Your First Domain Could Be Your Claim To Fame

Whats in a domain you may ask? Plenty if you think about it. In the internet world a domain is a stake to a property or purpose. Just as survey markers or fences define specific property areas or purposes off line, a domain name defines your online property claim.

Domains such as “marysweddingcakes.com, joeshandymanservice.net, cocacola.com, michiganstateuniversity.edu, statefarminsurance.org leave little doubt about the type of business or institution they represent. The following domains however will require more investigation to discover their actual purpose. Thewilliams.com, lillysamson.org, johnadams.net and other similar ambiguous domain names.

You purchase domain names through domain registrars and you can expect to pay about $10.00 per year to keep it active. While there are exceptions such as .info domains which may be purchased for around $2.00 a year, the most popular domains such as .com, .net and .org are all in the $10.00 a year range.
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Free Blog Or Self Hosted Blog-Which Is Best?

If you are about to embark on your first journey into the world of blogs, one of your first decisions will be to choose developing a free blog or a self hosted blog. Making this decision seems to trouble new bloggers a great deal. Lets take a look at both versions and try to help you make the best decision for your situation.

Free blogs as the name implies can be set up without cost. You do not need to purchase a domain name and they are relatively easy for the beginner to use. There are a number of programs that allow you to set up one of more of these free blogs but the most common are http://www.blogger.com and http://www.wordpress.com.

Basically you go to one of those sites, open a free account and then by filling in a series of blanks you will soon have a blog live on the internet.
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WordPress Installation Videos

WordPress Installation Videos

This is a series of 23 WordPress videos. They cover all steps of building a WordPress blog.

Click Here For Entire List

Welcome To Potholecountry

The Potholecountry blog was first conceived as a two part site. Because I had been teaching blog building and other internet subjects for a number of years I thought it might be helpful to offer free advice about building blogs and helping new bloggers get their first sites set up.

The second part of this site was to be devoted to articles I would write as the urge struck me and  hopefully I could pass on thoughts, opinions and even once in a while helpful information that might be worth reading.

The internet has evolved to the point where there is a at present any number of sites offering help to new bloggers and I have not received any requests for assistance on this site. In addition my wife and I are about to embark on a new adventure that hopefully will allow us to travel this great state of Michigan and if all goes as planned even allow us to travel far afield throughout some of the other states.

In light of these changes I am changing the focus of the Potholecountry blog. I will no longer be offering any blog advice. I will however continue to attempt to put words together in a form that offers interesting, informative and perhaps even once in a while entertaining articles.

I will also be describing our travels in words and short videos and go into detail regarding the methods we will be using to pay for out travels. If you are a senior citizen or somewhat younger and have dreamed of finding a method to pay for extended travels you may find our methods of interest.

We have investigated  at length the various methods of travel available. With the high cost of gas we needed to explore the difference between purchasing an RV, motor home or travel trailer, as opposed to an automobile that would offer high gas mileage while staying at motels. We will describe in detail how our final choices are working for us.

Stop back once and a while and let us know what you think of the site and feel free to offer advice, criticism and ask questions. As our travels evolve we hope to be reporting from various coffee shops and other locations that offer internet connections along the way. Perhaps we will even meet you in our travels. We’ll  be the old folks  sitting in the corner of the coffee shop or at the shady park bench laboring over our laptops or fiddling with our ever present video camera.