Greetings guys and gals of the Web! Let me introduce to you this great news. L-I has officially thrown the .blogspot away to the depths of the Webiterranean! But, before firing me with questions, I know the new domain name seems kinda... different. (I know it's wicked. Thank you.) I'll explain to you later on this post what's with the 'the'?
As you know well, if you are always around here, L-I is hosted on Blogger - Google's free blogging service. By default, we get the .blogspot URL. And so, this blog has been known as loading-info.blogspot.com to many. When I had the opportunity to purchase a domain name for L-I, I've thought very well of what to use.
From the beginning, I've planned of using a .net TLD instead of the most common .com. Why? Since .com stands for commercial, I really find it irrelevant to my blog. I know that it is the norms of the web, the default. But if you know me well, I really don't follow anything just because it's a common thing to do. Plus, .net stands for either network or internet, the latter speaks much of my blog's niche. So I told myself, I wanted a .net TLD.
I've used a hyphen (-) from the beginning on Loading-Info's name. When I've thought of the name, I really don't intend to use a hyphen. But loadinginfo.blogspot.com is already taken so I put a hyphen between the words. In addition to that, while I was searching for a potential domain name, I really wanted to drop the hyphen. However, when I checked loadinginfo.com it is already unavailable. I've checked that domain before and was still available. (He could have seen my blog and decided to purchase the domain name before me!) Too bad for him I'm not really interested on a .com.
Thus, I retained the hyphen. I've purchased loading-info.com in case the visitor forgot I was on a .net TLD and loadinginfo.net in case the user forgot the hyphen. If the visitor knows my blog, even for a little, there is a lower probability that he will type loadinginfo.com in the URL.
And so this blog's domain name is originally loading-info.net with the 'the' as its subdomain. Before I'll explain to you about the 'the'. You still need to know a little bit of the story on why it ended up like that.
I initially wanted L-I's domain name to be loading-info.net. I also have purchased domain names for my two other blogs: dichothoughts.com and technopoly.us. I purchased all of them on Namecheap (link with my affiliate ID).
I initially wanted L-I's domain name to be loading-info.net. I also have purchased domain names for my two other blogs: dichothoughts.com and technopoly.us. I purchased all of them on Namecheap (link with my affiliate ID).
Then came the time when I wanted to implement the new domain name to L-I. That's when I discovered that Blogger doesn't allow naked domains (URL without the 'www' or any subdomain) as our custom domains for our Blogger blogs UNLESS we've purchased the domain name from their partners.
I was shocked at just knowing this stuff. If I had known about this before, I should have purchased the domain name directly from Blogger. But it's too late and I have a problem...
If you noticed my two other blogs, they have no 'www's as well. I don't know why but I find it not-so good-looking. The redundancy of the 'w's distracts me. So I really don't want it on any of my site's URL. Plus, if I have to put all my blogs into my profile card it looks ugly if it looks like this:
The inconsistency kills me. I can also confuse them into thinking that my two other blogs starts with a 'www' as well.
I am aware that it redirects to the main URL, that when they visited my two other blogs with the 'www' they would still be redirected to the right place. That also goes to L-I's URL if the visitor typed the URL without the 'www', they will still be redirected to the correct address.
It's just plainly odd for me, I mean the inconsistency and differences of my site's URLs in case it ended up like that.
And so, I've thought of something to replace the 'www' on the URL. I know that it's the default and others don't really care about it. But I don't like it.
I have thought of my.loading-info.net web.loading-info.net i.loading-info.net and many other weird subdomains but eventually ended up with the 'the' as it looks formal and appropriate enough. Plus, it's the same number of letters with the 'www' so it should be fine. It looks cool, really. For me, atleast.
I'm also not quite sure of this yet. Of course, I have fears of getting less visitors because of this. It's uncommon. But at the same time, its 'being uncommon' makes it looks so awesome to me. We'll never know, others might find this cool as well and follow me. ;)
But of course there are drawbacks of changing your domain name. Regarding my blog's commenting system, I have no problems. It just took me a minute to migrate the comments from the old URL to the new one.
Also, I worried about my PunchTab widget. There is no change domain name option on their dashboard and I and my readers have accumulated points, that would suck if they'll all be gone to waste. And so I contacted them about it and I have immediately received a response from them and asked me to provide my old URL and the new one. After a few minutes, the points are back on track!
But of course, there are other things that cannot be brought with me on the new URL. Here are the drawbacks I've encountered after I migrated the URL to the new domain:
Yeah, all of my Recommendations, RTs, BE and Blokube votes are gone. Well, they are not gone actually. They are still on the sites, but are linked to my old URL. My Facebook Recommendations, RT counts, and +1s are totally gone from my blog's face. So I have a little request to make. If you are an avid reader of L-I, a friend, or just someone who passed by before, and you did some of interactions above. Please do visit L-I's Archive page and remember which of the posts you liked the most that you have Recommended, +1'd, and Retweeted before and redo the said interactions if you will. I'll appreciate it a lot! Really.
