Moving to your own domain name

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Chamberlain on August 24, 2008 at 9:12pm

Well, I'm a big chicken so I paid someone to do it for me! LOL. To be fair though, I was also having her get my blog up and running (I designed the header and graphics but she "assembled" it and moved it over).

I went from wordpress.com to having my blog on my own site. I use wordpress.org now.

I use Lunarpages for hosting. I've definitely had some problems with them recently so I can't wholeheartedly recommend them. :(

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Permalink Reply by ConnieFoggles on August 24, 2008 at 9:57pm

I'd love to hear about this subject. I have someone willing to help me move my blog. My issue is what do I do about my paid blogging that I do on that blog? There's one company in particular that I can't get in touch with to ask questions. (Paid bloggers may know who I mean!)

I'd love to hear about feedburner too. Thanks for starting this lonestar!

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Permalink Reply by Alyssa on August 25, 2008 at 7:24pm

I would definitely recommend Wordpress. I do installs with my business Creative Installs for Hire, if you have questions just contact me. Wordpress is definitely much more flexible and gives you more options for customization.

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Permalink Reply by Jen on August 25, 2008 at 10:17pm

I think I lost my subscribers when I went to my custom domain. It said I had 4 last time I checked and after I switched it said 0. =( I also had to redo my blog roll on blogger so I went to the cached page of my site and grabbed them again that way. The only thing now is after I set it up, there's a box to check to redirect http://mommaysmayhem.com to http://WWW.mommaysmayhem.com. I checked it but it still doesn't redirect it. No idea how to fix that (or if it can be fixed).

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Naomi "Digitalfangirl" on September 15, 2008 at 10:27am

I always buy a domain for my blogs for branding purposes. I run all of my blogs under Wordpress now (hosted). I think it's always better to use a registered domain to keep the consistency. I started my first blog with Blogger six years ago, it's ok, but I find it very limited. I think Wordpress has much more flexibility. But, yes you can use a custom domain with blogger and you can set that up in your blogger admin panel. It's very simple and should only take 10 minutes to setup. The whole point of registering your own domain is to build name consistency (your brand) and to not be stuck with one particular blog host. If you have use a registered domain you're not bound to a blog url such as www.myblog.blogger.com or www.myblog.wordpress.com. When you use a registered domain you can switch blog hosts whenever you want and you're visitors will be none the wiser. Not to mention it's much easier to market a registered domain and less confusing to your readers.

If you're going to switch to Wordpress, there is a BIG difference in using the free Wordpress blogs vs. using the hosted version of Wordpress. I run my Wordpress blogs off my remote web server. Hosting your Wordpress blog on your own web server is the only way you can truly experience all the features, flexibility and full functionality. I use Host Gator for my web host and think they're really reliable.

Using Feedburner is good. If you have your own domain just submit that to feedburner and it will create an rss feed. Also, since Google bought Feedburner the MyBrand Pro feature is free, but if you have difficulty setting up DNS stuff, I would not use it. As long as you use your custom url to burn a feedburner feed; you'll be ok.

Hope this helps..

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Permalink Reply by Erica M on September 19, 2008 at 11:42am

I'm a self hosted Wordpress user too.

GeekyCyberMom is right. Blogger is limiting.

I can offer you some hosting, and help you install WP very cheaply if you'd like. Hubby and I have a hosting company that is backed by Rackspace and Mosso, two of the most respected and reliable web hosting servers. depending on your traffic, and whether you host your photos/videos on your own site, or an external site like Picasa or Flickr, we could set you up for $2-$4/mo. I charge a one-time set up fee of $10 to install Wordpress and set up your database. I'd be available for any questions you may have as well. I can transfer your DNS, or help you do that. I'll also throw in the Feedburner set up. I love to help people!

Good luck with your decisions!

Erica M
Fishbowl Sense

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