Monday, April 10, 2006

[Domains] How To Switch To A "Real" Domain?

When I started blogging I went with Blogger and a URL that was sort of a condensed version of my name. Not long after I killed all my old content and starting doing tea only, but kept the old URL.

I have teaguyspeaks.com (and .net) registered, but I haven't made the change to that domain yet because my I put so much effort into getting my current blog URL out there.

How much of a factor is a "real" domain name in getting traffic to the site and has anyone made the change from a Blogger or similar type domain to hosting under their own domain name. How did you deal with changing URLs?

This Post was written by Bill from Tea Guy Speaks

9 comments:

RadiationWatch said...

I think there are pros and cons to having your own domain. If you have a business site, I think you definitely should have your own domain name. But for a blog I'm not sure if there is a definite benefit to having your own domain, especially if you have already spent a lot of time promoting your current URL.

Another factor to consider is if you already have a lot of traffic/links to your site. Technorati for example doesn't know that yourowndomain.com and yourblog.blogspot.com are the same site, so your Technorati links would be split between the two, thus lowering your overall Technorati ranking, if that matters to you. I have this situation - people seem to link either to maki.typepad.com/justhungry or www.justhungry.com (mainly because at some point Typepad changed the 'domain pointer' page without telling anyone...which is another story) so my links/rankings are divided.

On the other hand, should you choose to move your site off Blogger to another platform, say to one on its own site, you can 'move' your own domain with it and not lose your audience.

Cate said...

I have my own domain name, but for now, I used blogrolling to have the domain name point to my blog (for ease in posting)...

Amy Sherman said...

I have my own domain name, if nothing else to keep someone else from registering it. You can have both, no need to choose. I find it's easier to tell people to go to "cookingwithamy.com" raher than "cookingwithamy.blogspot.com"

William I. Lengeman III said...

What are the mechanics behind getting the site to show up at both addresses?

Cate said...

William - check out Blog Rolling. That's what I used. Like Amy, it's WAY easier to tell someone www.sweetnicks.com, as opposed to the blogspot address. Either way, you'll arrive at my site. At Blog Rolling, you can purchase your domain name and they can have it forwarded to your blogspot address very easily.

Susan Voisin said...

There are services out there that are much less expensive than BlogRolling. Do a search for "domain forwarding" or "URL redirection" and you can come up with some options. One I found very quickly was this one, for $8.50 a year, but I don't have any experience with it to know its reliability.

RadiationWatch said...

You should also check to see if your domain registrar offers domain forwarding for free..many of them do. I use joker.com for instance for the ten gazillion domains I have registered, and they offer this.

Unknown said...

Hi everyone,

On a similar subject, could someone (or more than one of you) recommend a good (reputable and affordable) site through which to purchase domain names? I'm not interested in hosting services at the moment, just purchases a name. Thanks!

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