One of the biggest features that Blogger.com had over other free blogging sites is the ability to publish files to a website via FTP. This allowed site owners to have a blog in a directory on their site without having to install and maintain software on their web server.
Unfortunately, on March 26th, Blogger.com is shutting down their FTP functionality.
Blogger claims that only .5% of their users use this feature and that it’s a big strain on their engineering staff to keep it working like it should. So they are shutting it down.
So now what? Are you a part of that .5%?
Believe it or not, this is a blessing in disguise. If you were using the FTP functionality, then you probably are serous about blogging. And if you are, then it’s time to take the next step and move away from Blogger.com.
The best advice is to setup WordPress on your site and import all your blogger posts. Setting-up, importing, and learning new software may take some additional time, but the in the long run, you’ll be happy you did. Not only will you have more features and more control over your blog, but it’ll be better for your users and perform better in search engines.
Of course, Blogger.com is suggesting that you either use their domain mapping feature, or set-up a blogspot.com address, to keep your blog hosted with Blogger. However, taking the easy way out now may be something you regret in time.
Blogger.com is nice for new bloggers and those that aren’t technical enough to get a blog setup, but the freedom and advantages that come from hosting and managing your own WordPress blog is well worth the time and effort it takes to move.
If you need help moving your blog away from Blogger.com to a self-hosted WordPress blog, TopRank Online Marketing can help you out. Just drop us a line or give us a call and we’d be more than happy to discuss options with you.
