The Importance of a Domain Name
After you have decided that you want to start a blog, choosing a domain name is one of the first decisions you have to make (The other early decision is whether you want to use a paid service to host your blog or use one of the free services available. We will talk about this in our next article in the series) . A domain name adds a lot to your site and is also valuable in helping you get noticed on the search engines. For this reason, the choosing of a domain name requires some thought. Here are some questions to think through:
What will your blog be about?
How do you plan on marketing your blog?
Would your name be a good choice?
Is it easy to remember?
Dos it make a difference if it is .com, .org, .net, .info, or .biz etc.?
And you thought choosing a domain name would be easy. Let me walk you through the questions.
What will your blog be about? Your domain name should most likely reflect the content of your blog. If I was going to write a blog about chicken wings (I really like chicken wings) I would consider getting a domain name with chicken wings in it. A name like chickenwings.com.
How do you plan on marketing your blog? In other words, how will you attract visitors to your site? Most blogs rely on the search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) to bring traffic them. If you will be depending on search engine traffic then your domain name really needs to have your blog content in mind.
Would your name be a good choice? For most people the answer would be no. Unless your name is already very recognizable, or you plan on using advertising to bring traffic to your blog and not rely on the search engines, you should probably stay away from your name. Having said that, some people have very successful blogs which use their name as the domain name. If you think that your name will eventually be the best brand for your blog then you can go with it. It will require more work up front.
Is it easy to remember? Stay away from long complicated domain names or domain names that are initials. For example, Ireallyreallylovechickenwings.com is to long. IRRLCW.com is impossible to remember. Where the process gets a little tricky is that even after you settle on a domain name, it is probably already taken by someone else. So you have to get creative. Instead of chickenwings.com you may have to go with chickenwingsoline.com.
Does it make a difference if it is a .com or .org or .net etc.? If you can get a .com that works for you then you should get it. However, if the .com isn’t available then the othe
r extensions are fine. This site is a .biz because the .com is being used by someone else.Once you begin to settle on a domain name you need to see if it is available. I suggest you go to Good News Domains (www.goodnewsdomains.com) and use the free domain checker service. It is simple. Go to the site and where it says “Start Your Domain Name Search Here! just type in your proposed domain name and hit search. Let’s try it with chicken
wings:And here come the results:
Chickenwings.com is taken. So are all the other chickenwing extensions. However, the people at Good News domains have provided you with some options that might work. Chirckewingsonline.com is available, as is chickenwingsblog.com, etc. So there are always options. Sometimes you might be able to find the domain name you really want if you are willing to pay an exaggerated price. I wouldn’t recommend it for most bloggers. You can find a variation of the name you want if you get creative. Why pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for something that shouldn’t cost more than 10 or 15 dollars a year?
Be Sure to Leave Your Comments! Author: Stephen Lawes
