Taryn Merrick, a colleague and web designer (whose work I admire a lot) and I have been discussing the trend of taking an old web site, built with an html editor, say, and converting it into a WordPress site, which can function as a combination static site and blog.

She and I have both tackled such projects recently and Taryn suggested that I write a blog post sharing what I learned in the process.

Now that I have done it, exactly once, I can’t claim any expertise. However, the experience alone taught me so much and raised so many new questions that I find I want to keep talking about it.

Read about my conversion story here.

It’s one thing to disassemble a small site comprised of just a few pages and morph that content into a blog. But for a site of any size there’s a lot to master: the htaccess file for redirection; the architecture; the permalink structure; the loop; the CSS, and the page rank woes (for me anyway!) will make your eyes blur.

There is no magic wand, and the after-effects may be different than intended. And while you are losing sleep (and vision) toddling along with your conversion van, er, blog (I need a vacation!), your OTHER sites may suffer from neglect.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, though, and you will learn a LOT from this undertaking.

Tell me about your conversion project and how it turned out.

Speaking of this, here are some related posts elsewhere on Loosely Speaking:

• Choose Wisely; Your Blogging Platform, That is
• Blog Backup Online
• Is Original Web Design a Dying Art?