What’s in a Name?

Serpentine CompassYes, the name of this blog has changed along with the domain name. When I first started the blog I already had the domain name terryfinney.com and as this would be a personal blog, not devoted to any topic in particular, I thought using my own name would be the thing to do.

However, after looking a a lot of other blogs recently, and listening to the inestimable Ed Jelley on a recent Pen Addict podcast I realised that I had made a mistake. I must stress that this is not intended as a Pen Blog, but I have drawn a lot of inspiration from Pen Blogs. I also though that if I was going to change the name (and domain), the sooner the better.

Even though this isn’t a Pen Blog, I still wondered if every play on the words pen, ink, notebook, stationery, desk etc, etc, etc, really had been exhausted. After much thought I came up with “Stationery Journey”. I patted myself on the back for the clever wordplay but assumed somebody must have used it already. To my surprise (apart from a mesmerising YouTube video and a couple of fleeting references), it hadn’t been, and the domain name stationeryjourney.com was still available. Then I reminded myself that this is not a Pen Blog, and such a domain name would be easy to mistake and mistype (probably as stationaryjourney.com). Wait a minute though – “Stationary Journey” would do just fine – and it appeals to my sense of humour. The domain name for this was available too, so I immediately picked it up, along with stationeryjourney.com (not sure if that was being greedy or a genuine attempt to point mistypes in the right direction).

Following the instructions at How to Properly Move WordPress to a New Domain Without Losing SEO I made the changes today. Not sure if my SEO really is intact, but it sees to be such a black art that I’m not sure how I would ever be able to tell. Old links at terryfinney.com should redirect to stationaryjourney.com, as should the domain stationeryjourney.com

So, excuses to type in some real content are running out. Just the theme left to go.

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