Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blog and domain

Hosted Blog or DIY?

heavenstobetsy — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:05:14 -0800

My boss would like to start a blog. He already has a domain. We're unsure as to whether to use something like Wordpress to host, or to install it (or Moveable Type?) ourselves. Opinions? He is also a bit concerned with search engine optimization. The concern is that google (and others) will not recognize that a hosted blog (pointing to his domain) is a PART of the domain, but appear as another domain altogether (Wordpress'?). Basically he would like the blog to come up when people google our business name. It would be tagged appropriately, he is just concerned that using a partially hosted service would dilute the connection to the domain. Hopefully that makes sense!

He will be using the blog for weekly/monthly/etc newsletters, posting pictures, links, etc. He is also concerned about being able to use his own fonts. It seems to be that this should be possible, but I'm not so up on the server side of blog hosting (or any hosting). What is our best bet here?

How to make a clean break without getting lost?

pantheON — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:34:00 -0800

How can I migrate my blog to a new domain without upsetting its Google ranking or breaking third party links? I've been running a blog on the Blogger service for the last year or so. In that time, numerous other publications (electronic and print) have linked/referred to the blog. Some may have linked to particular articles, but I'm less concerned about these links.

I am giving the site a facelift which includes moving it off of Blogger to its own domain. Is it possible to do this without upsetting the sites ranking in Google or breaking links from third parties? I do not want to have to start over in terms of my Google ranking. I would appreciate any advice on how to best accomplish this migration with those two goals in mind.

Making preparations now to make it easier later

flatluigi — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:20:29 -0800

What free blogging service will let me eventually and easily move over to a domain of my own in the future? What I mean is this: Right now I want to get into blogging, but I don't have the cash to get a domain in the near future. Eventually, I'd want to move my blog from flatluigi.blogger.com to flatluigi.com/blog/ or blog.flatluigi.com (or whatever it ends up being).

Any blog platform recommendations, keeping this in mind?

How do I filter my entire digital life into one personal domain?

bradly — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:31:03 -0800

I'm merging my digital life into one conglomerate website. I have a wordpress blog, tumblr, twitter page, blogspot blog, and a page for my music project being joined on my new domain. Can I do this without making my site busy or ugly? I've spent countless hours working on this and find myself reaching for a 'reset design' button.

Right now I have a minimalist landing page with links to everything

i.e. 'blog' 'twitter' 'tumblr' 'music' 'non-profit'

'blog' goes to www.domain.com/blog and uses the same CSS as www.domain.com/

I didn't like the look of the java/flash widgets embedded in my site,
so right now the twitter and tumblr feeds appear in plain text in their respective locations inside the jurisdiction of my stylescripts.

I have considered linking directly to current locations i.e. 'twitter' would go to www.twitter.com/userID, but I feel like that is ungratitude for the power that having my own domain brings.

Also with that, things are brought out of 'Zen' slightly as some parts of the site are hosted on the domain (blogs, music) and others are hosted elsewhere. Of course the layout changes on every not-my-domain page.

I have considered using some type of frame that opens the new site within my site, but I'm clueless to the logistics, and am not sure that that would improve my current situation at all.

Is there hope for my site?

Many thanks in advance!

I didn't realize that this was such an emotional website problem. Maybe this should go into human relations :P

How to fix a botched Wordpress database transfer?

micketymoc — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:18:34 -0800

Why isn't my backed-up Wordpress blog appearing on my new website? I've moved domains, and I've copied my database from my old site to the new one. Trouble is, the page just draws a blank. I followed these instructions to copy my old database to the new domain. Now when I manage my posts on the dashboard, the posts are all there, but the blog won't appear at all.

What did I do wrong? How should I be rectifying this?

Please Help me with my Blogger Blog and Custom Domain

andoatnp — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:26:09 -0800

Why might my Blogger blog not be working with my custom domain and how do I fix it? Four days ago, I set up a blog at CUSTOMDOMAIN.blogspot.com and I own the url CUSTOMDOMAIN.com from GoDaddy. I followed the instructions here from Blogger so that people who visit the Custom Domain would see me Blogger blog. When I visit CUSTOMDOMAIN.com it just shows the godaddy.com parking page without the content from my blogspot blog.

In order to set up the domain I own with the blog I created a CNAME record for the domain (screenshot here, does this look right?) and changed the setting in my blogger setting panel to indicate that it is a custom url that I am using. I'm reasonably certain that I did everything in the blogger side ok, because when I visit CUSTOMDOMAIN.blogspot.com it redirects to CUSTOMDOMAIN.com, but with just the empty godaddy parking page.

Is there something I did wrong or something that I can fix so that my godaddy.com domain works with my blog?

Also, is it possible to set up a Google Apps account and then transfer this domain that I have purchased to that account so that blogger is handling both the domain and the blog? I see where I can purchase a new domain with Google Apps, but can I transfer one that I already own?

