I am thinking of doing something rash and crazy to kick off 2011. No, I have not decided to embrace prime numbers. But I am going to get my own domain name and get out from under the WordPress URL. They will still host me but I want to lose the clunky website address.
No problem, right? Instead of http://fordeville.wordpress.com, you would simply go to www.fordeville.com. How easy and freeing.
Go ahead, type in the latter to test it out.
Did you go? No, really — do it.
Yeah. You see my problem. I don’t want to sell discount auto parts in Brazil. No offense to the fine proprietors of The Other Fordeville, or La Otra Fordeville. Urgh. And they went ahead and bought both the .com and .net. And, at the risk of stating the obvious, we all know I’m no respectable .org.
So I need a new name. Can you help me?
I want to stay true to Fordeville in some respect — here are some initial ideas:
- www.welcometofordeville.com (it’s a little too chipper for me, no?)
- www.fordevilleblog.com (does the job but lacks punch. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
- www.talesfromfordeville.com (not bad)
- www.thefordevillediaries.com (eh. mouthful), or just www.fordevillediaries.com (perhaps my best option so far)
- www.fordevilleorbust.com (I’m getting delirious — what am I, a hobo?)
Or should I cut Fordeville loose altogether and start with something fresh? I don’t know about that — it would have to be pretty compelling but I’m open to suggestions. This is worse than naming my kids.
I’m no marketing powerhouse. Clearly. I’m lucky I got this far with posting shit that six people read from time to time. But, I know that some of you have a certain branding Je Ne Sais Quoi (or, as our Fordeville Brazil branch may say, “Eu não sei o quê”) — let’s dust it off for the good of my itty blog. Help a girl out.
To inspire you, let me share some of GoDaddy.com’s suggestions after they confirmed for me that the Fordeville Brazil guys essentially own me. My two favorites were www.freefordeville.com (as in, no charge, or I’m being held in a Cambodian prison?) and, for no intuitive reason whatsoever, www.fordehomewarranty.com. WTF? I’m now in the sales business, apparently. Let me get that widget up and running on the site asap, homeowners, so you don’t miss out on the January special.
So, look, I know you can do better. And here’s your chance to knock that “do good for others” resolution off your list way early in the year. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have no prize to give you for a winning suggestion, other than my gratitude and, if you consider my meager readership to be public recognition, even better. I may be able to land you an internship at the Fordeville Auto Parts place in Brazil too, but no promises.
Thanks, guys. Let me see what you’ve got.
I think you should go with:
imkimfordeandthisismyblog.com
easy to remember! 🙂
Hm. I can see we were in the same marketing classes. Rolls right off the tongue 🙂 Maybe a .tv would be even better.
Fordvillediaries gets my vote.
Thanks Nadja. That’s my current front runner but I’m holding out for someone to come up with something better. Happy 2011 to you and the family 🙂
How about fordevillepress.com. Not so original but combines with the old address. And I am one of your devoted 6 readers. Religiously. Been meaning to email that to you for weeks! I love your writing and even make Marc, Mr. Non Facebook & Blogs, read too sometimes. Happy New Year to all of you!
Audrey — thanks for the suggestion. Definitely a possibility. And so glad you (and even Marc!) are enjoying the blog — and religiously, to boot. I really appreciate it.
Happy New Year and hope to see you guys soon!
Hmmm…a dilemma indeed. Would u consider the Japanese extension: fordeville.co.jp – think of the new Asian following u could get! Maybe not. Fordevilledays? Fordevilletimes? Myfordeville? Is fordville.com available? No one would miss the “e” 😉 I’ll keep thinking….
Well, I’m huge in Japan so the .jp extension would totally make sense…
The “e” must stay in Fordeville, methinks. But, for the sake of entertainment, you should know that fordville.com is taken by — get this — Fordville Cheap Foreclosures. Classy, don’t you think? I could merge that with Forde Home Warranties for a real win.
I just know your marketing savvy is going to produce a middle-of-the-night (which, fortunately, will be midday for me) stroke of genius on this. No pressure, though 🙂
Embrace the Italian…Fordevilla.com.
I also like FordevilleDiaries.com.
Ha! I like Fordevilla. Italian, indeed, and also rings of a luxe vacation that I would love to take.
Okay… how about:
findingfordeville.com
enteringfordeville.com
forde-ville.com
fordevilleus.com
destinationfordeville.com
Now I’m just rambling… but this is surprisingly fun…
Good luck!
Fun, says the woman who has her given name as an available web domain for her blog 🙂
Good suggestions, though — keep ’em coming, and thanks!
I like the new look of the blog but — whatever brand name you pick — it needs to be BIGGER (client-side marketing 101): “Couldya make the logo a little larger?”
Totally agree. Trust me, it’s not purely modesty. I have to learn some coding to be able to change the font size — on my to-do list this week. So if you see Mandarin on here later in a few days, you know the coding tutorial didn’t go well. Stay tuned.
are you married to the “ville” part? what about fordecity (though people may think “detroit”, and no one wants that), fordetown, fordehamlet?
I’m kind of wed to Fordeville only because it’s my Twitter name as well — but I guess I could work around that. I do like your line of thinking — Fordetown, Fordeland, Fordeburb, etc. Great suggestion (and a touch better than your original idea) — thank you.
Uncle Dave here. In keeping with news from the little hamlet/village where you live, how about Fordevilleagevoice.com or Fordevillagecrier.com?
Thanks Uncle Dave — good ideas. That town crier reference is a good one. Or I could be just Fordecrier, at the risk of sounding eternally weepy 🙂