Domain name – hugmamma's MIND, BODY and SOUL

Today I was advised by a member of WordPress Support that due to an oversight on their part, they only now realize that I am no longer with WordPress.com, but am with WordPress.org. To say I was as surprised as they is an understatement. How’d that happen? I thought there was a big deal to making that transition. I didn’t think one could accidentally fall into going from WordPress support…to WordPress independence with assistance. But evidently I did.

In trying to sort through the confusion, I’ve emailed both the staff person, John Burke, who first notified me as well as WordPress Support “happiness engineers.” I’m awaiting their replies. Meanwhile I thought I’d ask you, fellow WordPress bloggers, if you’ve had the same experience. If so, why’d it happen and what was the outcome?

Image via Wikipedia

All I can think is that buying my domain name, “hugmamma,” in June of last year somehow made the automatic switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. Nothing in the accompanying language specifically told me that would happen if I made the purchase. I thought I was merely buying my name, so that no one else could use it, thereby redirecting my traffic to them.

Why I would ever think of going from a site where all the technical wizardry was handled for me, to one where I would have to look after all the behind-the-scenes mechanics is incomprehensible to me. I’m not certain if that’s what happened inadvertently when I bought hugmamma.com.

If it is the case, then my advice to anyone thinking of buying a domain name through WordPress had better NOT…unless you want to deal with everything yourself. I’m not even sure what it all involves. That’s how clueless I am about WordPress.org. If I’m told that that’s the pickle I’m in, then I will give up my domain name.

The further along I get on WordPress, the more I feel I’m in over my head. Perhaps it’s time to put away my keyboard. Can’t keep up with the young ‘uns who are speeding along like lightning trapped underground, just itching to crack open the hard earth.

…me?…i just wanna write…

………hugmamma. 😉

Image via Wikipedia

I’m clueless as to how these young whippersnappers dream up these seemingly intangible internet schemes that make them overnight billionaires! How do they do it? Have they significantly huge brains, the machinations of which normal folks like us can’t fathom? Of course you know of whom I speak…Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Facebook‘s Mark Zuckerberg, and Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page. But then there are the foot soldiers. You know the littler men who make inroads into lesser, but no less lucrative, territories. One that comes to mind is Bob Parsons, Ceo and founder of Godaddy.com.

Many of you have probably not heard of the man. Well I’d kind of heard of his “goose that laid the golden egg,” godaddy.com. Where I can’t remember, which is usually the case with me. I’ve so much minutiae spilling out of my mental vault. Perhaps it was on Aol.com. The jist of the story was that a couple was suing godaddy.com for the return of their website’s domain name. Having decided at one point to cease working at their business, which if I remember correctly was in home furnishings, their website’s name hung out in Limbo. It seems godaddy.com came along and swooped it up, adding it to their ever-growing inventory of domain names for sale. What’s the point you ask? What’s in a domain name?

It seems domain names are like the goose of golden egg fame. The traffic that has been generated during the course of the domain’s existence can be like money in the bank for someone enterprising enough to cash in on it. Whatever the source of my information, according to it, godaddy.com’s Bob Parsons was the entrepeneur with the brainiac idea. Voile! The man is rich, rich, rich.

Why do I care about such things? Because I just made WordPress.com richer by buying into its “domain for sale” gimmick. To the tune of $17 a year, and another $8 to keep my personal information private, I now own hugmamma.com. In the world of internet space I’ve just bought my own little planet. I should say I’ve leased my own little planet, since I have to keep up the annual payments. No other internet-gallactic planet can have my domain name. Big deal, you say? You’re right. I’ve yet to see what the big deal is all about.

As far as I can surmise the big deal is that the traffic I’ve generated, and will continue to generate, cannot be stolen by would-be robbers. Except that there’s a whole bunch of other ways one can configure hugmamma, although mine is the most common. My husband thinks I got it cheap. Cheap to me is free. Who sells the internet? It’s mind-boggling! Blows me away to think the unseen can be bought and sold like tangible, manufactured goods. Boy, am I a dinosaur from prehistoric times! But you know someone actually bought a domain name from godaddy.com for $60,000? Evidently there are those who attach themselves to certain names, like a favorite stuffed animal or something. If someone wants to buy hugmamma.com, come see me, I’ll sell it to you for half the price.

…we’ll just have to see what that price is…hmmm…hugmamma. 😉