Starting a new blog? Get your own domain name! Do NOT use a subdomain of typepad.com, wordpress.com, blogspot.com (etc)
Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 at
2:32 pm
Tagged with: changing blog platforms • domain • domain names • domains • redirects • subdomain • typepad complaints • url
Filed under: Blogger • blogging • TypePad • Weblogs • WordPress
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Hey Emily,
I write several blogs, but my personal one is Stuart-Tan.Com on personal effectiveness.
I myself was using Blogspot.Com for some time, until I decided to just use the FTP function. It proved fairly painless, and you’re absolutely right – you definitely need to own your own domain. It’s only logical for SEO purposes.
Keep up the great work!
You make a very valid point. Doesn’t TypePad’s Domain Mapping feature solve this problem?
Sounds pretty alarmist – for some of us (outside the USA especially) the money used to pay for a domain name would be much better used to, say, pay for food. (US$6 = roughly RM24, which is enough for a week’s worth of lunch or so in Malaysia.) Then there is the added costs of hosting, which can really add up to a LOT.
There’s no need for domain snobbery; whether the blog is good or not shouldn’t depend on where it’s hosted. I’ve seen brilliant blogs on “free hosts” and terrible blogs worth less than the price of the domain.
I considered TypePad once, but the prices are ridiculous. For what they charge, anyone could buy some webspace and a domain and just use WordPress!
It’s probably just as important to mention that you’ll want to make sure, for the same reasons, that you use a tool that supports exporting your posts. Even if you have your own domain name, if you can’t get access your posts and do something useful with them, you’re going to be stuck.
I agree with what you say about getting your own domain name(s): good to have and now cheap.
I’d add the twist that this is an argument to start with blogger, or some other free hosted service. I keep my old blog (http://bloggingonthefreeweb.blogspot.com) around, at zero cost. I don’t want to remove it, partly because I was too lazy to transfer the posts into my new blog, partly because I don’t want to break anyone’s links.
For some people, having to get your own domain name may seem like an extra blog-founding chore they don’t need.
hello
Very interesting
I have a blog at typepad plat form with a sub domain but have also on my own some domain names.
If i use one of my domain name for my blog, i reveale, disclose it, is there a risk that someone exploit this mark, brand for his own web site, for instance a merchant web site ?
thank you
Hi, Emily. This is excellent advice. Looking at it from the other perspective, when I set up my latest blog/podcast, I considered services like typepad and blogspot. It was appealing to be able to start it without the setup hassles. But I couldn’t map these services to my own domain. So I went through the trouble of installing WordPress. It was the right decision. It was especially the right decision for me, since I can customize my own site (through plug-ins, complementary applications and PHP code) to an extent the turnkey services would not have supported.
On the other hand, I also have a LiveJournal, which is a personal blog. Using a service like LiveJournal does have an advantage in that you become part of a larger peer network. LiveJournal friends and friends-of-friends and so forth. (Do blogspot and typepad offer similar features?)
-TimK
I am very new to all this and struggling to understand. I do have my own domain. CultivatingSales.com My host, Hostm, has WordPress that automatically installs, which I did. Now my URL is http://www.cultivatingsales.com/WordPress/ Does this what I want or do I need to get WordPress out of there altogether? Maybe I can’t even do that? I have my website at http://www.CultivatingSales.com so I can’t have only my blog there. Any words of wisdom? Thanks!
Ya they just hit me for 150.00 and I have been having some problems with their support.Just minor stuff but it seems they are having problems but don’t know how to solve them.They do answer my support tickets but nothing seems to get resolved especially when the problem is in there servers.I also notice that my other blogs get a whole lot more traffic the the type pad one that I paid 150.00 bucks for.
Why can’t you switch using Typepad’s “Domain Mapping” feature” Was very, very easy for me to switch over to a domain…
I was shocked when I read your title. I’m using subdomain for my blog and I don’t see any big deal with it.
