editor, change anything that is coachingwizardry.typepad.com/coachingwizardry/2007 to coachingwizardry.com/2007. If you’ve more than year, repeat with the different date.  You want to include the date to avoid editing the links to your images.

9. Transfer the domain to your new hosted site.  Wait for however many hours this takes to shift.

10. Take domain mapping off the Typepad blog. I’m not sure if I had to do this but it seemed cleaner.  From this point on the old blog was coming up as http://coachingwizardry.typepad.com/coaching wizardy/ and coachingwizardry.com was pointing to a ‘hello world’ post on Wordpress (once the domain switch had happened)

11. Put the site into maintentance mode.  I used this maintenance mode plugin which comes up saying the site’s undergoing maintenance, ch eck back in 60 minutes.  It gives you the space to relax and work on the site behind the scenes (of course it will take  you longer than 60 minutes)

12. Apply the theme you’ve chosen.

13. Activate any plugins you want to have available as you work on the site.  Archives helped for example.  An easy to use archive made it easy for me to check and grab links. (It’s a good thing to have anyway).

14. Import the content from Tyepad. This bit’s easy.  Manage – import – chose movable type/tyepad option.

15. Set your permalinks with a custom structure. Settings – permalinks – then chose custom structure and set it like this /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html This will move the url closer to the version that Typepad uses

16. Now you need to change each post slug.  This is the boring bit – but you need to concentrate because if you make a mistake you’ll break the links.  In edit mode for each post you’ll see the permalink just below the heading of each post.  Click on edit.  Change the WordPress version (inspirational-quotes-living-life-on-purpose) for the Tyepad version you saved earlier (inspirational-q). 

TIP: make sure you save the permalink and then save the post.  Otherwise you’ll lose the change and need to do it again.  Work through these 1 by 1. 

(I’m sure there must be an easier way to do this, but couldn’t find it.  Not one I could comprehend or do without learning another computer script.)  This part of the process took about 90 minutes for 130 posts. Now you have a url that looks like this http://coachingwizardry.com/2007/12/inspirational-q.html

This is the solution that starupnewz used and it worked when I practiced it on my dummy version – not this time round though.  When I clicked on those urls I got an error message to say the posts didn’t exist. I did find an easy way round it though.

17. Using the permalinks migration plugin go to settings, permalink migration, set the old structure as /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html then change the permalinks to the month and name option http://coachingwizardry.com/2008/07/sample-post/

Moment of truth – yes, the permalinks work and all my internal links were working. Yippee!

18. That’s the moment when you can have a drink.  And if things look okay, or good enough, from this point onwards you can think about taking off the maintenance mode and letting people back in

19. Change Your Feed.  Grab the atom feed from your new site, go to feedburner, edit the feed with the new address.  After a few hours posting at the new site should appear on that feed so your readers stay subscribed without  having to do anything.

20. Tidy up: This bit’s as long as a piece of string of course.  There’s bound to be a whole lot of things you want to do to sort your sidebars, layout, design, if you want a static home page etc.  You might also find that some of your formatting that was okay in Tyepad looks a bit wonky in your new site. 

Still To Do

• Update the old blog (still hosted on Typepad) with ‘we’ve moved’ and links to the new site.
• Go back and make a donation to the authors of the plug ins I know I’ll stick with (or that helped to save my migatory bacon)
• Move images over – I’ll need to do this if I eventually close down the Tyepad account

What I’ve Not Been Able To Do

• Redirect from Typepad to the new blog (to catch links from other sites)
• Catch links that are in the coachingwizardry.typepad.com format
• Make the switch without closing down the site for about eight hours

What I’ve Achieved

• Blog now operational on WordPress
• Internal links work
• Links with the coachingwizardry.com/2007/post format will work*
• Feed updated without readers and subscribers needing to do anything

*This is important because most of my Confident Writing links are in
that format and I wanted to know I could transport those across

That concludes part 1 of the story.  Part 2 comes after I make the switch for this blog (gulp!).  I’m planning to do that before I move house so the blog and I are both in our new  homes by mid August. 

A big thanks to other bloggers who charted their own progress through these choppy waters, especially startupnewz whose tips I followed most closely, and to those designers who come up with plugins that make all of this so much more possible.

Meantime if you’ve any suggestions, tips or improvements to add so the process works more smoothly next time please do share in the comment box below!

Other reading

Moving from TypePad to WordPress: Pains and Problems

TypePad to WordPress Switch: Detailed Instructions

TypePad to WordPress: Moving the SEO friendly way

How to Port Your Blog from TypePad to WordPress: Part 1

How to Port Your Blog from TypePad to WordPress: Part 2

A journey: probably across water, which might be across the Firth of Clyde or the other side of the mighty Atlantic! A journey signals to my unconscious mind that new possibilities are opening up

A feast for the senses: whether that’s bright colours, new food to try, the sounds of street life in an Italian port, walking in the soft sweet rain on a highland moor… sensory delights wake up my writing senses

Writing prompts: Although I’m stubbornly independent and like to do my own thing, I do recognise the value of some writing prompts (to write on a particular twist of a theme, to a word count, with a time limit, in a different form) to get my creative juices going

Feedback: from thoughtful, generous, constructive people who really pay attention to what you’ve written, what’s of value in it… and what it represents to you - can make a big difference

Space: That includes creating the space to get away for the ideal weekend, and to switch off from normal concerns, but I’d also want enough time and space to walk off and do my own thing, read, write, not write, soak up experiences that I could write about later

Those seem like essential ingredients of an ideal writing weekend to me.  How about you? 

