In Defense of Blogger

After 12 years of using Blogger for my business web-hub, I thought I'd change it over to a Travel Log.  I wanted to document our efforts and processes to clear out, down-size, and--by next spring--sell our house.  All with the ultimate goal to live in our motor home full time. 

The Doll Shop has closed. 

I posted a link to the previous post on a Facebook group that I really like.  One gentleman asked me if I could tell him how to "subscribe" to the blog--yay!  Then I discovered that Google, in it's monetary driven wisdom, had deep-sixed the subscription tool, never to return it.  No more support.  I'm pretty sure nobody gets any SEO (search engine optimization) since Blogger is free.  I don't even know how much longer Blogger will last, if Google doesn't turn it into some kind of "website builder" machine, like Wix and Weebly, etc.  If that's the case, I'll deal with it when I get there.

There is no longer a need to have a "brand", get custom commission work, or have an online store. (Can we all say hallelujah?)  So I went on a search to find another way to blog--without having to pay for a domain name or hosting.  It's not that I'm cheap--I'll definitely pay for a good product when I need it.  I just don't need it anymore.

Well, no such luck.  There are very few places where you can get a "free" website.  Picture me yelling at my monitor during this search; "But I don't want one!  Just a blog!"  Even those few that are "free" will blast their own advertisements all over your site, and they're so limited in function as to be almost useless if you did want a website.  Then your introductory time is up, and it's not even free anymore.

Well, I found a reasonable thing on Wordpress.com (as opposed to Wordpress.org, which took a while to wade through) and decided, what the hell.  So I paid my subscription for a year of domain & hosting. And then...I started trying to put together a blog.  The minute I started trying to use templates and thing-a-ma-jigs to make it a little more serviceable, I bogged down. 

A friend suggested I do the You-Tube thing.  No thank you.  There are enough "stars" in the You-Tubiverse.  I don't want to be another one.  As annoying as Blogger is, with its ever-decreasing support and functionality, at least I know how to use it without a computer programming degree.  I'm not a stupid woman, (no matter what they say).  But this Wordpress thing was useless to me.  So I canceled my page, got my refund, and came back to blogger.  Just not worth it. 

So we're down to this.  If you want to subscribe (and after this cheerful little story, how could you not?), use the "subscribe here for updates" on the left sidebar.  It's really a contact form, but I'll use it as a mailing list to notify anybody who wants notifying of new posts.  If you have questions, it still works for that, too.  I'll put links to interesting RV-related persons, places, and things over there, too.  First I have to discover them.  See?  Isn't this fun?  Y'all get to be in on the ground floor of a new thing!  Bear in mind, the whole reason I want to blog is for family and friends, to keep them updated without ginormous Facebook posts. 

Someday, Google will deep-six Blogger entirely.  At that point, I may just blow up my Facebook page with the Hermitarium posts.  All Hermits, All The Time!  But until then, we'll see y'all here when there's something to say.