Also, I emailed godaddy tech support, and they sent a reply saying that it didn't look like a problem on there end.

How can I host an anonymous Wordpress blog, and not get unmasked?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:38:36 -0800

How can I set up and host an anonymous Wordpress blog? I want to write about stuff, and I don't want other people to know who I am. How hard is this? I have read the EFF guide to anonymous blogging, I've got tor, Portable Firefox, and all that stuff... what I am concerned about is the actual domain registration and hosting.

The blog has the potential to get some real traffic, and to have some fairly determined people trying to figure out who I am. Or maybe I am just deluding myself, but I want to be very careful regardless. I'm not going to be doing anything illegal, so I don't need to be subpoena-proof, just amateur-sleuth-proof.

Do you trust regular wordpress hosts, or do you think I should go to some shady offshore host that won't ask me for any identifying details?

Do you think is there anything else I'm forgetting?

Email me at anonymousblog-askmefi@gmail.com if you want... thanks very much!!

Bored? Help name my blog.

pantheON — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 20:41:12 -0800

Bored? Help name my blog. I've run several blogs in the past, but this new venture aims to be something of a more serious and more, hopefully, long-term venture. The impetus for this project is my frustration with the dumbing down of politics, media, and culture and the lack of focus in all three spheres on actually bettering the human condition. It will be based in Canada, but not deal exclusively with Canadian subject matter. It may share some of the same themes as a blog like Crooks and Liars, but not be exclusively political or focused on current events. It will explore the dysfunction in... well, everything and eventually search for solutions. It may, after some time, serve as a tool to inspire a movement.

It would also help if the domain name was available, at least in the '.ca' domain. I'm interested to see what you all come up with.

Help me start a family webpage

bove — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:06:52 -0800

Help me figure out the best way to start a family web-page/blog. I would like to start a blog. This is obviously the easy part. I know that I can just use Blogger and create a blog. What I would like the ability to do is a little more complicated, and I know absolutely nothing about web pages or web design.

Ideally, what I would like to do is purchase the domain name of "lastname.com" that I would use for my family blog. However, doesn't that mean that I would then have to use HTML to set it up? Or could I purchase the domain, but just have it point to a blog hosted somewhere else? How do I do this?

I would also like to be able to give my family members the ability to do the same thing. So for instance, I would be able to give them the webpage for firstname.lastname.com and then they could run their blog/website. Is this possible? If so, how do I do it?

I also have no idea how much any of this would cost, or how to go about it. Could I also set it up so that I could give myself and my family email addresses based on lastname.com, with a minimum of effort?

I have wanted to do this for awhile, but I haven't done it because a) I didn't know how; b) I have worried that it would be expensive to maintain a domain; and c) I am worried that even if I figure out how to set something up, I wouldn't be able to maintain it if there were problems.

I have tried to put in as much info as possible, but I will also try and monitor this thread to answer questions if they are needed to help you give me the best possible advice. Also, please be really specific, b/c I really do not know much about setting up a web page.

Stopping the blog spammers

bamassippi — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 13:08:24 -0800

I want to start a Wikipedia page featuring the domains of blog spammers. Does one already exist?

Mapping a Domain to a TypePad Blog

fionab — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 16:33:01 -0800

Domain mapping to a TypePad blog. For the past 10 days, I have desperately been trying to map a domain name to my TypePad blog. Every solution offered to me by either TypePad or my registrar seems to undo something else. I am trying to: have the domain mapped seamlessly (masked, I believe it's called), but also for the Permalinks (unique urls) to work. I am in over my head! Right now, if you type in http://www.mydomain.net *everything* works as it should. You don't see the TypePad domain name come up in the address, the permalinks work, and all is golden. HOWEVER, if you type in http://mydomain.net (notice the lack of WWW), it visibly forwards to my TypePad domain - as in, it then becomes http://www.myblog.typepad.com. This is NOT what I want to happen! One solution was to check "Masking" on the Registrar's side, but of course that removes the Permalinks, as far as I know. Someone else said that I had to do the forwarding first, then do any DNS changes. Now someone else there said that what I want to do is impossible. Is it really? Is it too much to ask so that http://www and http:// work the same? Obviously, this is the first time I've ever tried this, have little-to-no understanding of it all, and am at the mercy of their suggestions. Please hope me!

Domain name retention

teem — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:44:16 -0800

My current host is closing down, and since I bought my domain through them it will be transferred into my name before they finally close at the end of the year. However, my domain expires on December 12, and they are so far unresponsive to my emails and have not transferred the domain (it has been two weeks since my initial request). I am worried that if I'm not able to renew it, it will be snapped up by a domain-sitter and I will lose it. In case it isn't transferred in time, is there a way I can beat the domain-sitters to it and reserve my domain? What are the more affordable options for doing this? Will I be guaranteed to get it?