How do I give a domain as gift to a WordPress blogger?

November 30, 2010 10:56 AM

I want to give a domain name or three as a gift to a friend who blogs on WordPress. I'd like to include some unusual international TLDs, but is that a good idea?

A friend has a popular blog on WordPress. She's still using [blogname]wordpress.com, but has talked about registering her own domain name. This older AskMe was really helpful, and I am inclined to use Name.com. I thought it would be neat to also register domains with international TLDs that make the English words in her blog name (bl.og and na.me). I can't reveal the blog name without ruining the surprise as she is a MeFite.

On to the questions:

1. Is there anything I should know about blogging on WP with your own domain?
2. Will it be easy for her to transfer ownership of the domain?
3. Is it a good or bad idea to get esoteric TLDs (such as .ge or .ee) that make nice English words, but might be a pain to renew every year?

Thanks hivemind!

posted by schweik to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

1. Not really. You can use Name.com tools to forward, with or without masking. And you can also set up WP to use a custom URL.

2. Yes. The Name.com tool set was designed with the ability to push domains from one account to another very easily and with a fair amount of security.

3. Yes/no. Depends on the ccTLD in question. Because ccTLDs are all governed differently there can be surprises. For instance, .CN made sweeping changes that wrecked havoc on things while I was running things there. It was maddening to deal with them. Things like .me and .co are a bit different though because they are positioned by their registries to take advantage of the broad appeal of their extensions. Name.com set up lots of informational pages for each TLD, but since I left they've changed their website a fair amount. Look around on their website or call them. Their support agents vary in quality, but if you ask to speak to someone in operations they should be able to help you determine what the likelihood of any problems with a particular ccTLD are.
posted by FlamingBore at 11:22 AM on November 30, 2010

Response by poster: I linked to the wrong AskMe above. This is the one that helped.
posted by schweik at 1:04 PM on November 30, 2010

My brother-in-law got a domain that ends in .be. (Belgium) and he hasn't had any problems that I've noticed (and I don't think anyone's taken diatri.be which would be awesome for a blog!)
posted by vespabelle at 1:14 PM on November 30, 2010

1. I don't think so. I haven't really used wp.com, but should be able to transfer the posts to the new wp instance (if wp.com and wp.org engines are similar)
2. Yes, you simply update the ownership details with her details/email add.
3. Should be a problem for most TLDs

Before you buy any of these make sure if she's ok with the recurring cost of multiple domain names.
posted by WizKid at 2:59 PM on November 30, 2010