Blog Names work. Admit it.
Because professional bloggers don’t start up with just any old blog name. Awesome blogs have so many things that put them ahead of others. Name is one of those things.
So, if you’re about to start your blog, you might be considering a lot of things, the CMS, Web hosting service, Domain registrar and probably a premium theme.
Wait.
Who says the selection of a blog name is easy?
Haven’t you seen blog names that suck?
New bloggers consider registering the domain name and launching a WordPress blog as the highest achievement. They should be happy, no doubt.
But that excitement shouldn’t sabotage the domain name registration process.
Because
You can’t come in and decide to change the blog name at any time. It will never be easy.
When you work so hard to create a brand, and when you get going and start working, you can’t just go and change the name, even if you have only had a fewer visitors in the first month or quarter.
It’s never easy to put some effort in and just erase it all.
Always remember the tips for a perfect domain name:
- It should be vocal-friendly
- It should be easy to remember
- It must be without dots and dashes
- Try to use simple and meaningful words
- Avoid the resemblance with other blog domains
Besides that, domain extensions also matter.
gTLDs like .nyc, .london, .berlin and many more are also in the race to compete, but they fall behind the giant .com TLD.
In fact, VeriSign published a report on Domain Names which observed Q4 of 2014 for domain registration business and revealed that .com, .tk, .de, .net and .cn are the top 5 TLDs of Q4 for 2014.
Choosing a Blog Name
When it comes to Blogging Startup, obviously bloggers don’t want to start out with something ordinary and they try to be the best with their blog names.
It more or less depends on the Blog Niche in regards to which type of blog name should be chosen.
When a blog starter thinks about starting a blog in the blogging tips niche, for example, he/she is going to cover each and every thing that can help people interested in blogging.
Bloggers in that niche are likely to choose blogging as a prefix of their (domain) name. And then they hunt for a postfix to finish up the name… So obviously they will try to get a name with two words for their domain.
For example, there are many blogs which are using this strategy:
BloggingCage.com
BloggingHeat.com
BloggingTips.com
Some blogs have an emphasis on the postfix of their domain name, still being associated with Blogging or Blogger words:
Copyblogger.com
Famousbloggers.net
Problogger.net
Some blogs aren’t just limited to a keyword or prefix/postfix in their names. They just try to be honest with their content strategy and don’t get indulged with naming factors.
QuickSprout.com
EarlySandwich.com
Tools to Generate Domain Names
Keep prefix and postfix naming strategy in mind, because the domain name generator tools pretty much work similar to the strategy that I described above for naming the blog. Most of them ask for a word and type of domain, and then recommend hundreds of domain names.
Most of the tools require two words that best describe your business or blog type.
Some of the tools are:
6 Mistakes to Avoid While Choosing a Blog Name
Have a look at these Blog name selection mistakes:
Tough to Pronounce
It might not be for you, but many non-native English speakers find it hard to pronounce some words. Sometimes we aren’t so comfortable saying some words or we find it tough to pronounce certain words, e.g., Apocalypse (pronounced: Apao-Clips).
WOW Trk is a famous affiliate marketing company which provides CPA advertising services. When it is written as a domain, it becomes harder to figure out what to say or call it, e.g. www.wowtrk.com.
TechPP published a fantastic article on helping everyone, and especially non-native English speakers, with finding the pronunciation of the English words and names.
Even the famous website HowjSay helps you find the correct pronunciation of English words.
The point doesn’t revolve around how to pronounce the words, but the purpose is to convey to all you bloggers that your blog’s name should be like a website name that isn’t tough to remember and that totally correlates with your blog or website’s purpose/mission.
Similar to a Top Blog
There is an approach some newbies take who don’t really value the ethics or are unaware of some facts about Blogging. They try to imitate top blogs, either by using the same name with a different extension or by registering a domain that sounds similar.
