The Life of Bon: DOT COM, SUCKERS!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

DOT COM, SUCKERS!

Am I off my blogging schedule or what?  Writing on a Saturday morning?  Who DOES that?  I guess that is how I know it is vacation.  No schedule.  I'm just doing what I want.  When I want.

Unless you count trying to get my car registered and failing the safety and emissions test and then having to buy new tires and new windshield washer reservoir and a new windshield pump.  That wasn't exactly what I wanted this Christmas break.  But moving on!

I have something pretty freaking exciting to announce over here and that is that I am the official owner of a dot com.  BOO YAH!  If you are still at the old blog address- bonnielouisa.blogspot.com well then it is time for you to get with the times and join us with the new address!

www.thelifeofbon.com

Isn't it beautiful?!?

Traffic from the old url is supposed to be directing to the new url but what do I know?  I'm just some chick sitting in my pajamas eating a bowl of Honeycomb on a Saturday morning.

I am quite stoked about the new dot com.  To tell you the truth, it wasn't my first choice of address.  My first choice was without the "the".  But it was already taken.  I checked out the blog, too.  Some lady in Canada who is obsessed with cats.  She took my desired URL!

Luckily, google had some really great suggestions for me once we discovered that one was already taken:



My personal favorites were Period of Bon (because I'm sure you all want to know about my menstrual cycle) Existence of Good (how did they get that from Life of Bon?) and lastly, Death of Bon.  

Seriously, google?  Seriously?  Death of Bon?!?!  What kind of a morbid blog name is that?  And more importantly, does google know something I don't?  

Also, I'm sure one of you snarky little readers is going to point out how poor the quality is in that picture above.  It is a picture of my computer taken by my phone and no, I don't know how to do screen shots.  We all good now?

If you have my blog address saved somewhere under bonnielouisa.blogspot.com I suggest you change it to thelifeofbon.com.  I don't know how long that old address will be around.  You can't trust google.  They'll flip you on your head without thinking twice about it.

The last thing I am going to say here before I force myself to suffer at the gym (Hubs noticed I haven't been for over 2 weeks and called me out on it.  Oh, gym!  Why are you such misery?!?!) is that if you think you are going to be blogging semi long term you should get a dot com address.  It was ridiculously easy.  I had no idea.  I have been putting it off for so long and once I realized how easy it was I wish I would have done it a year ago.  Seriously.  It would have been so much more convenient if I would have gotten my dot com address when I had 100 followers. Now I'm afraid that at this point, changing my blog address will lose some readers.  But what can you do?  WARN OTHERS!  Get a dot com address right now!  It's so easy.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOW TO GET A DOT COM ADDRESS VIA BLOGGER
SORRY WORDPRESS PEOPLE.  I CAN DO NOTHING FOR YOU.

Step 1: Go to settings.
Step 2:  Under settings, go to basic.
Step 3:  Under PUBLISHING you will see your blog address as it currently is.  Under that in blue it says +Add a Custom Domain.  Click that.


Step 4:  Try the address you want.  It might already be taken.  In which case google will have several fantastic suggestions of site names that aren't taken.  Choose one.
Step 5:  Continue to registration.  Fill out your contact information and all that crap.
Step 6:  Pay.  It costs $10 a year for a dot com address that is hosted on blogger.  This is far and away the cheapest way to do your blog (Godaddy charges closer to $60 for the year for a dot com)
Step 7:  You're done!  According to google it takes up to 24 hours to get the site up and running.  Mine took an hour is all.  They say it takes up to 48 hours for your old site to completely redirect to your new site, so I am still patiently waiting for that to happen.  The only thing that is messed up with my old url now is that the followers widget is all out of whack.  I'm hoping that will fix itself.

There you go, ladies.  Do yourselves a favor this new year and spend $10 for your own dot com address.  I promise, it is super easy and worth the hassle- especially worth it to do it early on!

30 comments:

  1. What are the advantages of having a dot com? It definitely looks cleaner but what makes it better than just having .blogspot.com?

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  2. Wow, I had no idea it was that easy! Thank you for sharing! Sadly, I have been an absentee blogger for a few months....But darnit, I want a dot com!
    Love the 'period of bon' too. Made me giggle.
    Congrats! (Love your blog!)

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  3. Are there any good benefits for having a dot com address? I never really saw the benefit, but maybe, I just don't know. Hmm...

