THE US REPORT

There’s a story behind The US Report, and I have to tell it because it’s a story of pain and redemption. If it saves even one blogger the misery I went through, sharing the story is worth it. Okay. I started out with a new blog idea after somewhat succeeding with my Covering Florida blog at Blogger.

I write a freelance blog in WordPress for Beneath the Brand. But I don’t have the tech knowledge to deal with the program itself. So I set up a blog at TypePad. I bought the Pro Plan and went to work. I also bought the domain from GoDaddy. Things were looking good. I invited some colleagues from ASJA and from Blog Catalog to take a look. All was well. Then I tried to map the domain. The first rep from GoDaddy walked me through it. I could see the domain in my browser. I followed instructions from GD and from TP to the letter. But when I tried to verify my site later, Google declined. Then there was some kind of meltdown and the blogs were down but then they went back up. Then the fun really started. All the formatting was gone from my blog—for days. I sent support tickets. The first response from TP told me to set up a CNAME at GD. So I called GD again and this time the rep did it differently. To make a long story short, more support tickets went to TP and I still couldn’t see my formatting. No one seemed able to help though one techie friend told me TP can be difficult. Sad thing is I liked composing and editing in TP. But after days of this and what I considered slow responses from TP, I went into my account and hit ‘delete.’ I had to admit to myself I just didn't have the tech knowledge to get things squared away there.

I’d read a book on blogging—Start Your Own Blogging Business by J.S. McDougall—and Squarespace was listed in his recommended blog hosts. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose. By the way, that’s a really good book.

Let me tell you, hitting ‘delete’ at TypePad was the best thing I ever did. Within a couple days I had content up at my Squarespace blog (bought a whole new domain from Nettica because I figured the other one might be jinxed.) It took me minutes to verify my site with Google and miracle of miracles, it took minutes to map the domain to Squarespace by following their very clear directions complete with graphics. All I can say is I am in love with Squarespace. I’ll recommend this place to anybody interested in doing a blog. And no, I don’t get anything for doing it, other than the fact I’m out of hell and in a far better place right here at Squarespace. And the same goes for Nettica. I got a graphic designer doing me up a banner and it’ll be up soon. So that’s the story of The US Report and one very satisfied (actually ecstatic) blogger.

(I invite you to read my columns at Beneath the Brand and The Writer. A new story for The Florida Times Union should be out soon. And (happy days) I was invited to contribute an essay to a book about writing due out towards the end of the year. Both my own new books are pending; I'll keep you posted.)
(Filed by Kay B. Day)