Your title should read “Do NOT use a subdomain owned by somebody else”! LOL
Hi Emily,
I am totally confused and hope you can give me some help. I have my blog set up with blogware with my own domain name. I have no idea if I made a wise choice or not. I knew nothing about blogging programs so I chose to get it through domain direct. I paid $100. (I think) for a year. Am I stuck with them or would I be able to move my domain elsewhere?
I have several questions that I’d like to ask but I don’t see a place on your site to ask questions… do you offer that help? Or can you suggest a blogging forum to me?
May I ask one more question in here, please? Do search engines read the Blogrolling program?
I can give you my url so you can take a look to see if I have set it up right with blogware but please be advised that it is an adult blog so I don’t want it to offend you or anyone else that does not want to go into it. http://www.wetalksexblog.com
Thank you Emily for any help that you can offer me.
Donna
Great post and great explanation! I ranted similarly about this topic over on Business Blog Consulting.
Thank you! You were responsible for my decision to get my own blog domain names http://lovingbear.net and http://lovingjacqui.net (after only ~3 weeks of blogging) – so if it doesn’t work out it’s all YOUR fault!
Kidding. It was a fantastic idea. I’m using Blogspot FTP and, with significant hacks (all of which are new to me, but fun to learn!) it’s working great.
Love you for your great idea. And ’cause your picture’s hot. Don’t tell my girlfriend, Jacqui, I said that at http://lovingbear.net !
Hello Emily,
Sorry to spam your comments here, but I’ve lost your email in a time warp.
I just wanted to mention the release of the 2.0b version if my id band theme (only the 2 columns one, the others are still to come), at http://t37.net/id-band-2-twin
Cheers,
Frederic
Hello Emily
I foresaw most of the problems you explained in you blog, including having your own domain (Except for WordPress not having enough plugins
). The control you get is definitely worth the price.
The comment from Tiara (Feb 8, 2006 8:57:32 PM) on the high cost of hosting for individuals living in foreign (developing) countries I do not totally agree with.
I live in South Africa, we are a developing nation. But it is much more economical to host a website in the USA than locally (At least 10 times more economical) . Many of us think of US hosting prices as a blessing.
Excelent blog, keep up the wonderful work!
Hi EMily,
I found you while searching for online help with Hello from Picassa. I have been very happy with it; however for the past 3 days it does not post my pictures to my blog.
Any ideas and or suggestions???
Namaste,
MB
I have two Typepad blogs with mapped domains. One started out as a Typepad subdomain (so folks will have a bunch of those links bookmarked), but I did the other with my domain name right from the beginning. Works fine, I’ve developed many hacks to get around some of Typepad’s style issues (I only have a Plus account), tastes great, less filling.
I love your site, domain or no domain. I’m in the process of going from blogger to my own space, and I’m off to search your site on how to use all these new toys I’ve just purchased! Your site is amazing though!
If you can afford to buy a name, do it. I have actualy bought numerous names, though some of the names I have really never used, but they are mine if I ever wanted to put them into play.
Just for your interest, I use WordPress. I really enjoy the easy setup and interface. I can literally install a working version in a matter of minutes on a new site.
Thanks Emily for the post.
Yeah you should think to have your own domain name to blog. Happen to me when I’m using Blogspot.com to blog…after few month start blogging and fills all my content including affiliate….suddenly I get email from blogspot.com that my blog are doing something wrong and they had reset everything ….you know everything gone after all the hardwork…now I’m happy with my new blog….so what wrong if I’m doing affiliate with my blog!!!!
I think there is always somethings better when you paid for the service and domain…
Emily,
The only thing I like about using a subdomain is when used with a proper keyword, for example, say you are blogging about a “marketing plan”, using that word in your subdomain helps you rank high in search engines well because those subdomains are of from the authority websites rather than an individual websites.
My friend has “mini sites” he creates for many different niches, and he seems to always rank those high fast with especially MSN Search when after only blogging for like a few weeks and get a few back links pointed at him.
I wonder what your thoughts on it from SEO point of view.
It definately makes sense to buy a new domain for every new blog you make. In response to Takuya, I think a network of mini sites would work alot better for SEO purposes, particularly with google in mind. You can always link to your new blog from your other ‘authority’ site and this will improve the rating of your new site accordingly.
