Lovely readers, something dreadful happened on the blog today. My blog was published as per usual this morning, but I soon received some tweets telling me my site was down. After surveying the damage (and trust me, there was damage), it became inevitable. Buy a new domain, or go back to being a blogspot.com blog. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but I must admit that I was pretty damn attached to my domain. I've had it for over two and a half years.
Here's the dealio. When I purchased my domain in early 2010, bloggers could still purchase their domains - literally through Blogger. However, about a year ago, Google transitioned things so that you had to purchase your domain through a reseller. Those of us who were "grandfathered" into this new system are now owned in two places. Google holds the domain, as we bought it through Blogger, but Enom (a reseller) holds all the info.
Now, here's the tricky part. Enom will not allow Bloggers to renew their domains through them. Google requires you to renew it through them. Google, unfortunately, makes it tricky as hell to do that. Neither Enom nor Google sent any emails or alerts that my domain was expiring. Google doesn't have my information or a record of my transaction on file. Enom says anything I do has to be through Google. Starting to get the picture? Basically, Google now owns my domain. I can't get it unless I pay a ridiculous amount to buy it as a second party.
So, rather than just go ahead, roll over and play dead, much to my chagrin, I bought a new domain. Unfortunately, that means any references of the .com are no longer valid, so this is requiring quite the overhaul, as the blogspot address is now redirecting all site traffic. Soooooo...this little site is now a .org site. It's not ideal, but it's still mind, and I've finally made the decision. As soon as my wedding and move are over, i swim for oceans is migrating to Wordpress.
Please make sure you know that my new link is now:
Ugh. I bought my domain through Blogger a year and a half ago, but in April, when the time came to renew it, they DID email me and made it quite easy. Hopefully they'll do it again next year. I would absolutely hate losing my domain, and I'm defintiely not ready for a move to Wordpress.
ReplyDeleteI haven't bought my domain - though I'm contemplating it - but now maybe I should move to Wordpress...I desperately don't want to, but we'll see. I'm so sorry this happened, Melissa, and I hope your transition is smooth!(:
ReplyDeleteYikes! It's horror stories like this that made me leave Blogger! I've been with self hosted Wordpress for about 8 months now and I haven't looked back once! The move will be worth it, trust me :)
ReplyDeleteYikes! This is one of the reasons I never bought a domain - I've heard of some horror stories. I think the thing to do is to move to Wordpress - but that also seems way too complicated for me! (I am so not tech savvy!). I hope the move goes well for you!
ReplyDeleteWhoa! This doesn't seem right in any way, and I'm sorry to hear that you've encountered this problem with your domain. I hope that your move to Wordpress goes well!
ReplyDeleteHeh, I love your tags for this post. But that's where the love stops because this seriously sucks for you! What a bunch of unnecessary stress that could have been avoided if Blogger/Google had done their job better. I hope your move to Wordpress goes smoothly anyway!
ReplyDeleteSorry that you had to go through so much hassle Melissa. I have no clue when it comes to domain names, but I hope things become a lot easier for you when you move to Wordpress!
ReplyDeleteWhat a nightmare, Melissa! Google is really ticking people off lately. I know they can just delete your blog without warning so maybe you have the right idea about moving to Wordpress, anyhow. I hear it's a bit trickier to work with though.
ReplyDeleteUgh, how frustrating. I'm sorry you had to deal with this! I'll go update my sidebar link to your blog right now...
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