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Why I left SquareSpace for WordPress.
Squarespace WordPress, that is the question. I want to say one thing right off the bat. 
This was not an easy move for me. I really liked SquareSpace.com for a lot of reasons. I certainly understand the fact that the vast majority of blogs out there are on the WordPress platform. I just didn’t realize why when I started blogging back in the summer. Now I think I clearly understand why most new bloggers start with WordPress and stick with it. Squarespace or WordPress are platforms that all bloggers may consider. If I were going to give a Squarespace review, it would be very positive. In this post I’d like to detail my reasons for joining the WordPress community. I am hoping that this post may help others who want to compare Squarespace vs WordPress.
Content is king but comments are queen.
I tend to think that commenting is second to content when it comes to blogging. Shortly after I started reading some blogs out there I realized that having an Avatar was VERY important. An Avatar is an image which you set up at www.gravatar.com. This image will be shown if you
comment on a WordPress blog if you have set one up previously. And when a reader leaves a comment on a blog they are leaving it for more than one reason. Obviously the reader has something to say but they also want other readers to see what they have to say and potentially visit their site by clicking on their Avatar. Well, SquareSpace commenting does not support Avatars which really makes it unpleasant for a reader to leave a comment. This was the overriding factor for making the move to WordPress.
Commenting builds community.
Go to any of the most popular blogs out there and you will see the same people leaving comments after each blog post. Sometimes there is a race to leave the first comment after a particular post. This is done so that when other visitors to the blog read the post they will see your comment and image first. The expectation is that if you are at the top spot for comments then other readers may tend to click on your link and visit your site. After a while a blog owner will develop a relationship with the readers through commenting. One of the most interesting
blogs that I read is written by Jonathan Fields. Jonathan beckons his readers to leave comments and to join in on the discussion. He isn’t looking for the customary “Great post Jonathan” response, he is looking for contributions from his readers that further the discussion and gets everyone involved. I believe that this is the true magic of comments. It builds relationships between blog owners and readers and between fellow readers.
Plug-ins, plug-ins, and more plug-ins…
SquareSpace was very rigid in what they offered as far as functionality is concerned. And if you tried to implement any 3rd party applications like Disqus or IntenseDebate SquareSpace support would say that you are doing this at your own risk. So I tried but with SquareSpace they were buggy so I removed the code and went back to generic SquareSpace. After reading a lot of WordPress blogs I noticed functionality that was really dynamic and I learned that most of this functionality was due to the implementation of various plug-ins. The multitude of plug-ins out there made decision to switch very easy.
Support is everywhere…
SquareSpace support was about as good as it gets! I could enter a question and they would get back to me oftentimes in what appeared like seconds. But, if you try to search for answers related to SquareSpace functionality on the internet it is hard to find the answers because the community is not there. But, when it comes to WordPress, you can typically find an answer to your question easily. Chances are that there are other users out
there who have tried to do what you have done. I also belong to the FrugalTheme Forum, Catalyst Forum, and the ProBlogger Forum. If you post a question in either of these locations you will get an answer. FrugalTheme has evolved into Catalyst Theme. I have a number of sites using the Catalyst Theme and I highly recommend it! This blog is still on FrugalTheme which is supported but Catalyst Theme is a tremendous upgrade over FrugalTheme. In the FrugalTheme Forum and the Catalyst Forum the support is fantastic and you may just receive a response from the developer of the themes, Eric Hamm, himself.
This adventure of moving into the WordPress environment was a little scary but hopefully it allows my blog to become more functional and flexible. Do your own research when it comes to WordPress vs SquareSpace and you may end up with the same conclusion. I’m also glad to be joining the vast community of WordPress bloggers out there and look forward to meeting you all through future comments.
Disclaimer: The Catalyst image and text link above are affiliate links. Should you click on them and purchase the product, I will make a small commission. As I mentioned, I use this product and absolutely love it!
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18 Responses to “Why I left SquareSpace for WordPress.”
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I like the look Bob, similar, but it also looks tidier.
and love the idea of plug ins…it leaves so much room for flexibility!
I’ve only ever known a wordpress blog, but I like
Jen
Thanks Jen,
I liked my banner but did change the tag line a bit. I think it will eventually look different down the line but I had to start somewhere. Thanks for reading and it’s nice to see your Avatar!
Best,
Bob
I also like the new look, Bob!
I run my blog on WordPress and have a few plug-ins. For example, Akismet is a great one for catching spam and works for me in about 99.9% of cases. I don’t know if it was true of SquareSpace, but one of the things I think is brilliant about WordPress is the number of themes you can use that completely change the blog’s look and feel. I started off on the Thesis theme, and am in the process of migrating to Headway.
Congratulations on making the move and I hope it gives you the functionality that allows you to meet your blogosphere goals!!
Hi Christine,
I am also using Akismet among other plug-ins. I bought the Frugal Theme because it is clean. I just wish I started with WordPress but I really got to know a lot about blogging during the time I was on SquareSpace. I look forward to your future comments on my new blog. It’s really nice to see your face and Jen’s on my blog!
Best,
Bob
This is great, Bob! Nice to see your smiling face and everyone else’s, too. I’ve heard that it’s fairly easy to switch to a different theme once you’re on WordPress.
