Master of my own domain

It’s time for the next part of my plan for global online domination or, to paraphrase Auric Goldfinger, “No, Mister Zuckerberg, I expect you to die …”

The Aussie in-laws are off touring the south and south-west of England, and will be back at some point over the weekend. I’m a little envious, to be honest. The best holidays we’ve ever had have been ones where we have let the rubber hit the road and headed off into the wild blue yonder with little more than a guide-book and a vague plan. A three-week road trip of nearly 4,000 miles that took in San Francisco, LA, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and various points in between before returning to San Fran again counts as the highlight of my globe-trotting, pre-kids days. (Was it really six years ago that we sat watching the sun rise at the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon?!? Sigh.)

Anyway, I digress. Being easily distracted and a bit of a procrastinator is not exactly the modus operandi of a megalomaniac, is it? Oh well.

Since Toby was born in January, I’ve frequently had a large chunk of the evening to myself while Heather tries to catch up with sleep. During that time, I have devoted a fair amount of time to getting my blogs in order. There are three in all: this one, a sports-based blog, and finally one I started recently about my ongoing experiences in fatherhood. I have spent time critiquing and refining my writing style, focussed on upping my output, started learning about search engine and keyword optimisation (très geeky) and finally transferred all three blogs from Blogger to WordPress (which, of course, has taken about ten times longer than first anticipated).

Having now more or less completed that process, I’m considering my next project: setting up my own domain as a hub for bringing together all my various online content – blogs, photos, videos, all that stuff – in one easy-to-find place. So far I’ve got as far as researching and registering my own domain name, and tinkering with home page design. And, er, that’s it. I’m sure it will be a long and torturous process, but I quite like these little voyages of discovery – and it keeps me out of trouble, doesn’t it?

So if anyone has any top tips about setting up your own website, hosting and so on, I’m all ears.