Generally I have found wordpress.com to be a pretty good blogging host. It is simple and it is free. It can be very annoying when you want to sign up for particular services elsewhere (like those shoutbox things and one recent site that is meant to drive traffic) only to find that they don’t work here. But generally I am able to cope with those frustrations, after all this is simple and it’s free. But when you write a detailed post with loads of links, when you spend an hour when you should be doing something else deciding what to write and then tapping away on your computer it is very very and even another very frustrating when the post disappears into the ether with just the title of the post to let you know that it ever existed.

For some time I have been wondering about buying myself the domain name associated with this site and instead of using the hosted version of WordPress, going for the other version which is hosted elsewhere. I guess the events of Thursday (when I lost my post) brought this to the fore. The question really is am I prepared to spend money on something that to date has been a free (in terms of money) hobby? To be honest I am undecided. I have been writing this blog for about 18 months firstly on blogger and then here. Generally I have been a regular poster, and a few of my posts have brought pretty healthy levels of traffic. But on an average day about 60 people read my blog, which is fine but not exactly in the realms of changing the world. On the other hand, who am I writing for? Generally I write about the things that interest me, in a way that I feel comfortable. I am careful not to write about things that would too clearly identify myself and this in itself presents a problem. My job is relatively unique. There are few of us, and I cover the area of the whole county in that job. This  means I can’t hide behind the idea that something might have happened to lots of people and therefore will assist in disguising me. What is more, lots of what I do at work is relatively dull, but when something exciting does happen I can’t even talk about it for fear of being discovered.

So there we are:

Should I buy my own domain?

If I buy a domain, should I take the opportunity to change the name of my blog, because sometimes its name is pretty misleading and anyway I don’t want it to be all about working in the NHS?

That folks is my dilemma. As the Picture above says, I love blogging. But it can be pretty frustrating!

Meanwhile, better late than never but if you haven’t already been over there, Change of Shift is up at PixelRN. Take a look at the best of nursing blogs from all over the blogsphere.