I wanted to let all my regular readers know that kevinmarquette.gitub.io has moved to powershellexplained.com. This is still the same site you were using before with all the same content under a new name. I dive into the details behind that change below.
Index
What do I have to do?
Please update any links or bookmarks that you have to this site. I am redirecting everything to the new domain. All the old links will still work as long as I am still using my current hosting provider. I don’t have any plans to change that yet but the clock is ticking on those old links. There will eventually be a day when they stop working so it is best to update them right now.
Everything you wanted to know
When I launched this website, I decided to use GitHub Pages. I loved the idea of building my blog in markdown and having it publish every time I merged the changes. I was just getting started with git at the time so it was also a good project to reinforce learning git.
The KevinMarquette brand
As part of the launch effort, I was rebranding everything under my name. So my account name on GitHub, Twitter, YouTube and everything else became KevinMarquette or KevMar. I thought it was a good idea to build a brand that pulled all my fragmented efforts together and make them easier to identify as mine. So naturally the default name that I was given for my GitHub Pages site was kevinmarquette.github.io and I was happy with it. It was just a blog.
My branding efforts have been a success. All of my content is easy to identify as mine in all the different places where I am creating it.
Why change the domain?
I was reflecting on the previous year and reviewing all my stats for the website. I saw awesome growth over the last two years and I realized something very important. GitHub pages is a free service and there is a limit to how much you can use a free service.
I have no idea if I’m on the edge of that limit or if it’s long ways away. I don’t care where it is (ok, I care but that is not important right now). My realization was that as long as I was using the kevinmarquette.github.io domain name that I would be pinned to the GitHub Pages service. They own that domain, not me. Don’t get me wrong, it is a wonderful service and I like GitHub (even after Microsoft owns it). I feel like it is a big mistake not to have an exit plan. Especially now that this little blog has become an important reference site to many people.
This is why I decided to get a custom domain for my site. I should have done that from the beginning. By using a custom domain, I have the option to move my content anywhere I want because I can always redirect that domain to another service. I’m still using GitHub Pages for now.
Why change it now?
It is better to act on this now instead of waiting for something to force me to change. I also feel that the sooner I make this change the better. There are already so many links floating around the internet to my content. The longer I wait and the more wide spread my website becomes, the more painful it will be.
I have no idea how this will impact my analytics or how other services measure my site. It’s possible that I may take a major hit in search rankings and fall off the top PowerShell blog lists. I am fortunate that those are just feel good internet numbers for me today. I have no income or monetization tied to my site. I’m just doing it because I like to learn and discover new things. So I will just keep doing what I am doing and let the internet will sort it out.
Why PowerShellExplained.com?
I am breaking from my brand a little bit by going with the PowerShellExplained.com domain. I also own KevinMarquette.com now so I could use that just as easily. I may be taking a gamble on this but my analytics show that people like me explaining stuff more than talking about stuff. I am also pulling significantly more of my views from search results than direct visitors, RSS subscribers, or social media.
My hope is that PowerShellExplained.com is easier for the newest of PowerShell scripters to find and remember. I also hope that seeing the more professional looking uri will help with conversions among those users. My Kevin Marquette brand will still be prominent when you visit the site.
Thank you
I hope this explanation was valuable and the name change did not cause you any grief. There is a good change that you made it to this page and didn’t even realize the name changed until you read this post.