{"id":18,"date":"2009-10-06T16:26:32","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T16:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/?p=18"},"modified":"2009-10-09T15:09:13","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T15:09:13","slug":"catch-up-equipment-at-base-camp-1-domain-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/2009\/catch-up-equipment-at-base-camp-1-domain-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Catch Up! – equipment at Base Camp, 1. Domain name"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last post I mentioned I was at Base Camp, I better explain what equipment I’ve got, how I choose it, how I got it,\u00a0why I think I need it and what I know about how to use it.<\/p>\n

I’ve got<\/strong>– iDoStuff.co.uk , my domain! In this domain I’m\u00a0the all powerful ruler. I must admit I like the word “Domain” its my bit of this universe, I’ve bought the rights to it and I can do what I want with it. It can be really big but for now, vast as I\u00a0imagine it can be, it’s\u00a0just a\u00a0patch of desert\u00a0lacking\u00a0\u00a0sand and\u00a0sun. Only a handful of other people know it exists, there’s no roads in and I’m the only one here.\u00a0 I could have bought a bottle of snake oil and a treasure map at the same time, the man with the banter said I’d be a fool not to.\u00a0 I’ll follow my DIY ethos and make my own, thank you very much.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How I choose “iDoStuff”<\/strong>. Easy! just sit down for\u00a0a couple of\u00a0hours,\u00a0think about what the site’s about and come up with a name…\u00a0then wake up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Problem 1. This the first\u00a0choice that SEO has a hand in, apparently.\u00a0 If you want too know more about this side of the choice it’s been written about a million times, try a search and spend some time, hours, days, months trawling through the results. My summing up\u00a0is distilled to – “make the domain name\u00a0the same as what people\u00a0are searching for”, thanks for the advice all you regurgitating\u00a0SEO experts. They don’t mention:<\/p>\n

Problem\u00a02. All the good names have gone, either used or parked by speculators. You can buy them of the speculators at inflated prices, use a extension\u00a0folk wont remember (eg.\u00a0 .uk.co)\u00a0or you have to whittle you niche down down<\/span> down<\/span>.\u00a0 If you think skybluepinkwidgetsinlittletown.co.uk will get the traffic or you can afford enough of these to point at a central site then that’s fine.\u00a0 I wanted something that’s not going to line another persons pockets.<\/p>\n

I looked around at what potential competitors where doing, what searches lead to them, what they are called. I went on the domain name search sites trying various ideas and what\u00a0computer generated alternatives they came up with. Then a weekend with a few beers, a couple of sleeps, everything in the pot at the back of my mind plus a view to what the name can look like. It came together as\u00a0iDoStuff and the .co.uk was available.<\/p>\n

\"iDoStuff.co.uk<\/a><\/div>\n

\u00a0Even if it’s not ideal for SEO, what would be?\u00a0 I’m covering so many subject areas. It works on other levels. I had to make a decision, so I did.\u00a0 Comments and suggestions more than welcome<\/em>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

How I got it. <\/strong>It’s real easy when you’ve got to money to spend. I went to 123reg as I\u00a0have an account\u00a0there with my agbimages.co.uk<\/a> site, so following a path I’ve been down before. They like all of these sorts of site make it really easy to buy a domain at a good price. They then try\u00a0up-sell their other services like hosting. I did cock-up slightly here but only when it came to hosting.<\/p>\n

Why I need it.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0On the practical side I had decided I would need to host my own site and blog, I’ll cover that under hosting. The hosting needs a domain name.\u00a0 More than that though the name gives me a focus, a flag to rally round in my new land. It will mean more to me than anyone else and help on my motivation front. That sense of ownership and dedication is impossible for me without a name, this could well be something deeply human.<\/p>\n

Useing it.<\/strong>RTFM. Its all there, everything you might need to know on the name servers site, blogs, tutorials, info-sites. Do a search and\u00a0expand your mind with acronyms. Actually it just sits and does nothing until its associated with somewhere, web-space, server, host.<\/p>\n

If you’re wondering about the logo based on name, that was from another few hours researching whats called “web 2.0” design.\u00a0Distilled down, it’s\u00a0keeping designs simple and\u00a0building in interactivity. The graphics stuff\u00a0is an area I’ll not cover Unless Someone\u00a0Asks,<\/em>\u00a0I’m proficient with adobe\u00a0Illustrator and Photoshop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

iDoStuff.co.uk , my domain! In this domain I’m the all powerful ruler<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25,10,15,18,24,20,16,14],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ido-digitalmarketing-stuff","tag-advice","tag-alternative","tag-beginner","tag-choice","tag-domain-name","tag-hosting","tag-software","tag-website"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}