I heard another nightmare story when it comes to domain names the other day. This was emailed to me by an old buddy:
Hey, dude -
My girlfriend was going to start up a blog site a few days ago and found out her "name.com" was already taken. It wasn't when she tested it out about a month ago. Is there somebody out there keeping track of these things and selling them to those companies that collect domain names?
As an experienced professional in the field, my experienced, professional answer was that I didn't have a clue.
But, as I've preached here in the past, why take the chance? These things are dirt cheap ($5/mo) and you don't actually have to do anything to the domain to preserve it (like build a web site), so I advocate getting it now before someone else does. You'll only have yourself to kick later on if you don't.
For hosting companies, I highly recommend BlueHost. It's owned by a good conservative family out in Provo, Utah. The CEO's twice-yearly emails are a laff riot, and very critical of current governmental policy. There's no sign-up fee and no early cancellation fee. Also, the cost of the actual domain name is free, unlike some hosting companies which charge up to 35 bucks for it.
Even if you're not going to use it for twenty years until it's finally time to post pics of the grandkids, get it now. There's only one 'yourname.com' out there, and once it's gone, it's gone forever.
Speaking of grandkids, below the fold I'll elaborate on the private 'family blog', and what a blast they are. I have two great stories to tell.
This is, if you call my causing an 84-year-old man to openly weep, 'great'.
His name was Jim. For an 84-year-old, he was in pretty good shape. He swam around the marina every morning for exercise. I moved to a different marina about a year ago. I had breakfast with him last Monday at our local favorite diner. It's called "Doc's", by improbable coincidence.
A couple of years ago he approached me about putting together a blog site. He had gotten into his family's genealogy and wanted to share the results with the rest of the clan which were, typically, spread out all over hell and gone.
He knew a little something about computers so I figured he could handle the actual procedure, so I gave him the address to my WordPress Guide and told him to give a jingle if he ran into a snag.
Which he did a few times, which enabled me, in turn, to make the guide even clearer. So it was a win-win all around.
He got the site up and started posting his findings. He also had some DVD videos of his great-grandkids that his granddaughter had sent him that he wanted to post. Got a tissue handy? This is where the tears come in.
He'd never dealt with video before but had heard about the huge block of code that's involved on the web page and was terrified at the prospect. And he's right; the block of code an average web page needs to display a video is massive, about fifteen lines.
But WordPress isn't 'average'.
I told him that if he could manage to wade through five goddam setup pages to get the site going in the first place, he could certainly wade through a page of video instruction. Never the mollycoddler, I. He said, "I'll try!"
A couple of hours later I was getting back from the store and decided to drop by and see how things were going. He'd told me to come right in, which I did. I sat down next to him at the computer. He was very misty-eyed, if not outright teary. I asked him what was wrong.
He said, to the best of my memory:
I was just sitting here thinking that only a few days ago this was all just a dream, something I never really thought would happen, and now just look.
He pointed to the monitor, where a freshly-ripped, freshly-converted, freshly-uploaded and freshly-configured video was playing of his adorable great-grandkids.
I got a little misty-eyed, too.
I naturally inquired about the blog the other day and he described it as a "total panic". Two of the grandkids have just gotten into 'image manipulation', like putting one person's head on another's body, and the whole thing sounds hysterical.
I'd also note that it's hidden from the search engines via the WordPress software. They've never had an unwanted visitor.
Neither has Mary and her brood. This is a totally different story. What made it stand out was this email I received from her a while after I posted an article here on putting together a family blog.
Doc M:
With divorces and scandals and resentments and jealousies and all the rest, my family (11 aunts & uncles, 17 cousins, 12 kids) has basically been estranged for over a decade. In the six months since I started a family blog site, old grievances have been aired and in a number of cases it turns out it was all over ... nothing!
With only a few exceptions, our family is whole again.
Thank you,
Mary
I hope you kept that tissue handy.
So there are two stories about the 'family blog', and how using this modern little invention can keep families on the same track, with the benefit being that people can air any grievance in real-time, not have it simmer for years until you finally see that hated cousin again. Adding creative elements like image manipulation makes it all the more fun, and even video becomes manageable with the right tools (provided on my site) and a simple-to-use WordPress plugin for the nasty block of code.
Also, have you glanced at the calendar lately? If you start now, you'll have plenty of time to get it ready by... Dec 25th. Assuming Grandma and Grandpa have a computer, would you rather give them their 25th set of bathroom towels... or pics & vids of their grandkids 3,000 miles away taken that morning?
Which do you think they'll be happier with?
I'll be around in case you run into a snag. It's just a guess, but I'm pretty sure if old Jim can do it, you can do it.
The reward would be immeasurable.
