A Garden of Delights

Everything about domain names (Photo credit: Emilie Ogez)

A lot of bloggers I follow have done two things: one. I’m not sure I should do and the other, I’m sure I should but fear starting because I’m notoriously bad when it comes to schedules and stress (as in chaos, then burnout…). But it seems to me that there’s a good reason to do these things.  Or at least there must be to many people.

The first is buying a domain name. The biggest reason I hesitate is money. We need a car and it would nice to have some fun this year too. Marcus wants to go back to both Montreal and New York City. Plus we have family trips that need making and the Northeast Unschooling Conference to explore (first time). So the money has a place already… even just a $20.

But the biggest issue is that our present internet provider won’t allow us to run any kind of web server here (and has made no attempt to return my calls or emails about actually setting up such a service…). And I’m not sure how WordPress wants things run. Do they continue to host these pages? And do I want to spend money on just a name, when (for more money, granted) I could go to the wonderful people over at SFF.net that I’ve dealt with for years and get not only a domain name, but a full hosting setup (with WONDERFUL tech support, btw… there is a reason I’ve kept my email and such there since 1996). So, I’m curious as to the opinions of people who’ve made this jump. Please, let me know why you did or didn’t buy your own domain name and how your pages are being run now.

On the other hand… I know I should start scheduling my blog posts. Having some consistency can only help make this a pleasant experience for everyone. But how much is too much, I wonder. I wanted to keep to one post a week last year and couldn’t manage it. This year, I’m doing better (the regimen of the ROW80 challenge is certainly helping me there), but after the check-in posts and the few photography pages I’ve set up it feels overwhelming most days to get an actual “post” done. And as for fresh writing on my WiPs? Not happening unless I word print with the ROWers on Twitter or ignore my family. And I’m afraid I do that too much as it is.

So what do you find is the best balance? Do you prefer longer posts once a week with lots of info? Short sweet pieces that you see every day (like the WordPress version of Facebook and Twitter)? Do you find that you’re spending far too much time staring at the monitor and your kids are learning to type along with you? 😉