Weaning people off my redirect page

[kriskd]

I bought a domain name the end of April for my site. In June a much more preferrable name expired so I snapped that up as quick as I could. Because I was using inexpensive hosting, rather than trying to transfer hosting from domain #1 to domain #2, I just put up a simple web page on #1 telling people of the new name with a link and purchased web space for domain #2. That has worked well because I've needed the storage & bandwidth on domain #1, so I don't regret it.

It was a bit of a challenge getting web sites that linked to me via domain #1 to change to #2, but since they were new links and enthusiastic webmasters, the updates came pretty quick.

What is bothering me is I believe there are users out there with bookmarks to domain #1, or are entering the site via domain #1 in the drop down of the address bar.

Today I removed the meta refresh I had previously set up on domain #1 so they actually have to click to get to my site. My next thought is to post the correct domain name in a graphic so they are forced to type it in.

I will lose my web space for domain #1 in April and really have no plans to renew the domain name unless I really feel I have to. (In which case I'd set up a redirect on godaddy.)

Why do people continue to maintain their bookmark to my old site and is my plan to "wean" them off of it sensible or is it silly to let this bother me?

Kris

[jdMorgan]

Talk to them: Put an explanation of the problem (domain going away soon) and instructions on how to bookmark the new domain once they get there (Hit Control-D) on the old page. Ask them explicitly to update their bookmark. Other than that, there's not all that much else you can do - except to rank high in the search engine results so those who ignore your warning and plea can find you again. :)

Jim

[nakulgoyal]

I go with Jim. I don't see any other solution tooo. :-)

[kriskd]

Thanks for your tips. I made some revisions to my redirect page to hopefully further encourage people to update their bookmarks. I think it's safe to say that my web page doesn't necessarily attract Internet saavy users. :-)

Eventually I'm going to try out the idea of putting my new URL in a graphic is I find the same domain names are entering my web page via the redirect.

Kris