It's not about the quantity, but the quality of links. It's important that if they put you into their blogroll, the URL isn't the obsolete URL. Well, the problem is: I've already had lots of link backs, mostly those from people I have not requested from. (Thank you!) So this is going to be my request. If my blog is included on your blogroll, or is included on any post, please change it to the new URL if you have time. It will be very much appreciated!
As you know, if you know, L-I is already a PR3 blog. Of course, that is with the loading-info.blogspot.com domain. Since I have a new domain name, this will be a back-from-the-start adventure to the ranks. I wonder how long it would take to regain my page rank...
UPDATE: I have discovered that Google automatically revives the blog's PR even if it is just transferred to a new domain. If you checked the naked domain http://loading-info.net it has the PR of the old domain which is PR3. Special thanks to Ruben of MostlyMaths.net for informing me!
So those are the three drawbacks. I just changed the URL hours ago so I'm still not sure what else I'll be encountering so stay tuned, I'll update this post when I encountered a new one.
Last but not the least of my requests:
P.S. Loading-Info's 1st birthday is coming up in two days! It would be an awesome gift to have any of the said requests be granted. Just let me know if you did any of those and you shall be thanked! See you around! :-)
I was shocked at just knowing this stuff. If I had known about this before, I should have purchased the domain name directly from Blogger. But it's too late and I have a problem...
I don't want a 'www' on my URL.
If you noticed my two other blogs, they have no 'www's as well. I don't know why but I find it not-so good-looking. The redundancy of the 'w's distracts me. So I really don't want it on any of my site's URL. Plus, if I have to put all my blogs into my profile card it looks ugly if it looks like this:
www.loading-info.net | dichothoughts.com | technopoly.us
The inconsistency kills me. I can also confuse them into thinking that my two other blogs starts with a 'www' as well.
I am aware that it redirects to the main URL, that when they visited my two other blogs with the 'www' they would still be redirected to the right place. That also goes to L-I's URL if the visitor typed the URL without the 'www', they will still be redirected to the correct address.
It's just plainly odd for me, I mean the inconsistency and differences of my site's URLs in case it ended up like that.
And so, I've thought of something to replace the 'www' on the URL. I know that it's the default and others don't really care about it. But I don't like it.
I have thought of my.loading-info.net web.loading-info.net i.loading-info.net and many other weird subdomains but eventually ended up with the 'the' as it looks formal and appropriate enough. Plus, it's the same number of letters with the 'www' so it should be fine. It looks cool, really. For me, atleast.
I'm also not quite sure of this yet. Of course, I have fears of getting less visitors because of this. It's uncommon. But at the same time, its 'being uncommon' makes it looks so awesome to me. We'll never know, others might find this cool as well and follow me. ;)
But of course there are drawbacks of changing your domain name. Regarding my blog's commenting system, I have no problems. It just took me a minute to migrate the comments from the old URL to the new one.
Disqus.com -> Dashboard -> Your Site -> Tools -> Migrate Threads
Also, I worried about my PunchTab widget. There is no change domain name option on their dashboard and I and my readers have accumulated points, that would suck if they'll all be gone to waste. And so I contacted them about it and I have immediately received a response from them and asked me to provide my old URL and the new one. After a few minutes, the points are back on track!
But of course, there are other things that cannot be brought with me on the new URL. Here are the drawbacks I've encountered after I migrated the URL to the new domain:
Yeah, all of my Recommendations, RTs, BE and Blokube votes are gone. Well, they are not gone actually. They are still on the sites, but are linked to my old URL. My Facebook Recommendations, RT counts, and +1s are totally gone from my blog's face. So I have a little request to make. If you are an avid reader of L-I, a friend, or just someone who passed by before, and you did some of interactions above. Please do visit L-I's Archive page and remember which of the posts you liked the most that you have Recommended, +1'd, and Retweeted before and redo the said interactions if you will. I'll appreciate it a lot! Really.
It's not about the quantity, but the quality of links. It's important that if they put you into their blogroll, the URL isn't the obsolete URL. Well, the problem is: I've already had lots of link backs, mostly those from people I have not requested from. (Thank you!) So this is going to be my request. If my blog is included on your blogroll, or is included on any post, please change it to the new URL if you have time. It will be very much appreciated!
As you know, if you know, L-I is already a PR3 blog. Of course, that is with the loading-info.blogspot.com domain. Since I have a new domain name, this will be a back-from-the-start adventure to the ranks. I wonder how long it would take to regain my page rank...
UPDATE: I have discovered that Google automatically revives the blog's PR even if it is just transferred to a new domain. If you checked the naked domain http://loading-info.net it has the PR of the old domain which is PR3. Special thanks to Ruben of MostlyMaths.net for informing me!
So those are the three drawbacks. I just changed the URL hours ago so I'm still not sure what else I'll be encountering so stay tuned, I'll update this post when I encountered a new one.
Last but not the least of my requests:
P.S. Loading-Info's 1st birthday is coming up in two days! It would be an awesome gift to have any of the said requests be granted. Just let me know if you did any of those and you shall be thanked! See you around! :-)
<Loading-Info>
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