I want to share more details regarding the url change from ElliotsBlog.com to DomainInvesting.com. I plan to discuss everything from the logo and design process to the hosting change, and everything in between. I’ve been debating between writing a series of blog posts and creating a (free) e-book, and I’d like your feedback. Please vote in the poll below, and I will use that as guidance.
Series of articles pros and cons:
After several years operating my blog under the ElliotsBlog.com domain name, I recently changed the website url to DomainInvesting.com and rebranded this blog. I wrote this free guide to changing a website url to advise others on what they need to do to mitigate traffic loss and to retain search engine rankings. By no means am I an expert on how to change a domain name on a website or blog, but hopefully you can learn from what I did if you ever need to change your domain.
The most important piece of advice I would give is to create a list of the things that are needed and share it with the web developer and anyone else on the team who will be implementing changes. If they don’t all work for the same company, be sure to send an introductory email and set up a phone call for them to discuss. Any issues that come up, should be addressed right away, especially as it relates to issues that could impact search engine rankings. All members of the team should be in constant communication before, during, and after the url change.
Listed below are the steps I took to when I changed the domain name for my website. As always, your comments are welcome.
Step by step guide to changing a domain name for a website:
Earlier today I announced the rebranding of my blog to DomainInvesting.com. As you can probably imagine, there were many moving parts to the transition. Inevitably, there will most likely be a bunch of errors that need to get fixed ASAP. It’s one of those things that no matter how much you test, some things can’t be addressed until after the change is made.
I don’t ask for much from people who read my blog (aside from comments and discussion), but I ask you to share any bugs or errors you notice on the website. If something isn’t working as you think it should work, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could share the error in the comment section. If something looks funky or out of place, please let me know that as well. You guys read my blog daily, and I want to make it as appealing as possible.
I will update this post with error reports as well as provide an update on when the error is fixed.
THANK YOU for your help with this and all the support/feedback you’ve given me.
Errors I know about:
As you are probably aware due to my previous articles about the Bouquet.com auction and subsequent website launch, Bill McClure is kicking it into high gear with Bouquet.com. One way he is able to grow this business is to have an affiliate program, and I want to let you know about the new Bouquet.com affiliate program for those of you who own floral domain names that get traffic.
Here’s what Bill told me about the program:
Several years ago (2009 – 2010) when domain sales hit a low for me, I realized the importance of creating additional revenue streams. With the help of web developers, I launched a number of websites. Today, excluding my blog, the successful moneymaking websites my companies operate include DogWalker.com, DogPark.com, and to a degree, Lowell.com and DogGroomers.com.
With domain sales continuing to grow annually and my websites producing solid revenue numbers, I haven’t had any interest in building out additional websites. It takes too much time and money to launch a website that is actually helpful to users, and in order to be fair to advertisers, I feel obligated to produce something that is worthy of their advertising dollars if I am going to charge them. That means continued updates and tweaks, which take time, money, or a combination of both.
Within the last month or so, I bought
Search engine optimization continues to be one of the most discussed topics online for web developers and publishers. Every second there is an average of 3.5 searches about the topic on Google, and there are over 3,000 books about SEO on Amazon. SEO is a booming business, and many millions of dollars are spent by companies annually.
Knowing how important SEO is, DomainSherpa’s Michael Cyger has launched a website on SEOBlog.com, and I wanted to share details about the domain name and the new site. I asked Michael about his plans for the website, and he shared some insight:
