The Naming of the Blog

So it seems logical that the first blog entry should be about – starting a blog. And the first step to starting a blog is – choosing a name. Sounds simple but it’s not. You can call your stories anything you want when you’re writing them but it becomes a whole different story when the Internet becomes involved. This is you, this is what the whole world might see. It's that one last chance to make first good impression. It has to be descriptive. It has to sound interesting. And there’s other factors you might not even think of… read more to follow the evolution of a name.

The Word Lady

The. What value can there be on a word that we use hundreds of times a day? It’s thrown into our conversation with as little thought as swatting a house fly. We never even hear ourselves use it; its verbal coinage must be worth zero.

Well, nope, I discovered that the word ‘the’ is worth $5395. $5395 to be TheWordLady.com in the Internet world. I could be WordLady.com for $69.99, or wordlady.net, org, co, live, store, club, or a dozen other extensions for a few bucks, but if I want to be THE Word Lady, be prepared to cough up $5395 US dollars.

Suddenly, I don’t want to be the word lady. It conjures up visions of cats and teapots. I like cats, and tea is ok but I’m not ready to relegate myself to old-lady-librarian status yet. I don’t know what I want to be.

The Creative Accountant?

I thought this might tie together two of my personas. But first, an Internet search finds a movie by that name. Second, I’m a bookkeeper, not an accountant, not a certified one anyway. The Creative Bookkeeper just doesn’t impart same feeling. Third, I’m afraid it might attract some shady clients looking for, well, creative accounting. Or alternatively, and probably worse, attract the attention of the IRS on the lookout for creative accountants.

A side note on being a creative accountant in the literary sense…. there is no sloppy, stream-of-consciousness writing style for a creative accountant. The Word document must appear as neat and orderly as an Excel spreadsheet. No mistakes allowed and no editing necessary.

The Pen Is Mightier

Thepenismightier.com. No, this one was never even under actual consideration. Just reminding myself to test my choices in all possible aspects. And what audience might it attract?

The Ephemera Vault

I like it but it might be a little too obscure for mainstream use.

Fiction and Fable

This is growing on me and it’s available for $17.99. Fictionandfable.com. Kinda rolls off the tongue, not too pretentious, not too cutesy, not too limiting… Nothing weird in hyperlink. A definite contender.

Fibs and Fables

I think I have condensed it into the form I like best. Of course, it’s been reserved by a speculator and will cost $69.99 to have the .com, or, or again, $10 or $20 for a different extension. My tech guy says .com would be the best. Do I want to spend $69.99 for a personal expression blog? It’s mostly just to satisfy an old lady’s whim.

More on Fibs and Fables – the $69.99 was just a broker’s fee – paying someone to make an offer to buy this domain name.  But guess what? Fibs and Fable – no ‘s’ – is available for the ordinary price of $11.99 for one year plus $19.99 for the second year. So now I’ve found out that the letter ‘s’ is a very valuable commodity, too. Forget buying a vowel, I have to buy an ‘s’. But if I use only fibsandfable, does it have the same feel to it? And doesn’t it violate a rule of grammar – tenses being the same or something? And I would always have to say “Fibsandfable-no-s.com”.

I had a phone conference with Jace Thomas, the poor graphic designer/web developer who had the misfortune to be referred to me. He suggested fibsandfablesblog.com. After all, it is a blog, although I don’t like that word. It reminds me of the ugly green booger in the Mucinex commercials. But it is available. For the ordinary pricing.

I’m tired of waffling about a name. In the vernacular of smarmy salesmen, I’m ready to ‘pull the trigger’ so I press next on GoDaddy. It prompts me to create an account, enter a password…. I am as lost for a password as I was for a name so I cast my eyes about until I register the name of a common office item and add a number and a symbol. (The number didn’t cost me anything.) I hit the submit button! The little twirling wheel tells me it’s processing but it seems to be taking a while. I get up and mosey around, the wheel is still turning. Great. Wait? Back up, start over, risk getting charged twice? I close it, go to the home screen. When I try to re-submit, it says that domain is already taken! Yippee, something must have been happening in the background.

I must now put this part of the blog creation out of my mind forever as I don’t want to come up with something I like better and am ready to move on to other things. I’m excited to see what graphic designs Jace comes up with for me.

It’s still a big learning curve but a big step out of the way.

Welcome to fibsandfablesblog.com