For some, the upgrade to WordPress 2.5.1 has gone very smoothly, but unfortunately for me it did not go as well as planned. This was due in large part to my inexperience and I thought it might help other new bloggers if I shared my lessons learnt:

(1). Allow plenty of time without distractions.
I followed the steps in the detailed instructions. In hindsight I should have allocated myself more child free time to do this. I started the process in a child free environment and then as things went wrong and took much longer than anticipated, I had to stop and get dinner for the kids!

(2). Back ups are golden.
To correct the problems I was having, I had no choice but to reload the blog to its original state and start over again. If I had not backed up properly, I shudder to think what would have happened.

(3). Check theme compatibility.
This was the major source of my problems. I should have checked out WordPress Codex for a list of files which were compatible.

(4). Get rid of old themes and plug ins before starting.
I had a number of plugins in my directory that I wasn’t using and one that I was which was particularly big. (4.6MB!!!!) I also had more than one theme in my WordPress files.

As a consequence, the upgrade process took much, much longer than it should have. Had the process been smooth, this probably would not have been an issue, but because I had to do the upgrade process a couple of times before all was well, I wasted a LOT of time.

(5). I love blogging.
While I was spending so much time on the technical side of things, I wasn’t doing the stuff really enjoy. I missed participating on the discussion in the comments section of my blog, I missed reading and commenting on other blogs and also putting more time into my posts. So if I haven’t responded to you recently, when I get back from Mildura on Sunday I will be going through these outstanding items.

(6). Bloggers at Aussie Bloggers are dead set legends
I would have not known what to do to get things going on the blog without the help and guidance from bloggers in the forum. A very big thank you to Anonymum and Sephyroth.

I have learnt a great deal from this experience and in a perverse way, happy to have done the upgrade and worked it out. Things are still not perfect and I have got one or two things to work out, so you will still see a change or too!