Moving to Squarespace

After many weeks of debating, I have finally decided to give Squarespace a go. Over the course of the weeks leading up to this I had many thoughts going through my head. I hope in this post I can share those with you. 

1. Do I really need a blog? Short answer is yes and no. Now you can see my issue. Lets expand on this a bit.
   • I already have a family blog that is starting to gather dust. I now plan on moving that to Squarespace as well, since I can have multiple editors for it. 
   • I like to share my thoughts in something other than 140 characters, but with that I needed something that was quick and easy.
   • I have attempted other blogs from time to time for various reasons, but the time has come that I dedicate one to what I want to say.
2. Once I decided I did want a blog, what to do next. I will expand on these in later posts.
   • Domain Name or no domain name - For me this was easy, you are your brand, therefore you must protect your brand. So owning your brand (your name in this case) is the first step
   • Where to host this new found blog - I checked out several and came to the conclusion that SquareSpace had what I needed and gave me the best format for expanding as needed.
   • What do I want to share. Since I already have the "Family" site, I decided I would share what I come across in life.
3. When do I update my new site
   • I have decided that I need to update this once a week. This will keep it fresh and maybe just maybe I can squeeze in more than one post a week. 
   • Once the SquareSpace iphone app is available, I believe I will then create a secondary blog within the site. I'm currently debating bringing over one I had started on wordpress as an iphone only blog. This being, only posts from the iphone. Now as I write this, I think I will go ahead and bring it over.
4. When do I start promoting my site.
   • First, I don't plan on pimping my site
   • Second, I may have some automated pimping for me when I add a new post.
   • Third, I'll currently thinking of a launch date of one week from this post.
   • Lastly, I don't want to publish an unfinished site. So I want to make sure I have 85% of the site up to my standards.
5. Finally, I hope you enjoy this site and share it with others that you think would enjoy it.

Almost forgot, GOOOOOOO DAWGS

Update on Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 6:20PM by Alan Ashley

Domain Names

Domain Name or no domain name, that is the name of the question. As I stated earlier, I said I would go over some of these topics as I have time to expand on those. So for the first one, I'll go over the Domain Name situation. 

When it comes to getting a domain name, there are a few things that you need to look at.

• Will you host your site at the same location of your domain name
• If you plan on hosting at another service, like Squarespace or BlueHost, check their FAQs about domain mapping. They normally have a list of Domain Name providers that they work well with. 
• Which Domain Name service to use. You can use the list provided by your site hosting company, or branch out an use one that you are familiar with. For me I used GoDaddy (yes, I'm aware, many people do not like them because of their ads and add-ons they sell, it doesn't bother me). I went with GoDaddy, only because I could use a discount code from one of my favorite podcasts CommandN.
• What to use as your Domain Name. This for me was easy, my name (or brand if you prefer). If you are going to focus on a specific topic, then you may want to use that as your domain. 
• The entire process of getting a Domain Name and then configuring it to "forward" to my hosting company took less than 20 minutes. 

Until next time, when I will do an update post on Hosting companies.