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  4. Congrats on the dot com!! I have your blog saved and when I clicked on your name it went straight to the new dot com so its pretty automatic for me :)

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  5. I went dot.com this summer... I used GoDaddy and it was only $12! Happy I made the struck & so far, so good!
    :)

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  6. so exciting! congrats girl.
    i'm still attempting to come up with a url. when i decide on one i like (and that lame people haven't already taken) - i'll join you in the dot com world :)

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  7. I gotcha,girl! Happy new year!

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  8. If it's any consolation your GFC widget looks good to me! :)

    Congratulations on the name. Some of Google's were pretty lame, I think you made the right choice.

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  9. wow, I didn't realize it was that easy, or cheap!! Like the other ladies, what do you find is different or beneficial for having a dot com instead of a blogspot url?

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  10. Good for you!
    Glad you made the change and dedicated a post to it!
    The redirect is working perfectly and GFC will sort itself out over the next day or two. Congrats on the official dot.com!

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  11. LOL..I really enjoyed reading your post. I like your online "voice"

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  12. I am really happy you posted about this. I had an idea getting a .com was somewhat easy, but I was expecting much more work than this, and more than $10! I am stoked!

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  13. Somehow, you always manage to make this reader laugh. The kind of laugh where I started sounding like a seal... Oh dear. Either way, congrats on your big changes! :o)

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  14. Yay! And $10 a year! Sweet!

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  15. Anonymous9:57 PM

    Congrats on the ownership of your little slice of the internet - it's pretty cool, isn't it?

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  16. congrats on your dot com!!
    i didnt know it was so inexpensive! sounds like a great idea...
    and i LMAO at the google suggestions of available names... oh my hahahahaha Period of Bon

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  17. I got it on my reader! Congrats on the new address. I really liked existence of bon, though. :)

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  18. i should do that! but am nervous about it! and all your followers are still there!

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  19. CONGRATS!! We'll have to talk more because I've been thinking about going .com!! So GLAD you came by - sadly the juice recipe isn't mine - it's was at the restaurant.

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  20. I got mine through GoDaddy for about $12 a year--and I'm so glad I did. It's fun to have your own website. And I got mine at about 300 followers, so I got it out of the way nice and early! Congrats!

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  21. Whoo Hooo!
    Know what's good about SC? No car inspections! Say WORRRRRRD! One tiny thing I don't miss about NC ... even though I am right here on the line enjoying the best of both worlds.
    Happy Saturday and almost 2013!!
    Also - can I ask a really dumb question {I guess} ... what is the benefit of a dot come instead of keeping the blogspot business? Thanks in advance. I needs to know.

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  22. So glad you posted this! I had no idea it was soo cheap and easy! I just bought one and am thrilled :) I don't have too many followers so this is the perfect time. So glad you shared :)

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  23. Anonymous4:49 AM

    Yeah I was just as happy as you when I bought my dot com couple of weeks ago :) I thought it's kind of pathetic for such a wee blog as mine is, but I was told that with my own domain I can create subpages to which I don't have to show links on the main page so they can be secret..So I tried it and had kind of an ''easter egg page'' with my day-by-day diary. I wrote about it a blog post, like 'you guys search', and the link was just three dots hidden among other stuff in the side panel. Many pople found it and it actually became more popular than my main page! So I've made it a regular link in the side panel and now I am adding more subpages..so, yeah, it's fun :)

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  24. Ah! I have wanted to do this, but was procrastinating. Did it this AM! :)

    Also, congrats to you!

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  25. FYI: I'm pretty sure the strange url suggestions came from the fact that "bon" is "good" in French. Just had to get my two cents in!

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  26. I too am now a dot commer. comer. commer..... crap.

    I purchased my .com address today.

    Love, The Skinnys

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  27. this is probably a dumb question, but do you get more storage with dot com? i'm having storage issues with blogger right now and trying to figure out what to do about it.

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  28. Did it! Thanks for the tip, love it. www.Uniquebywendy.com That is my domain name! Woot woot! Thanks!

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  29. Thanks for the info! As for taking screen shots, I just recently learned myself (so there may be a better way, but this is pretty easy). To the Right of your F1, F2 etc keys you will see a key that says "PrtScn/SysRq" when you're on the screen you want a picture of press that button. Then I go into paint (should be in your computer accessories) and paste it there. You can crop it down to focus on what you want specifically & then save it to your computer. :) Hope this helps!

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