website move

About a year ago, I got a new computer.The program I purchased to update the Crochet Cabana web site in 2012 could not be moved to the new computer.  When I contacted the publisher of the program, they said it was no longer supported and I'd have to repurchase the program. I didn't care for the program that much so I didn't want to do that. Thus the website has been sitting without additions or changes while I thought about what to do. The blog and Facebook / Twitter are what I have used to relay information. 

The dilemma I faced is whether to keep the site going or not. Is the website really that useful? Are people visiting enough to go to the trouble of moving the site? The world of crochet is expanding and changing. Am I able to offer enough new and pertinent content to make it worth a visit or can I do what I need to do with just the blog and YouTube accounts?

With regards to expenses, besides creating the site, it has to be hosted somewhere. The problem I had with free hosts in the past was that they couldn't handle the number of pages I had on site and the traffic using the site. I had to keep moving it. Because of this we purchased hosting which we've been using with no problem since 2004. However, they are raising costs by about 30%. The only other thing I use the host for is to get those neat statistics I post at the beginning of the year - well, neat to me.

I also own the domain name, which has to be renewed annually.

To see how useful the site is, I put up a poll on the blog and mentioned it twice on the Facebook page which also posts to Twitter. I have an average of 8500 followers on the FB page. 8 of them responded to the poll. That seems to indicate that the site is not as useful as it perhaps once was. One doesn't expect every person to respond. Some may have missed the notification. Others wouldn't care or wouldn't have time. All understandable. 

Before I put up the poll I had checked out a few places to which to move the site. To my knowledge, there is no "automatic" way to move the website anywhere.

I already had a free account with Wordpress. The free account does not include videos so I would have to use links rather than embedding videos. There is also a limit to how many pages one can add though I couldn't find out how many that is. One place said 80, one said 88, one said 100. 

The name "Crochet Cabana" is being used by another Wordpress client. That site was last updated in November 2015. Nonetheless, I wouldn't be able to use that name while working on the site. I own the domain name, however, and can just redirect it.

All that to say in year 20 Crochet Cabana will be having another overhaul. Even though it may not be as useful as it once was, I find I turn to the site myself to remember things. Since not a lot of people appear to be using the site,  I'm not willing to pay for space. However, since I use it myself I'm willing to keep it going at least for a while.

I have moved most of the information to Wordpress. It's fairly easy though there's a learning curve. There are 82 pages currently. I haven't gotten any notices about the number of pages so I am assuming it is okay.

The site is actually active though there are still some things I'm working on. The blog will be part of the site, not separate, so if you have this blog bookmarked you will need to bookmark the other one. Wordpress does have a feature to automatically pull blog posts so all of the posts are there, including the recent ones which I've moved over manually.

If you are curious to see the new site now, you can find it here. I have to figure out how to move the domain name over which I hope to do soon. If you do visit and you find something not working, please do holler out to me. I'm still learning Wordpress. I was so excited to figure out the menu thing. LOL

Happy crocheting!
Sandie