The Joys Of Migrating To A New Server

The migration is going OK so far.  I solved the internal permalink problem with the help of a learned WordPress guru.  I also solved the contact form problem with the aid of a plug-in.  The migration permalink problem is there to stay, I will just have to gut it out and redirect links manually.

That said, I didn’t want to be all doom and gloom, so here are a few of the huge benefits of migrating to a new server:

Custom Themes.  The theme I’m using has a lot of functionality.  Right there on the home page you’re greeted by a scrolling panel of featured articles.   I can choose from one of five home page orientations, 2- or 3-column, and can also choose the look of my post and archive pages.

Plug-ins.  Plug-ins are huge.  There is practically nothing you can’t do with a plug-in.  Internally, a plug-in helps me redirect permalinks.  Externally, I’m using plug-ins for the following:

• Sphere, which generates links to related web news and blog articles on whatever’s in your post (try it out here, the link is at the bottom of the post)
• Automatic Social Bookmarking link generation (you’ll see it at the bottom of each post and page)
• Contact Email Form generation, Categories Cloud generation, and a lot of small stuff that WordPress.com had built-in
• In Series, which lets me easily index a series of posts

I’m still learning about the hundreds of available plug-ins so I’ll be adding them constantly for the new few weeks.

Amazon Affiliate Program.  Since I’ve been including links to my favorite books in the ‘Library’ section, I decided to take advantage of the Amazon program.   The Library is now called “Recommended Reading” and displays everything in a neat widget.   I’m also experimenting with a few other Amazon widgets – one that generates a ‘title cloud’ of related book titles (currently sitting in the right side column) and another that associates keywords in each post and page with a related book title (not sure if I like that one yet).

Myers Briggs Section.  There will be a whole section of the site devoted to Myers Briggs information and services.  I will have designated URLs for individuals, teams, and innovation-related services.

I’d say that the new blog will be open for business by the end of the month.