Monday 28 February 2011

Derek's Home & Business Blog Is Moving

Given the recent problems I've been experiencing with Facebook and with receiving no reply from their support team, I have no alternative but to change the domain for my blog. This change is going to start within the next 12hrs and be fully completed within one week.

During the transition, the blog will be offline as I implement the new domain for the blog and transfer the old domain to new servers. Hopefully, this transition should take no longer than 24-48hrs.

Once the transition has been completed, anyone who accesses blog posts on the old domain via search engines, articles, blog directories or social networks etc, will automatically be forwarded to the same post on the new domain. For the technically minded, this is done via a 301 Redirect (domain forwarding) which will ensure web users are forwarded to the new domain and the post they requested, no matter where they clicked the link on the web.

The 301 Redirect also tells search engines that the blog has permanently moved which in return, will automatically update the search results with the new domain.

If you're a follower of the blog via Google Friend Connect, NetworkedBlogs, Email or via the RSS Feed, you do not need to do anything as the changes I make on these services will automatically transfer you to follow the blog on the new domain. However, if you've bookmarked the blog via your browser, you will need to change the bookmark to point to the new domain: http://www.derekjones.co

The bulk of the work is going to be updating blog posts, blog directories and other online services to the new domain. This unfortunately is going to take some time to complete, so please be patient if I don't publish any new blog posts or I'm not on Bloggers Network as often during the coming week.

As a word of caution and because I don't want you going through the same experience as I have, please be warned when obtaining free domains such as co.cc. Free domains are subject to abuse by spammers, which in return are easily blocked from social networking sites such as Facebook. May I suggest that if you decide to obtain a domain for your blog or website, that you purchase one from services such as Go Daddy for example. Try to avoid free domains such as co.cc at all costs.

Finally, the transition should go smoothly and without any problems. However, if any problems do arise, I will let you know as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience and support during this transition period.

Related articles:
Facebook Website Blocking Update
Has Facebook Blocked Your Website?


UPDATE 3:15am: Transition complete! New domain (http://www.derekjones.co) is now live and the 301 Redirect is now operational on the old domain. Blog posts have also been updated (where applicable) to include links to the new domain. Now it's time for bed :)

10 comments:

  1. THanks for all the advice Derek and sorry you had to go through this! kriti- http://kriti-howaboutthis.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the tip Derek. I never thought about changing my domain for my blogger blog. This gives me something to think about. I too am sorry you had to go through this mess. Another friend of mine told me he had the same problem with facebook. My blog

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm glad you're getting everything updated and settled, Derek. I'm sorry for all the hard work you've had to go through to get it resolved, but a lot of us can learn a valuable lesson from your experiences. I'm happy that I'll continue to receive your posts in my Inbox, as you know I'm a big fan! :)

    ~ Dawn

    ReplyDelete
  4. Derek, let me get this straight. Your previous problem with FB was posting on different blogging groups and not having your site show up?
    I just added a new post on Blogplicity and now it isn't there:( What's going on?

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a pain. I hope the transfer goes smoothly

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry for your problems with FB, it is amazing that they did not even communicate with you.
    Ok now not to sound dumb but where on this post can I mark like????

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks everyone for your kind comments and for your support. Changing the domain wasn't ideal but it was better than being held to ransom by FB because of spammers :)

    @Jim You can "like" or "tweet" any post by using the Widget I have installed on the blog. This can be found at the bottom of your browser. You can also view the Bloggers Network group, my Fan Page, Tweets, Buzz and other cool stuff from there :)

    You can also share my posts with other social networks/bookmarking sites by using the "Share" button which can be found at the top of the side-bar under the heading "Follow & Share"

    Thanks again everyone.

    Derek

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Debra

    The problem I had with Facebook was all CO.CC domains were blocked due to spammers. This meant that I was unable to post my blog anywhere on their system. Any previous posts I made on FB were also removed.

    Initially, I did think it was my fault because I posted to various blogging groups in a short period. However, this was not the case as ALL domains with the extension CO.CC were blocked.

    I'm not sure what's happening with your posts. What I can say is that I've had problems last week on Bloggers Network with some members posts not being displayed once posted. The cause of this was with Facebook updating their system and not because someone was deleting posts or their site was blocked.

    Everything seems fine now on FB, so if you're able to post your blog links in other groups without problems, then I would contact the owner of the group where you're having the problems.

    Hope this helps Debra.

    Derek

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks For sharing Derek. It was very informative

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ugggh what a royal pain in the bum.. sorry you had to go through all this, but glad you were able to get it squared away... thanks for sharing..

    ReplyDelete

Please note: To combat comment spam, non-constructive comments and comments containing links will be rejected. All submitted comments are subject to moderation before they are published on the blog.


I have received reports that some people have been experiencing problems when commenting on the blog. If you experience any problems when posting your comment, please send me an email with your comment plus the post title using the Contact tab above and I will manually include it for you. You can also send your comment via private message on Facebook.

Your blog comments are always appreciated and thank you for your patience while we try to resolve this issue.