Probably the best news yet for AOL Journals users — you can now migrate your AOL Journal to Google’s Blogger easily. AOL did make good on their promise to provide an easy way for users to export their blog contents to a third-party.
If you haven’t heard, AOL will be shutting down their AOL Journals (and Hometown) personal blogging product, effective October 31st, 2008. No, it’s not a trick or a treat, it’s likely preparation for an upcoming layoff right in time for Christmas. (I’m waiting for the layoff e-mail to be leaked to Valleywag…)
In a follow-up e-mail sent to AOL Journals users, AOL advised users to click this special link to begin the migration process to Blogger. The e-mail is included below:
Subject: Transferring Your AOL Journals Blog to Blogger.com
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:32:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: AOLMemberInfo <aolmemberinfo@dc.aol.com>
Reply-To: AOLMemberInfo <AOLMemberInfo-[redacted]@dc.aol.com>
To: [screenname]@aol.comDear AOL Journals user,
As we wrote in an e-mail on Sept. 30, AOL® Journals will permanently shut down on Oct. 31. It’s never an easy decision to shut down a feature, especially one like AOL Journals that some of our members have used for a long time. But with a decline in Journals usage, we have to look carefully at all of AOL’s features to make sure we’re providing as much value to our members as possible.
Though we know this might be an inconvenience, the good news is that we’ve partnered with Blogger.com to provide a smooth transition for your journal. Blogger is a free service from Google that makes it easy to share your thoughts with friends and the world. Blogger supports most of the features you’ve come to expect from AOL Journals, and it’s easy to get started. If you wish to transfer your journal to Blogger, they will move your posts, comments and photos to your new blog on their service. When you’re ready, go to this link to get started.
Remember, it’s very important to save your Journals content before Oct. 31. If you choose not to move to Blogger, you’ll need to save your information manually (for example, by copying and pasting its contents into a word processor).
Again, we appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition, and we hope you enjoy using Blogger.com.
Sincerely,
The AOL Journals Team
AOL Journals –> Blogger –> ???
Now that you can do that, all you need to do now is export Blogger content to a variety of platforms. A quick search for Export Blogger yields a number of results to satisfy almost any eager blogger thirsting for the perfect platform.
AOLers: Let me know how the process goes. So far, it seems good. Unlike the skeleton crew AOL, the Blogger team is talented and eager to help users transition to their service.
Best of luck to those affected!
~Joe