This is written as a (non-competitive!) contribution to a group writing project on Your ideal Writing Weekend.

It’s run through Absorbing Writing: Writing Workshops in Italy which is a partnership between me and fellow blogger Emma Bird.  You can find out more about it here, including how to take part, and the prizes that are on offer (in the form of Amazon gift certificates - perfect if you want to top up your summer reading pile…)

We’ve had some wonderful entries in so far but realise that a lot of people are away or distracted over the holiday period so we’re extending the deadline for entries to 1st September (midnight, your time) to give as many people as possible the chance to take part.

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count

Bliss.

Karen Putz mentioned the other day that On Writing was in her summer reading pile.  That got me thinking about the anticipated delight of a summer reading pile, the
unread books that are still on mine - and that it might be good to share what we’re reading this summer.

(Or winter, for those of you in the southern hemisphere.  Cold days and chilly nights are surely ideal for reading too?)

The holidays are often a time when we turn to fiction reading for some escape.  I know I do, but it’s so long since I’ve read any fiction I was worried I’d got out of the habit.  Fortunately Alina Popescu’s reading challenge got me into the fiction reading frame of mind again, and a trip to my local library saw me happily stocked up with a pile of books. 

Part of the problem is the range of options available to us.  If you get out of a reading habit and don’t have lists of favourite authors or titles to search for it’s hard to know where to start.  To keep it simpler I decided just to choose from one shelf: Scottish fiction.  Found some gems which - to mix my metaphors - rekindled my love of fiction reading.

Anyway that train of thought made me think this might be a good time to share what we’re reading, to give each other some ideas and inspiration to add to our own stockpiles for the summer.

Also a good opportunity to experiment with Amazon! I created this whizzy carousel with my reading list - those in stock that had pictures anyway.  They have lots of other widgets you could experiment with too.

The books in my summer reading pile are:

Non-fiction reading

George MacKay Brown: For The Islands I Sing

Susan Jeffers: End The Struggle and Dance With Life

Marian Pallister: Lost Argyll

Fiction reading

Louise Welsh: The Bullet Trick

Louise Welsh: The Cutting Room

Alexander Trocchi: Young Adam

Muriel Spark: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Alan Warner: Morvern Callar

I guess we could make this a meme of sorts.  I’m not promising to compile the results but if you’d like to take part please consider yourself invited to share your summer (or winter) reading list, and invite your readers to do the same.  Tag it ’summer reading pile’ so we can keep an eye on it and we’ll see where it goes.

Happy reading!

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count

Photo Credit: Summer Reading Pile by Joanna Young on Flickr

• Asks you to concentrate on the essential
• Provides a creative challenge to your unconscious mind (which it loves to respond to)
• Encourages you to play and experiment with different style and form
• Improves your editing skills
• Gives you permission to let go of the unimportant

There are some great examples of tight word count = creative results in the blogosphere just now.

Liz Strauss at Successful Blog has just published the results of a powerful writing challenge.  The challenge was to:

• look for something you see too much or too little of
• write a sentence about it
• count the words you have written
• edit the sentence till you have 25 words
• notice how your ideas and feelings change as you edit and rewrite

The results are fantastic.  Liz has taken the time and trouble to produce this slideshare version so you can flick through and enjoy the contributions.

| View | Upload your own

I’d like to say thanks and congratulations to everyone who took part.  Your writing was most inspiring.

Karin H ,
Mark ,
Mark Goodyear ,

Lisa,
stephenpreneur, Bhupesh Shah,
Diana ,
DazzlinDonna, Karen Lynch ,
Courtney,
RadiantWoman,
EdKarl,

Robert Hruzek,
Ami ,
JP Rangaswami ,
Mark ,
Aaron Stroud,
Terry Starbucker,
spaceagesage ,
Claire Raikes, Dennis Salazar,

Brad Shorr ,
Mother Earth ,
Katie Konrath, Suzie Cheel ,
Christine Taylor,
Tom Volkar,
Todd Jordan , Stephen Smith,
Peter Knight ,
Joe Hauckes,

theFemGeek,
Bobby Clark,
Meryl333,
Liz Williams,
Lara Nieberding ,
David Taboada ,
Phil Baumann ,
Anant,
John Cooper,

Paul Downey,
Paul Whitehouse, Lillie Ammann,
Vicky H,
Mark David Gerson,
Eric Peterson,
Jenny Mannion

Meanwhile over at Joyful Jubilant Learning this month the authors are writing a simple post based on the learning we’ve got from a picture.  The word limit is 300 words which is quite a challenge for some of us wordy writers over there… but it’s helped us come up with some intriguing, playful, thoughtful and powerfully reflective posts. 

