Previously on “Updates nobody read, so we’re repeating them so you’re in the loop”.
A while ago, we decided to stop using the “Joomla & More” branding for our blog. One reason is that, historically, our content written about the CMS has become very sporadic and user interest has reached an all time low. However, the main reason is that there’s people over at Joomla who have too little real work so they came after our branding *again*. Also, the name “Joomla & More” just… kind of sucks. So it was time to come up with something else.
Once that transition was complete, we decided that we had to move away from the WordPress.com platform that powered our blog for years. We don’t feel like WordPress.com as a platform is the best fit for what we want for a blog. The features they offered and the way they were implemented had started to clash with our vision for Joomla… excuse me, PowerUserGuide.com and had become frustrating to deal with. Want an examle? Block widgets were just broken on WordPress.com, because reasons.
The feature set started to suffocate our little blog. On top of that, we didn’t feel WordPress.com was a “future proof” solution for our blog. We couldn’t properly monetize our blog. We were unable to install popular plug-ins. Hell, we weren’t even allowed to create a Mailchimp pop-up to recruit subscribers without paying extra. All in all, WordPress.com has become a platform that works fine… if your expectations of your blog are really low.
Enter some fancy transition to where we currently are here.
Infinite power!
This week, we finally took the time to complete the migration. PowerUserGuide was already sort of setup and running. Originally it was meant to be a sister site for Joomla & More, for “More Advanced Content (TM). But strategies change, especially if you don’t really have one so “From App To Zip” became the new home for “easier to consume” content, and we decided that migrating the Joomla & More content to PowerUserGuide made more sense.
Technically, the process was pretty straightforward. We setup a new site, migrated the new content and that was that. Joomla & More was never more than a blog with excellent content – but still very much just a blog – so it was pretty simple. Some damage was done, however. We had to leave our (now outdated) theme over at WordPress.com and with that our flashy front page. But that is fine. It wouldn’t be a Joomla & More “job” if we didn’t half-ass it or two-thirds-assed it at best.
We will work to restore some of the “fancy” in the next few weeks and months. Most of our visits come from search engines, anyway. And those articles are still very much available, so no real damage is done in that department. Yay, userbase with very low recurring visitors and brand awareness!
We are looking forward to being able to do some cool things that will make this site a better place to read articles and learn. It’ll also make it easier for us to stay in touch with you, the reader through simple stuff such as “not having to pay through the nose for setting up a newsletter”. But first, we need to get back to creating some content for everyone. Nobody likes reading consecutive “Updates on the update situation posts”. Believe me, that’s what Google Analytics is telling is and we’re not going to argue!
We’ll see you on the flip side and hope to see you soon,
Steven Zeegers
PowerUserGuide.com
CEO, Janitor and IT guy.