Blogging

Help! I am Going Crazy!

My blog, Mind and Life Matters has come a long way since it started. Next month is my first year anniversary or should I say Blogiversary, like the cool kids? Wow, time does really fly, does it not?

When I started blogging, all I wanted to do was share snippets of my life, my journey into becoming a single mom and how I managed to stand up on my own feet as a survivor from an abusive relationship. That was no easy feat, and I still cannot believe that I have grown as a mother and as a person coming out of something like that.

By nature, I am a very positive person. I like to see the positivity in everything, but my life experiences and depression has shown me the negative side of a lot of things. Because of that, there is a constant battle going on in my mind between the positive side of my brain and the negative side of my brain! Most days, the positive side wins while other days the negative side wins.

Yea can’t help that now, can I?

writeThrough all of this, though, one thing hasΒ remained consistent, and that is, my writing. Even though I do not blog as often as I would have liked, I am always writing something, be it in my journal, for my novel or a short story or a poem. Writing has helped me in many ways. It has almost saved me, I should say.

You are probably wondering where I am going with this? Well, somewhere in there I almost forgot what it was that I was trying to say through this post. Ok, coming back to my blog, Mind and Life Matters. My initial plan for this blog was to write about my journey and recovery from abuse and depression, my experience as a single parent and about other self-help matters. If you look into my Archives folder, you will notice that most of my posts did fall into these categories. However, after Writing 101 and a Creative Writing course happened, I moved onto writing more of fiction, short prose, and poetry. The Weekly Limerick challenge gives me a lot of joy and I enjoy conducting it, a lot!

Now, I have started to feel that the name and theme of my blog do not match. I do post once in a while about matters that affect our minds or our life, but off late that has become a rare occurrence. As I am getting closer to the release of my first novel, tentatively titled β€œBuried Deceptions” I feel the need for writing specific blog or an author blog. The smart thing here would be to change the name of this blog and turn it into an author blog. I would have done that had it not been for the fact that I am now working on a new and exciting venture that can do the job of having an author blog. I wish I could share more about the new venture but at the moment, I am not at liberty to divulge the details yet.

The next question, then, obviously is β€œWhat is your big problem?”

My problem is this, I want to develop Mind and Life Matters as a lifestyle blog and keep all my writing related posts to the new venture. With that thought in mind, I tried to purchase the domain for my blog, only to sadly realize that the domain name mindandlifematters.com is already taken! πŸ™ Β I do not want .Org or .Net, yea I am very picky like that!

Now I am thinking of changing the name of this blog from Mind and Life Matters to something else. To What? I don’t know that yet!

pinterestSo, here’s the thing, I need suggestions, some really creative suggestions for a new name to match the theme of MLM. I did love it if you had any creative suggestions for me. Or should I just tell myself to stop being so picky and go with a .Org domain for MLM? I do plan to continue to posting on this site and upgrade it before I lose the domain name I want. Having said that, I am not sure if I should do all this and disrupt the harmony of my blog. You see why I am confused now! Β These thoughts have been driving me crazy for a while and I am not sure which route to take going forward.

And that is why I have turned to you, my dear readers, to help me with your expert advice, opinions, suggestions, creative ideas or anything for that matter that can help me make a decision!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my dilemma! πŸ˜€

 

A Single Mother with an unbreakable passion to Live the Life! I am a Writer/Author by passion and an IT Project Manager by profession. I am also the voice of Artemis at In The Pantheon - a multi-author collaborative writing project. When not hunting as Artemis, I am busy querying agents and working on my multiple writing projects. Women Empowerment and Child Rights Advocate.

44 Comments

  • Wandering Soul

    Woman of the World? The domain could be womanotw.com.
    From Strength to Strength? The domain could be strength to strength.
    Suggestions and ideas aglore, not one of them worth a thought more. But you already know that πŸ˜‰
    All the best for the MLM 2.0. πŸ™‚

  • kirstwrites

    Is your blog really only a year old? Wow, I thought it was much more than that – fantastic that you’ve created so much, and built such a following so quickly. I’m not sure about a new name, simply because Mind and Life has a real ‘brand recognition’ for me – it always jumps out at me in my Twitter feed or the word press reader, and I stop and read your latest post, whereas some blog names make me think ‘who was that again? Did I follow them?’ I think it would be a real shame to lose that I think.

    • MindandLifeMatters

      Ohhh thank you so much for the encouraging comment, Kirst! It makes me feel really good to know that you stop to read my posts, I consider that a huge achievement! I actually like the name Mind and Life Matters, it’s the domain I am having a problem with. Maybe I should compromise on it and go with a .org site to retain the brand value!
      Thank you again for taking the time out to advice on my dilemma πŸ™‚

  • Miriam

    I agree with Kirstwrites, Mind and Life Matters is a name I instantly recognise and it would be a shame to lose that recognition. Congratulations on how far you’ve come … and good luck with whatever comes ahead. I’m sure whatever happens, you’ll be a success. xo

  • draliman

    I’m useless with naming stuff, I’m afraid. You could always look at “.us” (the American TLD, I think you’re in the USA?) but for some reason that isn’t used much, most people in the US seem to go for the generic “.com”, which anyone on the world can use.
    My domain and tagline have the same problem – I abandoned its original purpose and started writing stories instead, but it’s my “brand” now!

