Choosing the Right Domain For Your Blog

Most people set up a blog on a hosted platform for a few months, watch their blog grow and then proceed to buy a custom domain.

Its a great idea because it sets your blog out from all the rest of the .blogspot.com blogs, and it can also help you to rank higher in Google.

From my experience there are basically two approaches to buying a domain.

1. Key Word Domain

Most people will choose key words related to their content and squeeze them into their domain. This will definitely help with your visibility in Google. Lets look at a quick example.

Tom is setting up a Golfing blog and wants to use key words in his domain. He might use something along the lines of http://golfnews.com. This will eventually make him much more visable when people search 'Golf News' in Google because it matches the words in his domain, and without getting too technical, Google reward domains that match the searched words quite heavily.

So there is the main reason for getting a 'key word domain.' Lets take a look at our other type of domain.

2. Branded Domain

The second option that you have when you are choosing a domain is to choose a brand name and completely brand your site around it, hoping that eventually people will begin to know you for that name. Lets take a look at an example for this too.

Facebook is pretty much perfect. They didn't get http://talk-to-all-your-friends-online.com, they chose a brand name (Facebook) and built on it. Ok its an extreme case, but this really shows how branding can work for a website when implemented well. Ever caught yourself saying 'ok I'll Facebook you later'?

This is the sort of effect you will be going for with your blog. You can choose something like bloggingturtle.com and base your theme around it,  even when your site is about making money through blogs.

People will eventually link blogging turtle with the type of content you are writing and huzar! You have successfully branded your site.

Conclusion

In my experience, the best thing to do is to try and combine both of these approaches when you choose a good domain name. Lets go back to the example of the Golfing domain.

You almost certainly want something golf related in your domain to help you in Google but you wouldn't mind a little bit of branding as well, so how about something that combines the two types of domains we have talked about above.

http://progolfer.com
http://19thholegolf.com
http://golfingpro.com

Here I have tried to give you some ideas for good domains that combine both branding and key words.

If you really can't think of a domain for your blog then I suggest you either just stick with your hosted URL and continue to build on it, or just go for something related to your theme and work hard branding your site.

Just remember that branding your site around your domain and getting people to associate your domain with your chosen topic is much more difficult than using a domain with key words, so bear that in mind when you are desperately in need of a domain name.

I Hope this helps, and if you have any other questions please ask.