Hi Emily,
I noticed that you are using a nifty link redirect on your blog. I tried to find the auto links plugin, but it’s creator’s site seems to be down. I’m wondering if you can recommend a similar plugin that reroute all my outgoing links through a php script.
Thanks
Hello Emily,
I’m looking into getting my own domain for my blog and was looking into GoDaddy and the prices seem reasonable. I’ve never used a hosting service before, and I wonder how to set one up for a WordPress blog. In reading your blog here about obtaining a domain, I’m all geared up to do it, but… how?
Any help you can offer me would be wonderful.
Thanks,
Thomas
Yes this is thrue ! I can agree with your post….
yes, it’s amazing !
I use wordpress like content managemennt, i’m not a real blogger,
or maybe a dj blogger ehehe… but from the time I started to use wordpress , I feel istantly the power of this great peace of software, and the nice world around it, like peoples like you that offer links to themes , plugs…. it’s really extraordinary…
At the end, but not minus important I wish to thank you, for your site and the useful information I have found by surfing on it….
great work miss …
greetings from Venice, Italy
I think somebody said it earlier, but let me say it again. Not everyone earns in dollars and so it’s preferable to use someone’s else domain name, especially for a personal non-commercial blog.
I switched from Blogger to WordPress easily. I simply imported the content. I also left a last post on Blogger mentioning that my blog address had changed. Those who want to come, will come.
Frankly, as I am a small blogger there was no heart-burning where the other stuff was concerned, like ranking etc.
Why has no one even mentioned how to link your blog up to your domain name once you’ve bought the domain??? I have Homestead and they won’t tell me how to put a blog on my site!
hi, man i think there is a problem with submitting comments any way thats a great post.. jus weeks before i transfered my blog under wordpress to tucktail.now i have lots of freedom and lots of tools to tweak and design my site according to my prerogative.
@constantinum –
The comments are moderated, so they don’t automatically post to the blog so as to avoid comment spam
That is very interesting reading Emily, thankfully I’ve recently made the step up to self hosted – it seems really scary to a newbie but to be honest is very straightforward if you find a decent host.
Thanks for that
Cloody
It’s really great to post my comments on such a blog. I would like to appreciate the great work done by the web master and would like to tell everyone that they should post their interesting comments and should make this blog interesting. Once again I would like to say keep it up to blog owner!!!! http://www.naturalherbalsinc.com
Great post, keep up the good work!
_____ \\\!!!///____
______( ô ô )_____
___ooO-(_)-Ooo___
http://originalpenisenlargement.com
http://pennisenlargementproducts.com
http://pills4enlargement.com
EARN GLOBAL MONEY shows you different earning programs from all over the globe and help people to earn money from different earning program owned by different organizations. click here .
Hate buying wow gold, just to find out that you could have gotten it at half the price somewhere else? Can’t stand getting ripped off by fraudulent gold sellers? Then MMOBUX can help. MMOBUX compares prices and provides reviews for more than 427 online shops that sell currencies like World of Warcraftwow po Gold, Eve Online ISK or Lord of the Rings Online Gold. On our site you can find the cheapest and most reliable sellers in a matter of seconds.
What a great resource! Keep up the good work.
Very Nice Advice, Also you will need good blog content, Thank you for Sharing it with us!
Have a Nice Day!
James from
FreeContent-FreeContent
Thanks for the kind words. Not sure what’s going on with the people telling you to stay away from informational niches, ALL my niches are information based. I have no product based sites that I’m earning with. Maybe these people were never earning and might not have things set up right? Not sure what to think of that kind of logic. If it has a high CPC and high volume of traffic with a lot of ads I can’t imagine you won’t earn. Maybe stay away from gambling and other niches that might eventually be banned/go down the tubes
I hope that helps…
ts my first ever visit on this site……good information being shared here..thanks
I really enjoyed this site. This is such a Great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. It gives in depth information. Thanks for this valuable information.