As I mentioned in an earlier post I have recently moved my blog to a new domain name. This is something I have been thinking about for while but in truth and with hindsight I did not manage the transition all that well. I let the old domain and hosting run down to expiration before getting my new one up and running which meant that I lost control of the old domain and I wasn’t able to use some of Google’s ‘Change of Address’ features to help the transition of the old domain to the new name. BUT we live and learn and not all is lost. My new domain has been picked up in the Google crawl already and although it is very likely to be six months to recover in terms of Search Engine rankings and SEO traffic I feel the benefit of the change will benefit my brand in the long run. So although is not quite like starting again I do feel like it has been a step backwards but sometimes a step backwards can help you go forwards. This is an opportunity for me to learn a few things and take my blog and my brand forward.

Over the last couple of years in particular I realised the power of blogging and how it adds to your brand. I work as a SQL Server contractor in UK and as such I run and own a company. Contracting generally consist of short term assignments and the contracts that my company secure generally involve  working with clients SQL Server infrastructure. Having a blog can definitely help you secure work and contracts. I will post more on how this has helped me later, probably next year, but my company’s business model is based on selling services or more to the point selling me. So I thought a domain name that included my product name and also allowed me some freedom of topic choices would be beneficial which is why I changed my domain to my name -  gethynellis.com. I can see the benefits of my blog and the value it adds to my brand and my business because of this I follow a few ‘how to blog successfully’ blogs and including http://www.problogger.net to try and keep a breast of good techniques and practices.

I’m not going to go into much detail about why you should blog or how you should go about it if you are a SQL Server professional. I will say that blogs can work effectively for permanent employees too, in effect you are improving your brand and employability with potential employers not only demonstrating and documenting your technical skills but also demonstrating and proving your  communication which are essential skills for any DBA. I may post on this myself later but for now I’m not going to re-invent the wheel,if you are interested in blogging and you are a SQL Server professional go and check out Brent Ozar’s posts on how to start blogging.

It was Brent’s post along with fact I read their blog led me to buying ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. There will be a review to follow but I picked this up over the weekend and having read the first few chapters it seems like a great blog for any blogger, who is serious about blogging to read.

This post will be my 100’s for the year, which was one of my targets at the start of the year. I’d like to say that my first full year blogging has been relatively successful, hopefully I will be able to continue that success into next year with new domain.