How to Choose Good Blog Name

Now that you've read enough blogs and are ready to create your own, you need to decide on a good name. Blog names represent the content you write, so it is important to choose wisely.

If you want your blog's URL to be a top-level domain that appears as www.yourblogname.com, purchase adomain name from a company such as EasyDNS or GoDaddy. You can choose the traditional .com ending, or select another extension such as .net, or a country designation TLD like .us or .co.uk.

Alternatively, choose a blog hosting website such as Blogger, Tumblr or WordPress. Choosing a host means that your blog name will be incorporated into your host's server name.

• Choose a Host

  1. If you don’t need your blog name to stand alone as a complete URL, choose from one of the free blogging and website content management systems available. A popular choice isWordPress, with users publishing about 41.7 million new posts each month. Blogger, owned by Google, hosts blogs on its domain, Blogspot. Other free options include Weeblyand Tumblr. These sites host thousands of blogs, so you may need to get creative and try a few URLs before you find one that's available. You can always change your URL later, but once changed, your old URL becomes available for other bloggers to use.

• Be Descriptive

  1. Whether you host your blog on a TLD or on a subdomain (for example, www.yourblogname.wordpress.com) choose your blog name carefully. Consider memorability, descriptiveness and understandability. Select a name that illustrates what you write about. If your blog is about weddings, choose a name that is lighthearted yet evokes commitment. If you plan to blog about travel, opt for a name that makes your reader feel like your travel companion. You can include your own name to make the blog more personal, or a pen name if you don't want readers to know your real name.

• Stay Mindful

  1. A URL can be comprised only of letters, numbers and hyphens, so you need to avoid a blog name with special characters, such as #, &, or $. Don't create a name that is too long or too hard to remember. Takespelling into consideration. If you plan to be clever with homophones or homonyms, assess whether your readers will catch on to this. Words like red and read, or flower and flour could be confusing to readers.

• Get Inventive

  1. Make your blog name easy to pronounce so people can discuss and share your blog without confusion. When someone wants to tell her friend about your blog, you want her to effortlessly recall the name. Get creative! Consider popular websites such as Yahoo, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook. These words are common today, but before the success of these companies, the words were nonsensical. Your blog could be successful, so make sure to choose a name you actually like.

Posted in: Blogging