Why should I care? Why should I spend numerous hours trying to figure out a so-called appropriate domain name for my blog? It is not worth it. I can just choose any domain name I want to and I will still put up a great blog and drive traffic to it.

Wait a minute. On second thought, everything about my blog starts from a domain name. maybe I should take my time and choose one that can help me in the process of working out some “magic” for my blog

How Important is My Domain Name?

We’ve gone a long way with this series (4th post) an I do believe by now, you should be able to adrress the issue of whether you need a domain name for your blog or not. If you decide you need it, then you also have to consider how important that domain is. If you think you need a domain name but can just go for anyone, then well, the remaining part of this post is not for you. Otherwise, let’s go through a simple tips that can help you choose a domain name.

Choosing a Domanin Name is Not an Easy Task

Azblogging.com sounds very simple and obvious for this blog, but I am sure you will laugh out your lungs if I tell you it took me three days to figure it out. I think I was just lucky having it. Popular opinions hold that all the good names have been taken. This doesn’t stop you from trying, anyway. Let’s roll.

Brand Name or Generic Name?

I think this question is very vital to anyone who wants to choose a new domain name for a blog. You have to first of all decide whether you will like a brand or a generic word as your domain name.

Let me put the above question in a different way. Which do you prefer, Google.com or SearchEngine.com? Technorati.com or BlogSearchEngine.com? Google is a brand name while Searchengine is a generic name.

Whether you decide to use a brand name or a generic name, the characteristics of a good domain name remains the same (though with very confusing exceptions)

Characteristics of a Good Domain Name

Before you choose a domain name for your blog, there three things you should bare at the back of your mind.

A good domain should be Simple, Descriptive and Possessive

One domain name will hardly possess all of the above three characteristics, but why not try to make yours two? Now, let’s go deeper into the three points above.

Simplicity

A simple domain name should be memorable. People should easily be able to remember it next time they want to visit your blog. There are millions of blogs on the blogosphere and I don’t think you will expect everyone to bookmark and favorite all the good blogs they find. To achieve simplicity, make your domain name short.

“Short”, is only one word out of many in the world of domain simplicity. Not every short name is memorable. It has been proven that some acronyms are more difficult to memorize than their full meaning. For example, www.EveryBodyHasTheRightToFight.com is easier to remember than its acronym www.ebhtrtf.com. Watch Out!

Ease of pronunciation also plays a very big role. Most of the time, your site will be recommended to people verbally. If your domain name is difficult to pronounce, people will get it wrongly when transmitted over the phone. Words with pronunciations very similar to others should be avoided.

Spelling matters. Yes! A word might be very short, memorable and easy to pronounce, but is difficult to spell. This can be as a result of it having more than one spelling. If you really need that name, then make sure you buy all the related spellings. www.photosaviour.com (UK) and www.photosavior.com (US) look very alike. I don’t suppose you will go for any (though I own the former, hahahah).

Don’t use hyphens except you are very sure of what you are doing. Hyphens can be used to separate words in long domain names so that they either make sense (forexample WHO REPRESENTS whorepresents.com can be dropped for who-represents.com so that someone doesn’t mistake it for WHORE PRESENTS) or appear easy to read (for example www.everysoldiermustfights.com will be easier to read if it were www.every-soldier-must-fights.com

Description

A descriptive domain name will immediately tell you what the blog is all about. This is true especially for Generic Names. Descriptive domain name usually carry a short description of what the blog is all about, or just simply comprises of a array of keywords separated by hyphens. While it is not yet VERY certain that keywords in domain names do affect search engine ranking, most people prefer staying on the safe side. A descriptive domain name in rare instances can also be a brand name, since some brands do describe their blogs.

Possession

A possessive domain name will immediately tell you who owns it. This is true especially for Brand Names and personal names. With increase in popularity and necessity in of domain names, most people always register their name even if they don’t need it for the moment. Most, if not all brand names are possessive. They immediately tell you the person or institution behind the blog.

More thoughts about choosing a domain name

I do not really stand for the facts below, but I must confess they are rapidly gaining popularity.

• Always register a .com
• Don’t register a domain containing the digit “0” in it
• Consider naming your blog and registering a domain name starting with the digit “1.”
• Try to avoid using domains that contain ‘2’ for “to,” ‘4’ for ‘for,’ ‘u’ for ‘you.’

I think the above points do not need any clarification.
They are clear, right?

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