The following is an answer from Kathy Sierra from Creating Passionate Users responding to my one question interview question of what she’d do differently if he had to start her blog over again.
1) Use my own domain name instead of a typepad domain! If I’d had even the slightest clue my blog would ever end up with this much traffic, I would have been much smarter. It’s much too hard to change it now without completely messing with rankings, etc.
2) I would never–not for a moment–change/filter/censor what I write simply to keep the harshest detractors at bay (which doesn’t work anyway). I found myself falling into the trap when my blog comments, posts about me on other blogs, and emails started to become really nasty.
While legitimate criticisms are one of the best reasons to have comments (you learn a phenomenal amount from your commenters), the more traffic you get, the more personal attacks you get–including flamers, trolls, and a few who are sincerely and passionately against whatever it is you’re doing. Learning from the legit critics while simultaneously ignoring the attackers is the strategy I wish I’d had from the beginning. If I started over, I would not withold topics I care about and believe in, and I’d do a better job of recognizing who/what I should just ignore.
3) If I had to start over, I would not hesitate. This has been an incredibly rewarding experience, and I keep wishing I’d started earlier!
You also gotta consider, that every past decision lends itself to the position you’ve ended up in; if you hadn’t hesitated or not posted that one article, etc. your chances are lowered of becoming successful.
Gotta love Kathy Sierra.
(and great series, by the by)
Yeah it’s a pain to move content to a new domain.
Hello !
I like very much your blog !
Greetings from Belgium.
Cheers.
Reno
If you plan to start your own blog, make sure to choose correct blogging platform (WordPress, Movable Type, Google Blogger, etc…) before you invest too much time into your blog. Play with that for a while, see if you like it. If there is something you don’t like, go to the next one. I would also spend some time for searching a correct theme for your blog before you start tweaking the default one. I know that you can change it later, but it’ll take time. I prefer everything to be correct right from beginning.
” I found myself falling into the trap when my blog comments, posts about me on other blogs, and emails started to become really nasty.”
I understand what you said. Last week, one of my entries could make the home page of Fark and it got linked in 8-9 other places in Internet. I got 20,000 visitors in 3 days but I was shocked by the level of personal attack in those blogs and forums in which the link to my blog was posted. I am new to blogging and I am even brand new to getting more than 500 hits a day. Naturally, I was excited with 20,000 hits but it was tough for me to accept some of the nasty comments. I would call Blogging Success Shock or Dilemma.
Darren, when you come back, please write about it.
I agree on this. It’s a tough one but what else can you do then start all over? I always prefer having a blog on my own domain if looking to use it long term.
Every day you wait, it’s lost… so don’t wait, just star again and learn on mistakes.
WP
Honestly Kathy,
I’d bite the bullet and move your blog to your own domain, if you do your redirectly properly (you may need some help with this) you’ll find you wont lose traffic and and PR and what not will eventually find its way to your new site….the longer you wait the harder it will get.
I agree with Duncan. Buy a name. Install MT. Dupe everything over from the wordpress. Put a notice up on headrush saying there’s a move. Put new posts on the new address. Then just 302 everything over at some point. If it works well, you might even get the URLs for each post to look very similar.
The traffic and the rankings will eventually transfer. No worries.