To my Google Friends Connect Followers- GFC is being discontinued!
I started Suzys Artsy Craftsy Sitcom back in June of 2010. At the time, my blog was located on Blogger and over the past few years, I have gradually cultivated a large group of followers through Google Friends Connect. Nearly 2000! It is always such a thrill to open my website up and see new followers. Totally makes my day.
In December, I moved my blog to Wordpress. The move was made for many reasons, including better support, better SEO, and the freedom to create what I want. Blogger is a great platform, but let’s face it, it is free. And oftentimes, you get what you paid for. Getting support was difficult at best and getting hold of a real person was simply impossible.
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Since the move to Wordpress, I have been having a bit of difficulty fixing broken links. While the url looks the same, apparently it is different. I was notified last night by one of my GFC followers that she cannot see my posts on her blog roll. After many, many tries to fix the problem, and much web search, I discovered that in fact Google plans to discontinue GFC in the near future! What my current problems are, I have no idea, and getting help from Google is not an option, so it appears that my followers may not be seeing my posts anymore.
Sigh.
Google announced in November that they will be retiring Google Friends Connect service for all non-blogger sites on March 1, 2012. Apparently Google is a bit miffed at how many folks are migrating over to Wordpress. (Just my two cents). Anyway, that means that those of you that subscribe to the Sitcom through GFC will not get post updates after March 1. (That is if you can even see them now).
Soooo….if you are a subscriber by GFC and can actually see this post, I have a simple solution for you! You can still follow the Sitcom through the following methods:
RSS Feed (This has many options, including email subscriptions!)
Subscribe in a reader
Or Facebook, or Twitter
I really love all my readers and I hope to not lose too many due to my move to Wordpress. Thank you so much for stopping by the Sitcom. It totally makes my day.
Not trying to spam, but my husband does blogger-to-wordpress transfers for free. He makes sure nothing gets lost, and sets up your SEO so that you don’t lose your ranking, etc (though it takes a bit of time for your new blog to catch up, it’s not starting from scratch.) You can find more details at http://christiatech.com …Hope this helps!
Hi Katy,
If you unfollow and then follow me again on GFC, you will see my blog posts. It is a good temporary solution. Only issue is that come March 1, nobody on GFC will be able to see my feeds because all Wordpress blogs are being discontinued through GFC. There are many options to subscribe including through your email after that point.
Thanks for coming back to find me!!
suzy
Happy New Year! I am so glad you posted this! I lost you from my blogroll ! I will sign up for the feed for now but hopefully can get you back on the blogroll soon 🙂
Katy
Hi Kim!
The bright side: I am self-hosted through Go Daddy now. Wordpress offers so much more. You have better support ( you can actually talk to a person!) I’m told that SEO is vastly improved. You can create your own page design. Less down time. You don’t have to worry about blogger deciding you are spam for any odd reason and shutting you down. (A scary thought). You are free to post what you want. Advertisers take you more seriously since you are now paying to be hosted. Those are just a few of the perks. I hired Tanya at http://www.blogelina.com to do the move for me. She was able to move all my posts, comments and photos without losing anything. It was relatively seamless with the exception of GFC and she is working on that now for me. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
The downside: Well you already know about my issue with GFC. Setting up your page the way you want it can be daunting. I recommend taking some time off from posting until you are happy with the layout in order to decrease the stress in your life. Ha! Wordpress has similarities to blogger, but it isn’t always as simple. I spend quite a bit of time in the forums looking for answers to my questions. I didn’t know about permalinks. Apparently, the blogger permalinks are different than Wordpress and you have to add plug ins and make a few tweaks so that your older links are not broken.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. I think it was the most productive thing I could do with my blog at this time in order to make it more successful. Now I just have to work out the little kinks in the system and I’m ready to take it to a new level!
suzy
Hey There!
I have been hearing more and more that I need to get over to Wrdpress for tons of great reasons. I am so scared though. How was the transition for you? Was it crazy to learn a whole new system? This whole GFC thing is such a pain. I follow you through GFC too, but now I see I will need to switch!
Hi Suzy! Just read this post after stopping by to link up (can’t see the linky though)….and I may have a help for you. I read about a plug in that helps w/ folks migrating from Blogger to WP. Let me know if you think it would help you!
Hi Janelle! I’m so glad you found me again! Thanks for stopping by!
I wasn’t seeing your updates anymore that’s why I decided to pop over to check. Thanks for telling us about GFC. I wonder if this will affect your blog’s syndication on Google Reader too… like if we are subscribed to your RSS feed and view them via Google Reader? Anyway, just wanted to greet you a happy new year Suzy! Can’t wait to check out what you have in store for us this 2012 🙂