A funny thing happened on my way to "domain mapping" my Real Estate Snippets blog. I've been putting it off and putting it off, but decided yesterday that I had to do it.  The domain mapping will change my "other" blog's URL so the "typepad" word will be removed.  Instead of http://realestatesnippets.typepad.com it will appear as http://realestatesnippets.com.  In addition, when an individual post is shown it will appear as http://realestatesnippets.com/real_estate_snippets/2007/08/saveasaurus.html instead of http://realestatesnippets.typepad.com/real_estate_snippets/2007/08/saveasaurus.html.  (Only the word "typepad" is missing.)

Being a novice at such stuff, I called my domain host because this little action required changing domain name servers, disabling forward and activating default parked name servers.  I was overwhelmed with all the jargon but really want my typepad blog to be MINE, just MINE!

The technician I talked with tried to convince me to "mask" my domain.  That way only real estate snippets would show in the URL.  I remained unconvinced because I KNEW there was a reason for not masking the URL.  I couldn't remember what the reason was, but I knew there was a good reason.  On my Real Estate Snippets blog I followed the directions for "mapping" to a "t" (not the same as Teresa's "T") and held my breath.  Would it, or would it not, work?  I hate the wait.  I hate the temporary disappearance that happens when changes are made.  I hate being inexperienced!  

Others who have gone before, encouraged me.  "It will work."  "Did you back it up first?"  "It'll be fine."  "I did it and I only lost my blog twice!!!!!!"   What!!!!!!  Thanks a heap for the help!  Maybe I should re-think that masking suggestion!

As distraction, I turned to Active Rain and began to write a post.  Much to my surprise, as I researched another person's "other blog" entries (Let's call the blog owner Martin and the blog name HomesInJuno.) for links in my post, I found the very example of why I did not want to mask my domain.  I truly was surprised.  The blog had a great domain name with local keywords HomesInJuno.  The keywords would help the consumer find the blog when searching for that area. 

But, every time I changed the page, the URL remained the same: http://homesinjuno.com.  I wanted to link to an article nearly one year old but could not get a page address specific to that entry.  Every entry on the blog had the URL http://homesinjuno.com.  Now that was strange.  I didn't understand why.  I continued my attempt to link to ANY article about the event I was seeking with no success. 

Not only was Martin's blog governed by this URL but every link in Martin's story had the same URL.  I clicked on the link within Martin's post which sent me to Jerry's excellent article on what I wanted to link to.  I quickly checked the URL box and there was http://HomesInJuno.com AGAIN.  In order to make the link I wanted to Jerry's article, I had to exit Martin's blog entirely and go to Jerry's blog through a Google search.

Hmmmm. 

Today, after a bit of sleep, I was better able to problem solve finding a link to Martin's blog.  I actually tried logging in under his old URL which I knew because Martin and I had both started blogging with another blog platform.  Using the old platform "address", I was able to find the desired entry and it's URL which looks like this:  http://martin.oldplatformblogs.com/1-help-help/.  I found that every page had a different URL when I entered Martin's site under the old platform address. Even the links out showed their proper URLs now. 

Hmmmm.  

Wracking my brain didn't help a bit, but I'm guessing that Martin has his domain "masked".  The new blog title has key words, but if the consumer would like to link or bookmark to a specific page, it's not possible because every page of the blog is hiding behind the new domain name's mask.  This is the reason I had been given many long months ago as to why masking was not good.  And now I remember that this is one of the reasons that I left my former blog platform.  It could not be "mapped".  It could only be "masked".