  • Mick Canning

    My instinct would be to continue to develop this blog. There is no reason why it cannot serve both purposes under separate headings. Since you’ve already built up a following and are known, it would seem to me the best option.

  • Meritings

    You cannot be serious! Firstly, your blog has to be older than 1. How else could it have so many dedicated followers, be so polished, so interesting, so enveloping, demanding to be read?
    Mind matters, Life matters, and Mind and Life Matters matters very much. It is a brilliant blog title.
    As to the domain name. Well, how on earth did I end up with Pollymermaid? I’ll tell you how! I had no idea what I was doing when I set it up and used an old password. I may tell the story one day!
    Rashmi, whatever you do will be great. Your dedicated readers all know that.
    Sorry, there is no advice here. You don’t really need it. Go with your mind!

    • MindandLifeMatters

      Peter….thank you so much! You are so sweet to say that, means a lot to me! πŸ™‚
      I do see advice in your comment, and it matches with what the others have been telling me, MLM is a brand name and I believe it is in my best interest to continue with the same name. I will see what I can do with the domain. Draliman made a good suggestion of trying for the “.us” domain, maybe I will go with that! πŸ™‚
      Thank you for being with me on this blogging journey! And I look forward to reading your story on how you set up your blog, I am sure it is going to be a very interesting story πŸ˜€

        • MindandLifeMatters

          We can use alphanumeric values and spaces or hyphens but other special characters like & are not allowed in the domain names! So, I can use something like mind-life-matters.com or mindandlife-matters.com. But I am wondering if mindandlifematters.org looks cleaner!

          • Meritings

            Forgot about not being able to use &.
            .org does look cleaner but there are so many extensions you can use now, including
            .co.com
            .xyz
            .online
            Cost can be a deciding factor!
            Good luck with the choice.

          • MindandLifeMatters

            .Co.com is a good option but it is a lot more expensive than. Org, same case with .xyz and .online. I don’t think I want to spend that much. I might look into the .us option if that’s an affordable one.

  • Feelings and Freedom

    First of all congratulations on completing a year! Like others, I too thought that your blog was much older πŸ™‚
    I feel MLM is a great brand for your readers now. You shouldn’t try to change it. The name nowhere reflects that it’s about your journey or bad experiences. It’s more of a generic name which can accommodate any other genre you may wish to write about. That’s just my opinion. All the best.

  • Marsman

    You could always change the title of your blog, even though the name is registered through word press you could change the ttile to what you want. Think positive. I know you can do it.

  • Dr Meg Sorick

    I’m excited and intrigued by this new venture! I hope we don’t have to wait too long! I agree with what the others said about MLM. There’s got to be a subtle tweak to the name that will get you the domain without making you unrecognizable! I’ll have to think about it!

    • MindandLifeMatters

      Thank you so much, Meg! I am excited too about the new venture and also for the onward journey of MLM. Hopefully, a subtle tweak might work if not I guess I will go with .Org or like draliman pointed out with a .US domain. πŸ™‚

  • ranu802

    I see why you are confused, frankly speaking I really have no idea what to tell you. You have a lot of seasoned followers, who I’m sure can and will help. I’d love to wait and see, your progress. πŸ™‚

  • surbhisachdeva89

    Hi @mindandlifematters.
    First of all congratulations on completing your one your on this blog. You write really well. I love reading your posts like your other readers. I read about your dilemma just now. I believe that you should not be making a seperate blog and you should not be changing the name of this blog as you are popular among your readers by this name. Choose to do what you feel is right. πŸ™‚
    All the best.

  • theturtle

    Turtle has no ideas πŸ™ only the assurance that you’ll come up with the very best solution πŸ™‚
    After all , you built this up and reached so many and so much in only one year πŸ™‚ a brilliant idea is sure to be brewing … it will come
    Turtle Hugs

  • jacquelineobyikocha

    You’ve come far Rashmi, congratulations. I can quite understand your confusion but I believe that at the end of the day, you’ll arrive at an option that would work out for you. When I feel harassed over such matters, I let it lie for a couple of days before picking it up again.

  • Pratyusha

    Hi, writing really works like a therapy. And it has helped me a lot as well. πŸ™‚ Keeps me sane and happy. Glad you never gave up on writing. Keep writing. You write really well. Glad to get in touch with you :).

  • Cathy Lynn Brooks

    In my Hay House writer’s workshop they strongly advised calling your author’s blog and all your social media sites your name. That’s why I named mine Cathy Lynn Brooks. Cathy Brooks was already taken. You could just change the name of this blog to your name and continue posting here.

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