Blogging through SteemPress

THE START OF MY BLOGGING JOURNEY
博客生涯的開始

I’ve been blogging on WordPress for 2 years now, in fact I just passed my second anniversary this week.  Originally, blogging was just a hobby, to document my travels in my spare time, and share my life in UK and Taiwan with friends.
我在 WordPress 發文已剛好兩年，當初是抱著鬧玩心態，想趁自己有空和還記得，跟朋友分享我的旅遊心得，和英國台灣生活點滴。

 

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MY FIRST TWO YEARS OF BLOGGING
做了兩年博客

A year ago I posted on WordPress about a new platform called Steemit, and how I earned USD46 in the first month. That was  big deal for me because I never thought I could earn anything though blogging.
去年我在 WordPress 提過我開始在一個叫 Steemit 的平台寫文章，而且第一個月還賺了 USD46! 當時對我來講很了不起，因為從來沒想過我可以在這方面賺外快。

In the past year, I’ve been blogging on both platforms.  Although both are blogging platforms, the operating environment for the blogger is quite different. Often when I post on one site, and then copy and paste to the other site, I might have to do some minor touch up to make sure things look right.
在過去一年，我一直在 WordPress 和 Steemit 兩邊發文。雖然兩個平台都是博客，但運作環境卻很不一樣。往往從一邊發文後，要 copy and paste到另一邊，然後再作出一些修改，文章才可算是完整。

Recently, a plug-in was developed on Steemit which automatically takes your WordPress post and post it over to Steemit.  The plug-in is called SteemPress.  I’ve installed it this week, and have posted 2 articles from WordPress to Steemit through it, this the third.  There were some minor issues, but that was really due to some other major changes I made to my own website at the same time.  Other than that, the result is good,
最近 Steemit 方面有人開發插件可以把 WordPress發的文章自動發到 Steemit 上，插件叫 Steempress。我裝置後，已通過它發了兩篇文章，這是第三篇。到目前為止，成果尚算滿意，初初有些小問題，但主要是因為我同時為我的網站做了些較大的改變所引致。

I started off hosting my blog on the free plan provided by WordPress two years ago.  The plan had limited functions, but for a hobby it was sufficient.  But one thing that it couldn’t do was to install plug-ins, and in order to do get around that problem, I had to upgrade to WordPress’s Professional plan which costs £250 a year.  That was a bit too steep for me considering that it was just a hobby, so I looked around for other self hosting sites, which was also what the SteemPress developers recommended.
我原本是用 WordPress 提供的免費計畫，功能有限，但純粹為興趣寫寫文章已很足夠。免費計畫其中一項不包含的功能是不能裝置插件。所以為了裝置SteemPress插件，我需要把我的網站升級至 WordPress商營計畫，但一年的費用需要£250，我覺得以興趣來講，這負擔有點重。另一個辦法是在WordPress平台外，自行建立自己的網站，而這個方法也是 SteemPress插件開法者比較建議的。

Eventually I found a self hosting site that charge me £100 for three years, that’s a fraction of the Professional plan price.  Of course, that comes at a cost.  I think (and expect) if I upgraded to the Professional plan everything would be seamless and simple as it’s on the same platform.  Moving to another hosting platform meant I had to spend extra time tweaking parts of my blog, I had to get used to the different interface, and find where some of the commonly used functions were located.  After a couple of days I managed to get my new site up and running smoothly.  Here’s my old site at the top vs the new one at the bottom.  It was time well spent as not only did I learn something new, I also saved myself shed loads of money.  £100 vs £750 for three years!!
我比較了好幾個平台，結果選了一家三年費用只需 £100，便宜很多呢！但當然便宜是有原因。我覺得如果我升級 WordPress商營計畫，過程應該(希望)很簡單，畢竟在同一平台嘛！轉到另一個平台，要自己建立網站，有些功能找了一陣子才找到，介面跟以前又有點兒不一樣，需要重新學習。結果用了兩，三天才慢慢熟習。但花時間我覺得還是值得的，學會了新知識，而重點是現在附的三年費用相等於商營計畫三個月的費用!!!

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TOWARDS THE NEW PHASE
邁向新一頁

Now my new site is up and running, and looks the same as my previous one. I’ve even migrated my WordPress followers over to follow my new site.  Having used SteemPress to post a couple of times already, I know what to look out for to ensure the articles look perfect on both Steemit and WordPress, so I consider this a successful project completed.  Next time, I will share with you the actual migration process, what issues I came across and how I overcame them.  Hopefully it will help you if you are considering to move your WordPress blog to a self hosted site.
現在我自己新的 WordPress 網站已建好，跟之前的一樣，沒差。WordPress的追蹤者也成功地轉了過來。而用了 SteemPress插件好幾次，我也知道應留意甚麼，讓兩邊同時發文時流暢順利。整個項目也算是完成了。下一次我會跟大家分享我在自己建網站過程中遇到的問題和怎樣解決。希望可以幫到有需要的朋友。