5 Blog Naming Tips
Blog
naming is a big topic. A lot of people obsess over naming their blog. No doubt
about it, blog names are very important. What you call your blog matters.
A great
blog name can help with positioning, branding, making you or your company
memorable, and much more.
A bad blog
name? Well, it can position you poorly, seem unprofessional, be hard to
remember, even be offensive to your target market and readers, and perhaps
worse, you may hate it.
These five
tips should help you choose an appropriate blog name.
1) Give
your blog a reasonable name. Avant-garde names are very popular now, for
example, Boing Boing and icanhas cheez burger are extremely popular blogs, but
do you want a "strange" name for your blog long term? Blogs are
becoming main stream, and most blogs, for example professional and business
blogs, should have mainstream names.
2)
Consider a descriptive name. "Blogging for Business" is a descriptive
name; My Blogging for Business blog is quite simply about "blogging for
business."
"Schneier
on Security" is another descriptive name. It's about security and written
by well known security author and thought leader Bruce Schneier. Oh, you hadn't
heard of Bruce Schneier before? It doesn't matter as his target audience
certainly has.
Ask the
Atheist, CorporatePR, and Java Programming Blog are other examples of blogs
with descriptive names.
3) Don't
use the term "blog" in your blog name
First of
all blog isn't the prettiest name. Some readers may be biased against the term
blog. Also it will certainly sound anachronistic, old fashioned, someday, as
the term blog will go away eventually.
4) Get a
domain name to match your blog name if you can. You don't want a URL like
myblog.typepad.com or myblog.blogspot.com. For example, Seth Godin, the New
York Times best selling author, blogs at sethgodin.typepad.com and when I asked
himif there was one thing he could do differently if he started blogging today,
he had to think a bit, but he said he probably should have used his own domain
and put his blog under sethgodin.com.
One good
exception is if you use company domain name or a sub-domain for your blog.
5) Your
blog doesn't even NEED its own name.
You could
just use your own name on the blog. This is a very valid approach when it's you
that you're branding and promoting though the blog, as opposed to a product,
company, or idea, etc. For example I could start a blog that just said
"Ted Demopoulos" in the header, perhaps together with a picture or
some graphic.
6) There
is no such thing as a "perfect" name for a blog, and if it were
perfect today, it probably wouldn't be perfect tomorrow. It's best to pick a
great blog name, knowing that there will most likely be compromises in naming
your blog, and just get on with it.
7) Relax
as you can always change your blog name. Hyper popular blogger Guy Kawasaki has
changed his blog name several times with no adverse efforts.
Blog names
are important for sure, but don't let choosing a name slow you down. These tips
should help you choose a good blog name and get started blogging. You can't
have a successful blog unless you start, so just do it.
About the
Author:
And for
over 100 tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab your free copy of my
e-book "Secrets of Successful Blogging" at
http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com
By Ted
Demopoulos, author of "Blogging for Business" and "What No One
Ever Tells You About Blogging and Pod-casting"
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