I recently bought my own domain name, JunkDrawerBlog.com, and made the switch from the default Blogspot address (kathyfrederick.blogspot.com) to the new one on Wednesday.

Today I’ll review why you should move to your own custom domain and how I got there with the help of fellow blogger, Blog Bloke. I focus on the Blogger platform, but WordPress, Typepad and other users can benefit from this, too.

There are several reasons why you should get your own domain name:

Credibility: Bloggers with their own domains enjoy a higher level of credibility than those who don’t. Having your own domain shows you’re putting time into your blog and want to distinguish yourself from the millions of other blogs that are created every day. A custom domain says “I’m a serious blogger and I’m here to stay.”

Memorability: For the four months I used my default Blogspot address, I became increasingly frustrated with giving out my blog’s address. It was too long and completely forgettable. Sure, I could send people a link, but if I gave it out verbally, there was almost no chance it’d be remembered. That meant I lost a potential reader. With JunkDrawerBlog.com the recall level increases significantly.

Pagerank: When you use your own domain, your site will be ranked higher in search engine results than if you use the Blogspot sub-domain. Higher pagerank puts your blog in front of more eyes, and that’ll bring you more traffic.

Branding: With my own domain, I’ve essentially branded myself. With my old address, kathyfrederick.blogspot.com, I identified with my personal name (not my blog, where the focus should be), and with Blogger (why should they get all the attention?). With JunkDrawerBlog.com, my blog name is the focus and it becomes my brand and my identity.

How I made the move to JunkDrawerBlog.com

To be honest, there were times I just wanted to pay someone else to do it so I could get back to writing, which is why I’m blogging at all. Just because I’m in the computing field didn’t mean I wanted to spend my time figuring out the intricacies of making the transition.

That’s where Blog Bloke comes in. There are gazillions of blogs out there on the topic of blogging, mostly with a focus on how to make money. That has never been and will never be the reason I blog. What I needed was help with the technical aspects of blogging itself, and not vague descriptions about how to employ certain techniques and methods. I needed detailed tutorials and I hit the jackpot with Blog Bloke.

When I finally decided it was time to bite the bullet and move over to JunkDrawerBlog.com, I used this post as my guide, and it’s what I recommend you study and refer to when it comes time for your move. Believe it when he says it’s proven to work. It worked for me. In fact, it was the only tutorial I found that gave specific enough information to get the job done.

Why I almost had a heart attack

The above tutorial works under certain circumstances assumed to already be in place. The one tweak I had to make for it to work was return to GoDaddy, where I registered my new domain, and “unpark” it. When I first bought it, there was a question during setup that I answered incorrectly, which caused me to almost have a coronary when I followed the rest of the Bloke’s tutorial.

When a domain is “parked,” it means it’s not yet available for public consumption. Domain registrars usually park a domain by default when it’s registered. My mistake was accepting that default option. When I transferred my Blogspot address to the new domain, up came a huge “404 Server Error” and no blog!

I immediately undid the transfer and then spent the better part of Wednesday researching why my blog wasn’t displaying. Once I discovered the concept of parking and unparking, I went back to GoDaddy and unparked the domain. Then I resumed the transfer, as per Bloke Bloke’s tutorial, and my blog magically reappeared. I also started breathing again. When the blog you’ve worked so hard on suddenly isn’t available, it’s a very scary and panic-inducing event. Don’t let this happen to you! It ain’t pretty.

I’m still no expert on the technicalities of blogging, but Blog Bloke is. Check out his blog for everything you could possibly want to know about making your blog a shining star among millions.

Blog Bloke is a class act and I thank him for all the FREE help he’s given me during my blog’s upstart. He just made me a member of the Blokester Network and I couldn’t be more honored.

Stumble it!