Robyn McMaster boiled her contribution on motivation and concentration down to 23 words; Karen Wallace got us thinking with less than 200 words about how we can learn to look (and see) the beauty that’s all around us; Steve Sherlock uses 19 syllables to get us thinking about open spaces and how we’ll fill them with a Sherku.

Shorter posts are also easier and more enjoyable to read - perfect for the summer months.  Do pop over to Joyful Jubilant Learning for a browse and see what goodies you find.

Thinking about the creative power of a tight word count got me thinking about the Powerful Writing in 30 Words or Less challenge - a project that generated some thought-provoking and intriguing one-liners.  For those of you that missed it first time round, here’s the round up post (including e-book that you can download)

Do you find that you write differently when you’re working to a tight word word count?  How does it change your writing?  Does it feel restrictive or freeing?

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count

Much of this book [On Writing] has been about how you can do it [that is - write] better. 

The rest of it - and perhaps the best of it - is a permission slip: you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start: you will.  Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art.  The water is free.  So drink up.

Drink and be filled up.

Stephen King, final paragraph of "On Writing"

A contribution to the theme of writing with freedom.

Intrigued? It’s the Wordle version of my contribution the Age of Conversation ‘08. 

I hope it’s whet your appetite… the book’s due out next month.  I can’t wait to see the contributions from all these fabulous authors:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Here’s a rundown of what for me are the positive and negative freedoms of writing a business blog. Your list is probably different, but that’s one of great attractions of blogging – there’s room for everybody,

Bad freedoms

1. Freedom to be careless

Blogging offers no built-in controls for scrupulous editing, other than those woefully insufficient spellcheckers. Some bloggers, I know, relish their grammatical lapses and misspellings, but for business writing of any kind, including blogs, I still believe in putting one’s best foot forward. I must admit, though, I’m a poor proofreader and often don’t take the time I should to edit.

2. Freedom to rant

It’s tempting to rip into companies and people when you’re blogging on a topic you’re passionate about. But words can come back to haunt you, and on the Internet, they cannot be erased. The times I went overboard are the posts I look back on with regret … usually. How do you feel about rants? Some bloggers love them and know how to pull it off. I don’t.

3. Freedom to be reckless

Professional journalists sometimes sneer at bloggers for failing to properly check facts before reporting news. I must confess, I see a lot of that and have been guilty of it myself. Checking facts is laborious, time consuming work. It’s very tempting to blow it off when you’re in a hurry to knock out those daily posts.

Good freedoms

1. Freedom to be conversational

Conventional business writing is formal, stiff, impersonal, laced with jargon, calculated, and ultimately, unpersuasive. Blog writing can be just the opposite – informal, loose, personal, plainspoken, and unrehearsed. What a refreshing change for business writers and readers alike! Blogging takes the experience of face to face conversation, so vital to business relationships, and makes it accessible to people continents apart. That is very, very cool.

2. Freedom to be incomplete

Joanna Young, proprietor of this blog, has taught me how blog writing is the art of asking questions, of engaging readers in conversation. Part of this mysterious art is leaving thoughts unpolished and unfinished. As someone who was trained to write thoroughly, practiced in writing stuff like case studies for print media and internal marketing studies, incompleteness is a frightening concept. But as I continue to blog, I’m learning to like not needing all the answers. Gives a person more time to thing about more important things, like questions – don’t you think?

3. Freedom to experiment

Most forms of business writing have been around for a long time, and as a result, have their own set of rules and conventions. Not that these rules are necessarily bad, but they do limit one’s ability to apply new techniques and innovate. The rules for blogging are still being written, and if we’re lucky, they may never be written at all. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t see a blogger tackling an old topic in a new way, trying a new way to use images, defying expectations, asking questions I’ve never considered, promoting conversation with a new technique – on and on. This type of writing freedom keeps you fresh, keeps your imagination active and searching for better ways to engage customers. Come to think of it, this might be the best reason of all for companies to have a blog in the first place!

What does your list of blogging freedoms look like? What’s at the top of your list, both good and bad?

Let me introduce you to Brad - although I think a lot of you will know him.

Brad Shorr is a sales and marketing consultant who lives near Chicago, Illinois. His company, Word Sell, Inc., provides strategic consulting, sales training and coaching, and business blog and other online marketing services.  His blog explores issues of interest to small and mid-size business - sometimes quite seriously, but often with a touch of humor. 

Brad’s a long-standing reader, commenter, supporter and friend of Confident Writing.  He has written two other popular posts here: 

9 Steps to Clear Business Writing and

Leap Before You Write That Letter of Apology. 

He’s also a great blogging friend, and the best person I could think of to host a conversation here when I’m away on holiday.  Thanks Brad!

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count

It is one of the paradoxes of the sustained creative life that the more lightly we take ourselves the more serious work we will probably be able to do.  The more we bear down on ourselves, the more constricted
we will feel, and the more vulnerable we will be to creative injury

Julia Cameron, Walking in This World

This seemed like a suitable one for the start of my holiday week.  Thanks to Sylvia C for the inspiration.