After considering the questions in the previous post who you are blogging about, what’s your blog about, are you committed and if you have time to blog, then the next thing to consider is the domain name? The domain name is very important because it’s the very first thing that people that search for something see and is a factor that helps in the success of your blog and in your motivation. Choosing a domain name is not as easy is it used to be considering the fact that almost all good domain names have been registered. So, how to go about finding that good domain name for your blog?
Choose the right domain name for your blog
Few years ago choosing a domain name was simply to keep it short, easily remembered and ended with .com or .net. You have many examples of that such as movies.com, blog.com, cars.com etc. The idea was and still is to have a domain name that is easy to remember and to give the readers an idea of what the site is about? That idea still stands and that’s how you find the right one. I assume you have probably read many posts on how to choose a domain name for you blog and thus there is no need for me to go into every detail of what you need to consider. However, the first question that you might want to ask yourself when it comes to domain name, is?
Do you want to go for a brand or keyword one?
Most of the posts that you read talk about choosing a domain name with keywords in them. And you have many examples of domain names like that. And I do agree partly with that idea because of the fact that all short names have been taken. But, basing your decision solely on that is wrong. That is because keyword based domain names end up being long and that makes your blog easy to be misspelled, confused and forgotten. You don’t want that to happen, or do you? So, I suggest you go for a domain name that gives the idea of what your blog is about and at the same time is brandable. A perfect example of a good domain name is problogger.net… i don’t know what Darren Rowse had in mind when he registered the domain name? However, problogger.net gives you two things: 1. that the writter is professional, and 2. that the blog is about professional blogging. He has perfectly accomplished the process of choosing the right domain name for you blog.
The process of choosing a domain name?
The following is the process I went through when I wanted to find the appropriate domain name for this blog.
- Since the main idea of the blog was about blogging the very first thing I wanted was a name that had either blogger or blogging keyword in there, and
- I wanted the readers to easily remember the name and at the same time give them the complete picture of what exactly is this blog about. Since the blog’s purpose was to be a guide for all, I wanted to make it possible for the readers see that in the domain name. I came up with all sort of possible words such as: path, guide, directions, road, route, light, tutor and finally found “map” to be the best one. Map was the best simply because it carried within all the other possible words. Map is a guide, has directions, routes, paths and all others.
That’s all I did and I think I have accomplished that quite good. Bloggingmap.com is brandable, short, easily remembered, not confused with anything else and gives the idea of what the blog is all about. To be honest I like the name of my blog and I hope you do too. Let me know if you don’t 
So, to make the long story short this is what you need to keep in mind when you go about finding that perfect domain name:
- Short and simple
- Easy to remember
- Is brandable
- Conveys the purpose of the blog, and
- Is not easily confused and misspelled
After you have decided the words that you want to use in the domain name the next step is to go and find out if those names are available to register. The best and the fastest way to find the availability of any domain name is to use domize.com. Go and do a search with the ideas you have in mind. Domize is simple like google. Others to consider are Nameboy.com, domainsuggestion and domainsbot.com. These three also give you available domain names based on the keyword/s that you used in the search.
Where to register your domain name?
The ones that I currently use and I prefer over other domain name registrars is namecheap and godaddy. Namecheap offers a free 1 year whoisguard with the registration of your domain name and, as far as I know godaddy.com charges you for that but it offers a low cost hosting service and lowers the price of your domain registration to 1.99 when buy their hosting. So, they have their positives and negatives. I have domain names registered in both of these registrars. Before you register your domain name with either registrar do a google search on coupon codes for each registrar to register your domain with a cheaper price.
When you choose the right domain name you also increase your own motivation and passion to push yourself a little harder to succeed as a blogger.
There you have my tip on how to choose a domain name for your blog. Feel free to add your tips and experience.