Blogging and Why I moved to “Cat in the Cactus”

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Pretty cat looking at cactusDear Friends & Followers,

I’ve learnt a lot about blogging that I wish I’d known before I started. But we all have to start somewhere.  Life is a journey about learning, growing, failing, persisting and maybe even hitting the jackpot … hopefully! And it can certainly be like this for new bloggers. Well, it certainly has been for me!  When I started I went to a self-hosted site, because I didn’t know any better. That was my first mistake.

It was actually Jason Cushman at Harsh Reality (a fellow blogger who I “Follow”) who inadvertently alerted me to a deficiency on my blog site. He said to me about one of my posts … “I was going to reboot this, but don’t see a reblog button for WP. :)” I investigated and discovered that self-hosted sites do NOT have a “Reblog” button. I could have cried. I lost my chance to have someone Reblog one of my posts, which is a big deal for bloggers.  So I started investigating about the differences between self-hosted sites and WordPress.com.

There’s good and bad points about both, but because I’m not an I.T. expert, being self-hosted had other problems I couldn’t fix. (Eg. I had to find my own plugin to do my own back-ups, and when they didn’t work it was a nightmare. I had to buy a plug-in to look at my stats. The scheduler never worked and the host-site said it was probably one of my plugins – and it was up to me to find out which one! etc). It was a lot of time and effort – and to be honest, money! It cost me about $300AUD just to get up and running. So I started looking at WordPress.com (apparently self-hosted sites are at WordPress.org). Bleeding’ confusing I know. I needed to seriously think about a change.

When I started I also didn’t realise how important a blog name was. I was “Ask Aunty Cath”, but it didn’t really represent my personality or sense of humor. I have Followers with fantastic blog names, like HarsH ReaLiTy and Katie over at fattymccupcakes – now there’s a great name that represents her personality perfectly! I’m sure you’ve discovered some ripper blog names too. So I started researching about what blog name would really reflect my personality and my style of writing. After a lot of research I finally decided on “Cat in the Cactus”. Cat is a reflection of my name – Cathy. And the term “in the cactus” definitely reflects me and my personality. I quite often end up “in the cactus” (an Aussie term) meaning I’m “in deep s^&t“. Unfortunately my bold and outspoken personality tends to get me into strife sometimes. Cat and Cactus are also total opposites, one is soft and purrs, the other is sharp and stings. Yep, two accurate representations of my personality. So “Cat in the Cactus” it is!

I don’t want to lose any of you as Followers, because I value our connection too much. So please “Follow” me at “Cat in the Cactus” – and I will come by and follow you too.

Cathy xox

ps: I will also republish some of my favourite posts on this site over the next month or so, as well as some new ones, as I don’t want to lose any of my blogs. Happy blogging!

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43 thoughts on “Blogging and Why I moved to “Cat in the Cactus””

  3. I love the name – and I love the ‘in the cactus’ part…Suits you I think! Gotta love our colloquial slang! Maybe I should start a blog called ‘Nards without a paddle’ 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. Well I didn’t know your old site, but I have to say I like the new one a lot! When I started blogging, I kind of took the opposite direction, which means that I jumped into a WordPress.com blog without even knowing about the difference of self-hosted and non-self-hosted. Many fellow bloggers are trying to convince me to get over to WordPress.org, but I have to say that I feel very comfortable around here for the moment. I am the most non-techie person you could possibly be, but WordPress.com is so easy to handle that even I was able to create a blog that looks pretty decent (in my opinion at least). If you need anything or have questions about WordPress.com, please let me know, maybe I can help!
    xx Carina

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    • Thanks! Stay with WordPress.com. Seriously…it’s hard at .org. I can say I’ve been on both and WordPress.com takes all the hard work out of blogging. It’s a breeze ….. Unfortunately I need to start this blog from scratch, but at least when I repost some of my favourite posts from my last blog, they will be new to you!! Speak soon xx

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  13. Cathy,
    As per your friendly invitation………
    I don’t want to lose any of you as Followers, because I value our connection too much. So please “Follow” me at “Cat in the Cactus” – and I will come by and follow you too.
    Cathy xox

    I HAVE DONE IT, EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    CONGRATULATION FOR CREATING THIS WONDERFUL BLOG AND YOU ARE MOST WELCOME ON THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WORD PRESS…………

    Liked by 1 person

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  14. I buy a WordPress blog from other server instead of WordPress.org. Yes, I can’t find the follow and reblog button. And I have to install a lot of plugins. Is this one of the disadvantages of buying a self hosted WordPress sites?

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  16. Congrats on figuring it out! (Well, at least some of it!) I’m not an IT person either and navigating this world of blogging can definitely be confusing…thanks for sharing your insight on self hosting vs wordpress,…I may just stick with wordpress for the long haul 🙂

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  19. I really love your blog name, Cat in the Cactus is awesome! I didn’t realize that you couldn’t reblog on the self hosted platform- I looked into that when I first started blogging, but it seemed like the self hosted blogs weren’t part of the reader system either so I decided not to start it there…

    Liked by 1 person

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