I am new to the world of blogging and I certainly have a lot to learn! As with anything we do in life we must startat the bottom of the learning curve and that includes blogging. People who have never blogged before will probably not understand the headaches that learning to blog brings on.
Blogging is about so much more than just writing, it’s about connecting with like minded people and sharing and supporting one another. That’s the fun bit, the headache comes from the behind the scenes bit, the connecting a custom domain bit, the learning about HTML bit and getting your blog looking just as you imagine it in your head?..Sounds easy, really it’s not!
Whoever thought that blogging would be such hard work or so addictive? I started this blog about a week ago and I find that when I am not working or learning about the art of blogging, I am thinking or dreaming or having nightmares about blogging.
Last week I decided to go the whole hog and purchase a custom domain name for my blog – this blog – and followed the steps to redirect traffic from debsrandomwritings.blogpot.com to debsrandomwritings.com.
Once I had completed the process I wasn’t too worried, at first, when my blog wasn’t registering when clicked on, as blogger informed me that it could take up to 48 hours for a blog to redirect.Over 48 hours passed and still nothing! Then I started to worry.
I contacted Namecheap, which is where I purchased my domain name and they informed me that all was fine their end and that I had put the right information into the right boxes. For anyone like me, who is not a computer wizard, connecting a custom domain is a scary thing, there were codes and words and symbols that had to be put into the relevant small boxes and I generally don’t do small boxes and lists, they scare me!
I had spent many hours Googling how to do transfer my domain name to Blogger as I was scared that my computer would blow up if I didn’t do it right. So I was relieved to hear that it wasn’t a problem that I had created.
Eventually my blog pages became visible and I felt myself relax. The furrows on my forehead almost disappeared, until this morning when I clicked on my blog and got a 400 bad request error instead of my blog posts. I felt my blood pressure start to rise again as the confusion set in.
I turned to Google again and searched my heart out for an inkling of what was causing the problem.
I found some advice from someone who had encountered the same problem before, saying to try clearing the cache on the PC in question and to restart it, which I did and to my relief all seemed fine again, but not for long!
Throughout the morning, my blog has been playing now you see me – now you don’t and as Namecheap have said that all is fine their end, I am guessing that the problem lies within Blogger. I have posted a request for help on a Blogger forum and am waiting a reply.
Looking on the positive side of a what could well have been a wasted morning spent banging my head on the wall, floor and any other hard surface I could find, I have managed to sort our my custom email address and check that it’s working!! A small achievement for some, but a rather large one for me – I am well chuffed.
I have also had extra time to tinker on Google+, which I am also in the process of getting the hang of and which I hope will be a friendly place to share my blog and to find other interesting blogs to read.
I am sure that my blogging headache will linger until I have learned enough about blogging to be able to relax and that will start once I know that my blog is 100% visible to anyone who wants to take the time to read it.
*Update – I would really like to say a big thank you to nitecruzr who helped me out with my 404 error page, through the blogger forum. Apparently I had put the wrong numbers in for a redirect to work properly. He or she was exceedingly patient, but I have no doubt that they knew they were dealing with a complete and utter computer imbecile! As a way of saying thank you I would like to share his or her blogging website, which answers many questions that bloggers like myself might ask.
Please feel free to share your blogging nightmares, it’s always nice to know that other people encounter similar problems.
Copyright © 2014 by Debbie Roberts
© 2014 – 2020, Debbie. All rights reserved.
Mitch Mitchell says
Debbie Roberts says
Lori Lavender Luz says
Debbie Roberts says
Debbie Roberts says
I can't even reply to your comment without seemingly losing it! So second time lucky I hope!
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog and for welcoming me to the Blogosphere - I love that word!
At the moment I am toying with the idea of self hosting, which both scares and excites me. At the moment I use Blogger, but I have noticed that Wordpress blogs look so much cleaner cut, that I want to move. I am not totally sure whether to move my existing blog of just a few posts or to start from scratch on Wordpress, I could always move my blog post by post, I will have to see.
It is the fact that computer or blog savvy people are willing to help clueless people like me that gives me the confidence to have a go. So far I have been lucky enough to meet a friendly bunch of people.
I am sure that there will be a few more blogging headaches along the way and possibly a few migraines too!
DorleeM says
Good for you for persevering and finding someone to help you on the blogger forum.
One of the difficult things about blogging is that you end up having to do a lot of the fixes yourself [even if you have no idea how]. On the positive side, there are so many nice people who are programmers out there who are willing to help those of us who have no clue on how to program as well as others who write posts on all kinds of helpful topics related to blogging.
As you saw, it was another blogger who helped you :) The community of bloggers is wonderful, friendly and open so if I may welcome you to the blogosphere.
Enjoy your journey - there will be some bumps along the way but you will meet many people and make some wonderful friendships along the way.
Lysa Rizzo says
Debbie Roberts says
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my post. I don't do crosswords, Sudoku or any puzzles like that as I just can't get my brain round them, so I like to think of blogging as exercise for the brain. Hopefully it will help to keep my brain active in a positive way.
I am sure that together we can make sense of this crazy blogging world!
Lysa Rizzo says
It's nice to know I have a new friend in this scary world of blogging!