Belinda,
After what I went through I’m staying put with this theme. I have been utilizing a great consultant for the transition in order to get all of my posts transferred over. It’s great to see you here and I hope you come back often!
Best,
Bob
I started my first blog in November of 2008 on Today. I had some problems there and left. I still sporadically blog there, but WordPress has been successful in drawing readers, tagging everything that I write and setting me up on Google for some strange reason. I still haven’t figured out how it all works, but it’s all good!
I blog about writing novels, and doing the research for them on Fashion, Manuscripts, Publishing Tips and more. I also like to do book, movie and celebrity reviews.
I have a few sites the I write daily blogs on, they are all linked together.
So far I’ve managed to complete the rough drafts for two manuscripts and I’ve been playing on Squidoo by making websites about the characters, settings that i’ve created in my books of fiction.
That is my favorite pasttime, so if you get bored blogging on word press, head over to Squidoo and try having some fun there.
http://www.squidoo.com/ideagirlconsulting
.-= Linda Randall ´s last blog ..Mad Cap Hats – Awesome Selection Designer Fashion – 38 James St – St Catharines Ontario – One of a Kind Show Toronto Ontario National Trade Center =-.
Hi Linda,
I’m glad you dropped by. I’ll be sure to drop by your blog.
Best,
Bob
I believe commenting is HUGE. To find some hard-hitting stats to prove that commenting really is huge – I’ve set myself a challenge this month to write at least 300 comments on others blogs.
You’ve made the right decision coming to wordpress. There is so much more support and people working hard to deliver top quality plug-ins etc that really make it (I believe) the best blogging software you could have.
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
.-= Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com´s last blog ..How To Keep Yourself Under Pressure and Perform With Your Blog? =-.
Hi Sarge,
Thanks for stopping by. I am very happy to be on WordPress. Honestly, I really liked SquareSpace but the “commenting” issue was frustrating to me. I knew that comments were key in building a blog and their solution was not good. If I were reading a SquareSpace blog I wouldn’t want to leave a comment due to no Avatar support and it just being cumbersome.
Good luck in your quest to write at least 300 comments on other blogs. That is very aggressive. You should compile your traffic before and after and write a post about it. It should stir some interest in your blog.
I have also found that the ProBlogger forum generates a lot of visits to my site. I joined a couple of months ago when it was cheaper to join. I think I’ve seen you there as well.
Best,
Bob
hallo bob,
i need your help on how to import xml files from squarespace to wordpress..
can you give me an instruction on how to do it? plz help me…
Hi Jay,
Send me along an email from my Contact Page and we can discuss offline.
Best,
Bob
Bob,
We are looking at doing the switch from SS to WordPress… Do you have any suggestions to make this process as seamless as possible? Concerned about broken links etc… Should we be?
Thanks and nice work on your WordPress site.
Greg
Greg,
I hired a consultant to do the conversion because, at the time, I knew nothing about WordPress. If you want me to send you along his name just use the form on my Contact Me page. He is extremely reasonable and worth the paltry amount that I had to pay. Good luck…
Best,
Bob
Hi Bob,
This is good information, thanks. I had been with wordpress for awhile – but didn’t like the lack of customization and how “techie” it was to do anything custom, as well as the “looks all the same” phenomena. I joined up with squarespace about 10 months ago b/c I liked the themes, the customization features and the amazing little connector-boxes to make a great site. And it’s practically maintenance free, they have great service, and no crashes, hacks or bugs. But then I wanted to expand my business offerings and have several domains with different looks and per page style sheets. No such luck with squarespace – unless I want to pay through the nose! WordPress can do this – it looks like (easily) – with Headway, and with hosting it will be less than half the price of what squarespace would charge for the same features. That’s with 3 times the storage space and bandwidth. And I still don’t know that at $20 per month squarespace would allow you to point domains at individual pages even at that price.
I also agree with your comment about the comments – you can hardly even see the link you have to click under each post to leave a comment. And I like my gravatar
Cheers!
Keena
.-= Keena´s last blog ..Review: Create Your Inspired Info-Product in 5 Days =-.
Hi Keena,
I still have a technical blog site on SquareSpace and I agree about the price. I pay about $7 for my WordPress site and double that for the basics in SquareSpace. I think I will leave the technical blog site there because there isn’t much interaction. People use it for getting information and don’t leave comments. I have to admit that I love the ease of SquareSpace and the support is unheralded. I ask questions and the response is sometimes there immediately. It’s worth it if you don’t want to do a lot with your site. Good luck..
Best,
Bob
i CAN’T import back into wordpress from squarespace because i have a PHOTO blog, and squarespace lied to me that i WOULD be able to when the time came, but now i have lost 780 photos, unless i go with posterous, which has a messed up squarespace importer that makes the pictures small with NO lightbox capability… so at this point i’m less angry with posterous for not fixing their importer than i am at squarespace for lying to me and ruining my photoblog…
Hi Elaine,
I used a fairly reasonable contractor to move my Squarespace history into WordPress. At that time I knew nothing about WordPress. If you’d like just contact me through my Contact Me page and I will give you his contact information. He may be able to help you out.
Best,
Bob