Redirecting to Another Blog

[pianoperformer]

Hi,

I am thinking of changing the name of my blog and using an alias to post, because as much as I love writing about spirituality, I also don't want it to affect me professionally later on, if someone were to research my name, especially since the subject matter are total opposites and one may look down upon the other. I've been considering this for a few days, and it seems like the best move.

So, let's say I get another domain, upload all of the same files (I should be able to just copy over all the files from my current one right?), and I get it working. But, either, I want to redirect everything that goes to that one blog, to the new one, via a 301 redirect, or if I want to keep stuff on the first domain, I'd just want to redirect certain posts, tags, and categories.

Does anyone know how to do either one of these? I know the first can be done with a simple rewrite rule, but I don't claim to know what it is, as it's been a while since I've needed to do so. I don't know if there are any easy ways of doing this the second way, without having hundreds of rewrite rules, lol.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by pianoperformer

I also don't want it to affect me professionally later on, if someone were to research my name, especially since the subject matter are total opposites and one may look down upon the other.

If you don't want to have the posts about spirituality associated with your other stuff, why have the redirect at all? Wouldn't the redirect itself establish the very connection between the two that you apparently want to avoid?

[pianoperformer]

Not really. There's nothing else on the domain. I am talking about when I am searching for employment, for example. If things redirect, people don't know about it unless they know the URL to the redirecting page.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by pianoperformer

Not really. There's nothing else on the domain. I am talking about when I am searching for employment, for example. If things redirect, people don't know about it unless they know the URL to the redirecting page.

I still don't understand what you need the redirect for...
Let's say you have two domains:
brandon.com - your personal site
thebigswamy.com - your spirituality blog

Why would you ever want to redirect the browser from thebigswamy.com to brandon.com? That would kind of defeat the purpose of having the separate domain, wouldn't it?

Just to get the terminology straight: as far as I know, a "redirect" is where the server tells the browser to go to a different url than the original request. This is different from, say, a rewrite rule (such as the ones the blog systems use to create permalinks), where the server translates the url to mean something different (i.e. /home/ becoming index.php?page=home on the server end).

[pianoperformer]

OK, let me try this again.

I currently have brandonolivares.com. I want to register a new domain, let's call it example.com, because I'm totally unoriginal.

Currently, my blog about spirituality is on brandonolivares.com. I want to change it to example.com, and blog under an alias.

Therefore, in order to keep search engine traffic, I would like to redirect much of the traffic to brandonolivares.com to example.com. My two choices are:

• Redirect all traffic to any page on brandonolivares.com to the same page on example.com with a 301 redirect.
• Redirect only the posts, pages, tags, and categories that used to be on brandonolivares.com to example.com so that those looking for specific content can find it on the new domain, yet I can still put content on brandonolivares.com without it being redirected to example.com.

You are correct about the redirect. I'm pretty sure rewrite rules can be used though to point to new domains, since you can use regex in rewrite rules. Therefore, they can effectively be used as a redirect.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by pianoperformer

I currently have brandonolivares.com. I want to register a new domain, let's call it example.com, because I'm totally unoriginal.

Currently, my blog about spirituality is on brandonolivares.com. I want to change it to example.com, and blog under an alias.

This part makes sense.

Therefore, in order to keep search engine traffic, I would like to redirect much of the traffic to brandonolivares.com to example.com.

The price of this tack, of course, being that the link between brandonolivares.com and example.com is out in the open - for your current visitors, but also for those potential employers!

You are correct about the redirect. I'm pretty sure rewrite rules can be used though to point to new domains, since you can use regex in rewrite rules. Therefore, they can effectively be used as a redirect.

Apparently you can add rewrite rules that point to different domains. Here's a fairly extensive tutorial on them:
.htaccess tricks and tips.. part two: url rewriting with mod rewrite.

[pianoperformer]

Actually, the link would not be apparent. The redirect would be 301, so Google would know that it is a perminant change. I'm thinking that either I will redirect the whole thing for a limited time, and then after I am sure all the traffic is redirected, I can take out the redirection. Otherwise, I would have to try to find patterns for at least the posts and such. See, if only the existing pages are redirected, then the link would then certainly not be known, as it could not be unless one knew of the content of the site.

But either way, I think the redirect would be temporary, because both would require the redirection of the front page, and obviously I'd need to change that front page eventually.

Hmm, I guess what I'm saying then is that the link would not be known just by a simple search, I don't think. If one knew that I had such a domain, and went to it, and I had not stopped the redirection, then I guess that would be obvious. But, I'm not sure how else to go about it, except for a temporarily perminant redirect, lol.

If you have any advice regarding that, I'd be happy to hear.

[pianoperformer]

Hmm, so I guess I see your point now.

See I'm trying to get the best of both worlds here. I want to have my existing traffic be directed to the new domain. I don't get much traffic, but still it's better than nothing.

But then I want to eventually be able to use the old domain again, and not have it associated with the new domain.

Just not sure if it is possible, or what I should do in order to go about this.

[JimOfferman]

I think you should just build your new blog and not worry about bringing over the few people who still visit your old site. The hassle is not worth the payoff, imho, specially since you want to keep the two entities separate.

Google will index your new site.
People interested in spirituality will find it on google.

Good luck!

[pianoperformer]

True. I think I will. It'll be a bit of a pain though to transfer those posts that I want to be on the new one, since I've written some posts for it already that I don't want to lose.

Maybe I will move all files to the new domain, keep the same database, and just delete the old posts that are not relevant to the new site.

Anyway thanks for the suggestions.

[JimOfferman]

You're welcome

[borntosucceed]

Hi;
Just read this thread and trying to read between the lines. Is your main concern changing using an alias for the current posts that are posted under your name?

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by borntosucceed

Hi;
Just read this thread and trying to read between the lines. Is your main concern changing using an alias for the current posts that are posted under your name?

Hi,

No, that's simple. Just have to change my display name in the blog.

Is there much reading between the lines to be done? I tried to make it as clear as possible what I wanted to do.

either way, this is resolved now. thanks though.