1) If you're going to blog, go with a big-name, reliable host.  Because your ability to reach your audience will depend on the dependability of the server and the host's responsiveness to problems you may be having.  Most big-name companies that provide hosting will also offer 24/7 support, and this is important, since blogging can happen anywhere, anytime.

I have no personal beef with Dan.  I have never met him in person, actually.  But the server went down in mid-September, and numerous requests for support were ignored.  Unable to post for nearly three weeks, I really had no choice but to set up a new site, and no choice but to go with a new url, which brings us to our next lesson:

2) If you have a nifty idea for a website, and particularly, if you have a catchy name for an url (they aren't as easy to come by as you might think), spend nine bucks and register the domain name at, say, godaddy.com.  I did not anticipate the problems with Dan Zarrella and Boston Web Properties, and do not own "www.t-rage.com."  Dan can do anything he wants with the site at this point, although the concept and content originated solely with me.  I started it on blogspot two and a half months before Dan contacted me.

Again, I have offered to purchase the url from Dan, but he has refused to answer my emails.  Which brings me to my last point:

3) If you are approached by someone with an idea like Dan's, get references.  I was new to Boston's blogging scene a year ago when I started T-Rage! at blogspot.com.  I don't think I even googled Dan.  Now, knowing what I know, I would definitely ask around. 

Because, honestly, all I want to do here is blog.  I mean, on my blog.  Nothing more, nothing less.  In order to do that I have a few simple needs: an url, a reliable host, and a site.  My current host is godaddy.com, and they offer 24/7 support and a professional attitude, for cheap.  You have a problem, email or call them.  It's settled in a timely manner.  Which means you can get back to the business at hand: blogging.  I don't need the hassle of dealing with any computer whiz-kids with plans for world domination.  

Blogging at its very best is a "small, good thing."  But this incident, this association has made it a little less so for me.  For the moment.

Yeah, I know:  boo hoo hoo. 

But it's true.