Today Scott Lencke emailed me with the question, “When will Near Emmaus purchase nearemmaus.com (or something similar)? I have thought of giving this blog a cleaner, more precise URL than https://nearemmaus.wordpress.com, but that is about it. What do readers of this blog think? Should we get a URL? Would it be more useful to you?
UPDATE: JohnDave Medina purchased nearemmaus.com. If it would be easier to save and/or share that URL it is now available. On the other hand, I needed to clear my browser cache otherwise it went to the Go Daddy website. Also, at least on Firefox, as I moved from one page to another “nearemmaus.com” remained in the browser URL bar which could be problematic if you need the URL for a particular post. Either way, we hope two options are better than one!
the archives near Emmaus 
If the domain is available (which it looks like it is), I would snag it. Go ahead and register it for multiple years. Then you can forward the domain to your WordPress URL. (I forward http://www.bilingualbibleblog.com to bilingualbibleblog.blogspot.com).
No!!!! For whatever reason, the Track My Comments feature doesn’t work with wp’s pay domains. I would still read and comment, but I like the the free ones better.
@Brian: That is how I used to do it with former blogs. I used Go Daddy. Do you recommend another company?
@Jason: Not WP paid domain, just a domain name that would redirect like Brian noted above.
if you go to http://www.bltitus.com, you’ll see that my blog is registered to my name (bradtitus.com also redirects to bltitus.com) – buy the domain through GoDaddy – that’s the cheapest way (and I’m in internet marketing and SEO, so I speak truth here). Then, pay WordPress 10 bucks or whatever it is so that you can have the domain set up properly, rather than just a redirect. That way, blogs will be nearemmaus.com/blog-title … better for branding and SEO.
@Jason – I don’t (think I) have that problem on my blog, and it is set up as a pay domain….
@Brad: What would you say would be the practical benefits? What would we get for our dollars?
Enjoy following along on this one and look forward to hearing the reasons behind your final decision. I’ve considered doing the same on my blog (along with switching to Standard WordPress Theme), but keep asking that same question. Is there enough value in making the move for it to be worth the time and money?
I say get the .com now before somewhere else does. I’m always fond of the .coms vs .wordpress.com.
I ran into a Thenewleaven.com recently while mine is newleaven.com – so jump on it. 😉
@brian – more streamlined posting and domain name management. what is the benefit? better control of your domain, message, and brand.
Something else I’ve been considering is buying my own bit link URL … so that if anyone links to one of my blogs, the shortened link becomes http://bltit.us/extension or whatever … it’s all about controlling your domain and message.
If you can find an affordable server to host your site, sure, go for it.
I will toss the idea before some of the other folks who writer here to see what they think! Thanks for all the feedback everyone. If you have any other reasons for or against please feel free to post those because I am going to direct them to this post.
You guys already get enough readers and commenters. But I do think it will be easier to remember your blog name’s URL when someone else reads other blogs that link to you and they want to remember where it was linked to (like my most recent article).
In the end, the shorter the URL, the easier to remember (which should mean more visits).
As a fellow Word Press blogger, I appreciate the Word Press “Near Emmaus”; don’t have to type anything new in, just click. But at the same time, I think having your own site would you give you all more liberty in its structure and functionality, which might make it cooler… if that’s possible…
As someone with their own installation of wordpress on a different host, I have to say that the main benefit is “control-freakery” I can (should I want) do a lot more customisation. Whether that’s worth the money or the hassle, or whether you have the inclination is a decision only you can make.
Are you looking to move the hosting or just get the name? If you are just getting a new URL, I would say go for it. Moving your hosting to another service might not be worth the time/effort.
@Jeremy: At this juncture I think we are aiming at keeping it on WordPress and adding a new URL like nearemmaus.com that would redirect. It would be easier for new reader to access without making it hard for our faithful readers to continue finding us!
@Doug: I don’t think we are picky enough (yet) to need that much control. I am not sure if any of us would know what to do with it if we did.
@Chris: Just the name right now.
@Brian: The static nearemmaus.com should fix itself soon.
My first thought was no too – for the same reason Jason stated. I hate it when people move off wordpress and I have to subscribe to the comments. But if you can work that out – just let me know so I can change the blog roll and reader 😉
@Bitsy: You won’t have to change your blogroll or reader. NearEmmaus.com will redirect to nearemmaus.wordpress.com. So if you already have us saved keep it there.
You know how with WP you can upgrade? I just pay $15 a year to switch my url from evangelicalcalvinist.wordpress.com to evangelicalcalvinist.com. I’m not even sure if I’ve actually purchased my own domain name or whatever; I just thought it looked more professional, to match my really professional header image and everything 😉 .
I don’t know if it’s to my blog’s advantage or not; so I guess I’m don’t know how to advise you, Brian. It might make NE have a more sleek look and web-presence.
I tried posting a comment from my iPhone last night. Annoyingly, it wouldn’t upload for some reason. Brian, I think there is a conspiracy against me with your blog. 😉
In all, though you guys have wonderful interaction and visitors on a regular basis, I just think it creates more flow of traffic (if that is what you would like). I barely have time now to stay up with the 1 or 2 comments that might arrive on my articles (much less what you guys get). But you would probably get even more interaction.
It all has to do with easier remembrance. When someone links to you on another blog (as I do occasionally), and then someone else is interested to visit that link, and then they want to remember it to visit again or pass the site on, to try and remember the long WordPress URL would be difficult. A simple dot.com (or dot.org, dot.net) would be easier. Of course, with copy and paste, it isn’t so bad.
I just believe the shorter the URL, the easier to access. For me, that is simple.
@Bobby: We have nearemmaus.com now, but I don’t think we are going to do much more at this point. I don’t think we see a reason to make a big transition and none of us are webby enough to make the blog look better than WordPress does for us already.
@Scott: We now have the nearemmaus.com handle so you can use that. I have no idea why it keeps rejecting your comments.
Brian –
Can I get a prize for opening this discussion and leading to your obtaining of the URL?
@Scott: I thought the name recognition in this blog post was a prize! 😉
Thanks for the idea! Just purchased http://www.diglotting.com
@Diglot: Very cool, you can thank Scott Lencke for giving us the idea in the first place!
Now that you’ve purchased nearemmaus.com, head into the admin side of your WP.com blog and make the switch under SETTINGS > DOMAINS > and make nearemmaus.com the “primary domain”. That’s it.
Nice job of finally dropping “wordpress” from your URL. By doing that, you’ve gained a level of seriousness to blogging. 🙂
By the way, keep up the insightful posts.
@Erik: We didn’t get our URL through WordPress, but rather Go Daddy. So we will retain the “wordpress” when it redirects.