Most people I know, including myself, struggled with choosing a name for their child. Some people I know didn’t even have names until well after their children were born. We struggle with this decision because it’s something that will stay with our child for the rest of their lives (unless of course they decide to legally change their name later). It’s a HUGE decision. Picking a blog name should be no different. This is a name that will stick with you (unless of course you decide to rebrand) for the rest of your career. Even if you do decide to rebrand at some point, many people will still remember you by the first name for a long time.
When people ask me what the first step is in creating a blog, I tell them that deciding and finalizing a name should be the very first thing they do, but even then, there’s steps to take to make sure that it’s really perfect. Here I discuss 5 Tips for picking the perfect blog name.
1. Originality
- The name you decide on should be 7 things – Short, Catchy, Memorable, Easy to Say, Easy to Spell, Easy to Pronounce, and most important ORIGINAL.
- Start by brainstorming – write down a list of topics that you want to write about. Then use a thesaurus to figure out other words that mean the same thing are your topics. Add in verbs and nouns that describe the site and then work on creating the perfect combination of your brainstorming list.
2. But not TOO original
- This falls in the easy to say and spell, but needs it’s own point. Don’t add weird characters like “MomZ Club” because someone already has Moms Club. The same goes for adding numbers and symbols into your name. You want something that’s easily memorable and anyone will be able to find it when searching. If someone has to remember that you added a 3 instead of B – like 3eautiful 3log – chances are you will never be found.
3. Decide if it can really grow with you
- Sure – “Mom of 10 Boys” sounds like something a lot of people would be interested in, but if you aren’t done having kids and #11 happens to be a girl, your name because a little weird. Also, if you are creating something very specific make sure that that’s all you ever plan to write about. You may love to eat vegan and you may love to cook, but “Vegan Chef” limits you to what you can write about – if you suddenly weren’t vegan anymore you’d have to either consider selling or just not using the site anymore. Pick something that can really grow with you.
4. Your domain is available
- You can do a simple and quick check on GoDaddy.com to see if your domain .COM name is available. Many people can have successful blogs with .Net, but ultimately you really want .COM. It’s easier and the most common way people search for things. You also want to make sure that someone isn’t already using the .Net or .Org version of your same name.
- If you are thinking of creating a blog, do me a favor. Buy your domain BEFORE you start. Don’t fall into the “free” trap of yourblogname.blogspot.com or yourblogname.wordpress.com. Not only do these not look professional, but if you are serious about blogging, it makes you look like you are and saves you the hassle of switching later (and trust me, you will switch later if you stick with it). It’s a very small investment usually. Unless someone already owns the domain you want, you can typically buy your domain for under $20/year. That’s less than the cost of 5 Starbucks drinks. A small sacrifice.
- If you do have the extra money, buy the .Net and .Org versions too to ensure no one else can
- One more thing — THIS IS A BIG ONE — make sure that your name together doesn’t create any awkward phrases. There’s a local restaurant that a blogger I know goes too that’s named Han Dynasty. However – handynasty.com – isn’t exactly what I think they want people to see when they push the words together for a website or hashtag.
5. It fits and is available within social media parameters and e-mail limits
- Hopefully, by now, you think you’ve discovered the perfect name. But there’s one more CRUCIAL step. You need to make sure the name is available on social media, as well as an e-mail. There’s actually a neat website that tells your if a name is taken across social media site, though I’m not sure how accurate it really is.
- Twitter has a limit of 15 characters, Instagram is 30, Facebook is 50. You ideally want ALL of them to match exactly.
I, personally, made a lot of these mistakes, and I’m writing this to hope that you can learn from my mistake. My domain wasn’t available as just wereparents.com so now it’s wereparentsblog.com and I don’t really LOVE it. I also made the e-mail mistake and I have an awkward e-mail that’s hard to remember. Good luck in naming!
This post is part of our Blogger Tips, Tricks, and Resources series.