Day Seven: I Think I Can, I Think I Can

While we were not overly concerned that "from dopes to doyennes" would be grabbed by a competing blogger, securing a domain name is another step up the technology mountain.

We started the climb with Network Solutions....

Click on the "domain names" tab and enter your name for a search. You will be asked what "extension" you want--this refers to .com, .net, .org, etc. We chose .com and were delighted to learn that our name was indeed available. We jumped around the site a bit looking at various packages and tools and soon realized that we needed a live person (or a little blue engine) to help us. We were fortunate to find a phone number connecting us to a nice chap named Jimmy who helped keep us on the tracks.

We sought:

1. Our name.
2. Privacy protection--which would prevent telemarketers and e-advertisers from getting access to us. (We're not entirely sure this was necessary, but weren't keen to find out the hard way.)
3. Web forwarding--which enables us to be found as "fromdopestodoyennes.com", abbreviating the awkward and lengthy blogspot address.

The good news is that Jimmy helped us achieve all three of those goals. The less good news is that these services cost three times what we initially expected. The front page of NetSol featured a 'web package' for around $15/annually which we found encouraging. But when we described what we wanted and Jimmy crunched the numbers, our bill was $55 for the year.



But, in for a penny, in for a pound, so we forged ahead. Jimmy entered the domain name per our phone instructions and advised us that it would take two hours for the web forwarding service to activate. Without web forwarding, prospective readers would have to type in the exact url to find us. Web forwarding enables them to type the blog's name "fromdopestodoyennes.com" and land on our front page, which is much handier. We waited patiently through the afternoon, periodically checking the web forwarding. Six hours later, no joy. Finally, we thought to check our NetSol account, and discovered that dear Jimmy had logged us in as "topes", not "dopes". There's clearly a joke, or at least a wry ironic comment to be wrung out of that situation....

So, another call to NetSol, some reconfiguring on their part, a credit card payment and refund later, and we are web forwarded.

We continue to attempt to post audio clips, today trying yet another music source: IODA Promonet. We had to fill out an application on their site; approval is pending and if we are given their blessing, perhaps we will have better luck sourcing sound. Stay tuned.

We've also discovered another good resource for all things social media: Mashable.com. It contains the latest news on social networking, as well as helpful tutorials, product descriptions, and much, much more....Check it out!

Posted by: Keri