1. My links were no longer search engine friendly
2. I no longer knew how many visitors my blog had or where my blog visitors were coming from. My site statistics were gone.
3. All my videos and audios were no longer in my posts
4. There wasn’t a place in Thesis to upload my professionally designed blog header
5. Links from the search engines and other websites were sending traffic to my old blog. Not my new domain name.

At first these issues looked ugly. But in no time they were solved.

FIX FOR PROBLEM  #1– Create Search Engine Friendly Links in Thesis

Thesis automatically creates links to your blog posts like this:

http://www.yourblog.com/?p=123

There are no keywords in the link. So the search engines can’t tell what your blog post is about from the link. That’s a “no-no.” But you can change it easily.

First, log in to your WordPress Dashboard. Under “Settings,” choose “Permalinks.”

Next, uncheck the default setting. Then check the “Day and name” setting or the “Month and name” setting. That’s it.

Now your links will include your blog post titles in them.

FIX FOR PROBLEM #2 – Set-up WordPress stats plugin and Google Analytics

In your WordPress Dashboard, under “Plugins,” choose “Add New”

Then do a search for “stats.” You’ll find a list of plugins available. Personally I like the WordPress.com stats program because I’m used to it. You’re able to install these plugins by clicking the “install” link and following the directions. It’s real easy.

Next, install Google Analytics. Go to http://google.com/analytics/ and sign-up.  Once you sign-up and follow the instructions, Google will give you code to copy and paste into your blog.  See:

Then go to your WordPress Dashboard. Click on “Thesis Options.” Then choose “Footer.” You’ll see a place to paste your Google code. See screenshot below:

FIX FOR PROBLEM  #3 – Embed audio and video files

I had to go back and enter all my videos and audio files again. It didn’t take very long. But it was a little annoying.

FIX FOR PROBLEM  #4 – Adding your branded header graphic to your Thesis themed WordPress blog

First, upload your header image to the /Thesis/Custom/Images folder on your server. Then place this code in your custom.css file (remember to insert your file name and the file dimensions):

.custom #header #logo a { display: block; height: 180px; width: 800px; background: url('images/IMAGE-FILE-NAME') no-repeat; outline: none; }
.custom #header #logo, .custom #header #tagline { text-indent: -9999px; }
.custom #header #tagline { height: 0; }
.custom #header {border-bottom:none; padding:0}
.custom #header { padding: 0; }

The code and directions above are from HowToMakeMyBlog.com

FIX FOR PROBLEM #5 – Redirecting your traffic from your WordPress.com blog to your new domain

WordPress.com gives you instructions for redirecting your blog here:

Redirecting Your Blog

But before you redirect your blog I recommend going through your most popular posts on your old blog. Then replace the content with text similar to “This post moved to” with a link to the post on your new blog.

You also want to create a new blog post on your old blog saying, “This blog has moved to “MyBlogsNewDomain Name.com.”

Do this for a few weeks first. Then redirect your blog through WordPress.com. If you skip this step, many of your old links will go to a ”This page not found”  error on the new blog.

In spite of this extra work, I highly recommend moving your blog to Thesis. I bought their developer solution. And I signed up as an afilliate. The links in this post are my afilliate links.