Today I’d like to catch up a bit on some of the questions that have come in on web domains and web hosting:
Kristi wrote:
Question: if we already have a blog that is different in name from our personal/professional website name, should we change it? Or just add/move the blog to a link on our own website, like Jane Yolen does at www.JaneYolen.com where she has a journal page?
Randy sez: It’s up to you. I strongly recommend that you have your blog on YOUR site, not on somebody else’s, but you’re not going to get roughed up by the Blog Police if you don’t. A lot depends on how much traffic you expect your blog to bring in. Mine brings a lot of traffic, so I want it coming to my site.
D’Ann Mateer wrote:
Here’s a question about domain names that I’ve wondered about for a couple of years and its kept me from registering one:
My first name has an apostrophe in it which, obviously, can’t be used in the domain name. Which would seem more logical for people to find me: to use my name without the apostrophe or to use initials in front of my last name?
I’ve always liked that my name was different for name ID among readers, but I don’t want to confuse readers when they look for me on the web. (Of course, this is someday, when I’m published!)
Any insight or advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated!
Randy sez: Well, D’Ann, I’ve often wondered what you do for your web domain, given your apostrophed name. I don’t know the best solution, but here are several options:
1) Use www.DAnnMateer.com as your domain.
2) Use www.DAMateer.com as your domain.
3) Get both domains, and have one of them point to the other.
4) Change your name to Dave.
I would suggest Door #3. That way you get the best of both worlds. “DAMateer.com” would work on the radio, although you’d have to spell “Mateer”.
Whatever you do, I would suggest you do it quickly. It really doesn’t cost much to register a domain, and then you know that you’ve got it forever, as long as you pay your fees every year. If somebody else registers DAMateer.com before you get it, you’ll be kicking yourself forever.
There were some comments on the relative merits of DreamHost.com for hosting a site. I have nothing to add to this discussion, though I did read the article by one disaffected user of DreamHost, and it looked rather bad. I have had good service and good phone support with GoDaddy. They called me at home once, and one of my daughters answered the phone. She was very confused about why GoDaddy was asking for Daddy. 🙂
Yvette asked:
I have a ministry website, ministry blog and writers blog.
I have been thinking of merging the ministry website and blog into one and keeping the writing blog separate.
I have go daddy, and will be switching over to them for my blogs. I understand they can support wordpress themes. I don’t like the go daddy themes.
Would it be safe to have one website/blog with perhaps a separate blog for writing?
Randy sez: Yes, it’s quite safe and probably a better idea than having the web site and blog separated, if they’re really about the same thing.
Tomorrow, we’ll pick up with some more web site basics. After you’ve registered your domain, then what? See ya tomorrow with the answer.
Definitely agree with starting your website/blog in your own domain, it is not going to be easy to make a full and safe transfer from any free subdomain hosting to your domain without an impact on your search traffic. If you are serious about building your website/blog, it is not worth to risk that for just a couple of dollars a year.
Now that we are talking about names. And thinking that I would register a domain under my author name, what is the likelihood that I will get published with the name I have?
My name, as I use it now, is “Gerhi Janse van Vuuren”. Shortened first name (unique) and three parts to the surname. I can never see myself doing a full name authoring which would be “Gerhardus Petrus Benjamin Janse van Vuuren”. Just using my initials GPB in front of Janse van Vuuren or GJ in front of van Vuuren also doesn’t want to fly.
Just using my own names I can work out quite a number of pseudonyms but I would like to write as me.
Problems: Very few English speakers can pronounce my name correctly. It is with a hard ‘G’ and a flat ‘e’.
People often think I’m female, I’m not.
I could go with “Gerhard” but will I lose the uniqueness. The same with “Gary” or “Gerald”. In fact, I could never see myself as a “Gary”.
Edgar Rice Burroughs made a triple name work but I’ve got four parts. I’ll never be Stephen King.
So, should I just be me or should I work up another name? I’m not even asking what I should register as a domain, just, what should I use as my author name?
Thanks for your thoughts, Randy. You’ve helped me come closer to a decision, although perhaps I should give more consideration to the whole “Dave” thing. When my apostrophe gets left out (such as on class rolls in college, etc.) people think, from the name alone, that I’m a man with a weird spelling of Dan! If my parents had only known in 1967 how an apostrophe would become a computer catastrophe!
D’Ann
Thanks for answering my question, Randy. Since my blog is pretty new, I could probably move it to my own website and start the “traffic” over without too much trouble. Maybe I can leave the blogspot site up, with a final posting that says the blog has moved and give a link to my domain/blog page?
If you have your blog on your website page, how do you get the comments function (like this one) to display?
Hi Randy,
I have neither a blog nor a website. A friend developed a ministry website, but she now finds that the search engines are not picking it up. She’s encouraging me to develop a website, but since mine would be for ministry, too, I’m not eager to become involved until we can solve the search engine problem.
My friend was advised to have her website designed by a professional. However, we are both retired and on a fixed income, so the financial angle concerns us. Can you give me a ballpark figure for how much it would be to have a professional format a website? Any recommendations? We live in a Portland, Oregon suburb not too far from you, so I’m hoping that you will know someone to give us some professional help –if we can afford it.
Thank you.
Thank Randy for answering my question.
I will be making the move soon.