I discussed with the wife this weekend how crummy the domain name 45n5 is.

It isn’t intuitive how to spell it from hearing it, it isn’t intuitive what it means from hearing it, it’s difficult to remember, etc.

If you are used to the name it’s fine, however when you are around people not familiar with the site it’s gets real tiring explaining it.

That got us discussing changing the domain name or other things and inspiring this post.

How To Change Your Domain Name

To technically change your domain name and have all the old visitors show up at your new site you can use a 301 permanent redirect.

When done properly your visitors and subscribers will probably not notice a difference.

If your blog is small it’s really quite easy.

Practice Your 301 First

If you are doing the 301 redirects yourself you might want to spend $8 for a domain and practice redirecting a blog their first just to get your feet wet instead of playing with your moneymaker.

Change Your Social Profiles?

If it was as simple as changing your domain name with a 301 redirect I would probably change the 45n5 domain name to something more brandable and that contains human words, however it’s not that easy.

Social sites like twitter.com/45n5 and youtube.com/45n5 can’t be redirected.

I’m not sure what to do with social profiles when you change your online presence. Do you?

Sell Your Site And Start Fresh?

Another thought is to just sellout and take the money to help start your new blog from scratch.

This would give the new owner your domain, social profiles, wouldn’t chance screwing up your pagerank, etc.

However you lose everything, including most of your readers.

I’d consider this option but it would take some serious convincing from the wife which makes me think of transfering the site.

What would you do in my shoes? Pick a new domain for 45n5 and transfer it over or sell it and start new?

Other Considerations For Changing Your Blog’s Online Presence?

That’s how to change your domain name and some other considerations, what did I miss?

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