I know a blogger who was very impressed with Mashable.com. Everyone likes Mashable, it’s one of the top blogs in the world and amongst the 100 most visited websites in the world. He opted for Mashable.pk for his domain when he started blogging. Later on, he probably realized that he needed to create his own brand’s identity rather than using another brand, at which point he changed his domain name.
Name without a Message
One of the top mistakes you probably see in blog names is that Bloggers opt for names that don’t really have any meaningful words.
Your domain or blog name is certainly the first thing a visitor sees after landing on your blog.
The purpose isn’t to criticize anyone – In fact I appreciate every blogger who comes forward to start blogging, even if he/she starts with the dumbest name in the world. She/he is far better off than the person who takes no action at all with their Blog.
So, the idea is to just get better and better, which is only possible if you identify your mistakes and improve your working style.
You’ll find a variety of blogs that have names and domains that don’t convey any message or clear name.
On the other hand, some blogs and companies are pretty amazing with their name choices.
For example, CoSchedule is a good, solid blog name because it’s a WordPress plugin that helps Bloggers schedule their posts and social media sharing.
As I said, this example is quite opposite to point #3, but it totally makes sense that we need to take care in choosing our blog names.
Because when there isn’t a message in the domain or blog’s name, nothing springs to mind.
Typical Approach of Name Selection
You’ll always find blogs with ordinary names. However, it isn’t necessarily true that every blog with an ordinary name performs poorly. There are many blogs with regular and quite average names that are doing pretty good.
They make money, their Alexa rank goes up, their email newsletter gets subscribers, and hence, they grow smoothly overall…
Nevertheless, there is a small connection between your blog’s name and its success, but it’s really my point… I’m sure every blog with a good or bad name can make money if the content strategy is correctly driven and content is continuously helping the audience.
TipsandTricks-HQ is one of the famous blogs about WordPress tips, solutions and Plugins. This blog not only helps WordPress users, but also offers some paid plugins. People find the content of this blog quite interesting, and I’m sure the plugins are great too, but I’m not really impressed with the name of this blog.
I know, it never used to be an issue almost half a decade back, but it matters now.
Keywords-Based Naming
One of the funniest things I’ve seen among the bloggers is that they select keywords-based names for their blogs. Even today, they make these mistakes. Haven’t they heard about the decline of Exact Match Domains?
You might love the content of blogs like Blogging Tips N Trickz, Blogger Tips and Tricks and Blogger Tip and Trick — Don’t be surprised, all three are different blogs, and these bloggers are pretty much obsessed with Blogging Tips and Tricks…
Got the idea?
They wanted to grab the maximum traffic for the blogging tips and tricks keyword — They basically just played with the keyword.
In the pre-EMD (Exact Match Domain) days, that was pretty much a successful strategy. But nowadays, getting huge amounts of traffic is a whole new kettle of fish.
Confusing Names
Never try that.
Your blog name shouldn’t be confusing for the readers and visitors. You don’t want to see people misspell your blog name on Facebook and Twitter.
Consider the following names:
Tradegecko is a Saas (“Software as a Service”)-based product that provides assistance to SMEs (“Small to Medium Enterprises”) for managing their business management tasks…
Signaturit is a startup which provides e-signature and documents management software platform to send and sign documents without any hassle.
Despite their success, do you find these names a little confusing?
Maybe you don’t, but I’m telling you, many people would find these names a little difficult to deal with.
Nevertheless, things happen. All you need to do is come forward with a simple, creative, edgy and sharp name for your blog.
About the Author
Hassaan Khan is a Blogger and Content Creator. He has assisted Companies from Switzerland, Canada, China, UAE and Pakistan. He is a Content Strategist for StudentLance.com. StudentLance is an online tutoring website which connects Students and Online Tutors worldwide. Follow him on Twitter.
Featured image:
Choosing a Blog Name
Image source: author-owned
Thanks for mentioning CoSchedule in such a great post! We really appreciate it 🙂
You’re very welcome, Ashton! 🙂
You’re welcome.
Thanks to Mike who has been very supportive!
…and thanks to YOU, Hassaan, for your excellent article! 🙂