I’m here to let you know that my blog is officially a website! It’s no longer notesbyaintenna(dot)ghost(dot)io. It’s now notesbyaintenna(dot)com.

It took me a whole day to get everything ready though. Half a day to set up the domain, then another half to wait until the admin from Ghost (the platform I’m using to write my blog) replied to me that my domain is okay and the website is ready.

It wasn’t an easy process. I had to beat around the bush until I heard a knock. Still, I was glad to experience and learn about the whole process… I mean re-experience and re-learn. What I mean is that when I was working at an e-commerce company in KL I used to help set up domains and websites for clients. That was about five (5) years ago. I thought I'd forgotten everything until yesterday when I decided to make this blog a website.

I bought the (dot)com domain from Exabytes. They’re a Malaysian web hosting provider that’s been around for over 20 years, and they offer everything from domain names and hosting to email and cloud services. The prices are quite affordable (I paid MYR57.60 @ US$13.59, and next year I will pay MYR92.80 or US$21.89 for renewal).

I started using Exabytes’ web hosting service yesterday, but I already have concerns about their Portal Home, which is their dashboard. It’s SLOW. I struggled to amend the DNS settings and nameservers because the dashboard took a while to load. It happened a few times. I don’t know if it was because of their server or the wifi I used (I was using wifi that belongs to a cafe close to my neighbourhood when I was setting up my website).

Another issue I faced is the SSL certificate. Apparently the SSL certificate is not part of the domain setup, so I had to purchase one. Exabytes do offer SSL certificates, but I decided to look for another provider that offers a free SSL certificate that I can use for some time. Then I stumbled upon Cloudflare.

I was able to get a free SSL certificate after I registered my domain on Cloudflare. The catch was I had to replace Exabytes’ nameservers with Cloudflare’s… just like the old times. It was very tricky since I hadn’t been doing the DNS and nameserver setup for a long time so I had to figure out which one to amend and/or remove.

After everything was done, I tried to add the domain on Ghost and activate it. It was HARD. The first few times I couldn’t activate the domain because of the nameservers, so I changed the nameservers. And then when I tried again I waited for a VERY long time… but I still couldn’t activate the domain. As a last resort, I sent an email to the Ghost admin saying that there was an issue with domain settings and activation on the Ghost dashboard.

Last night, the admin replied to me. I was informed that the domain is active and the settings are correct. They helped me to connect the domain with this blog.

This site is now running and thriving. After some ups and downs, I have learned and re-learned so much. I am grateful to receive help from everyone at Exabytes, Ghost, and Cloudflare. 

I may sound boastful, but this experience totally reminds me of how persistent and creative I can be in tackling challenges. Those are some of my strengths that I always appreciate.

Moving forward, whenever I feel down, I will always take a moment to remember and cherish every second of this experience. Perhaps someday, I will start working on improving the related skills to help those with websites who are in need. Who knows?

With warmth and courage, Nurul.