Choosing a brand name

Now since you have chosen your blog topic, it’s time to choose a brand name, and then get a domain for your blog.

I’m sure you already know what a brand name is so I’m not going to elaborate on this to much. Just keep in mind this is what you’ll use for everything you do online. This is what will distinguish you from everyone else, and what you’ll use to represent yourself whenever networking like on social media sites, forums and blog comments.

You basically have 2 choices for choosing a brand name.

1. You can either choose to use a brand name that’s more universal. This is in case you decide to expand your online business one day, and include other sites, and maybe even your own products and services. Your brand name will represent your business no matter what that might include, blogs, sites, services or products. So, this means you don’t need to necessarily choose a brand name right now. You can just pick a domain name that will be relevant to your blog’s niche (topic) instead, and decide on a brand name later on.

2. The more simpler way. You just want to start blogging and see where it goes from there. If you go this route, then you would usually choose a domain name that has the exact words of your brand name. So make sure your brand name is relevant to your blog’s topic. Let’s say your blog is about blogging tips, and your brand name is “the coolest bloggers ever”, then your domain would be, “thecoolestbloggersever.com. Your brand name will represent you and your blog.

Example: I wanted a universal brand name, and chose “Mathewday” my actual name. But I messed up. My company name is the same, “mathewday” and so is my blog’s domain name. Now in hindsight, this brand name is boring and doesn’t explain anything about my niche, so I wished I chose a better brand name. Also, using “mathewday” for my blog’s domain name doesn’t help me out at all either.

I should’ve chosen a domain name that is more relevant to the “make money” or “internet marketing” niche. Another reason to not use your own personal name as your domain name for your blog is just in case you sell it one day. No one wants to buy a blog that has a domain name the same as your own. It’s to personal to you and you only. A blog domain name that is more relevant to your niche will be more appealing to buyers and get you more money.

How to choose a good domain name for your blog

A domain name is simply the url of your blog. Like for this blog it’s mathewday.com.

Now if you want to use your brand name in your domain that’s fine, but you should’ve picked a brand name that is relevant to your blog.

The other way to choose a domain name is by including the exact keywords that are relevant to your blog, but also are popular search words (actual words people type in when they Google something).

Use this free keyword tool from Google. Make sure you only have the exact search clicked on the left once you get there.

Type in your blog’s topic (niche). If you’re blog is about “duck hunting”, then type in duck hunting.

You’ll get a whole list of similar words and the amount of searches per month. The amount of searches mean the number of people who type in those exact words into Google each month. This let’s you know exactly what people are searching for and the exact words they are typing in to find it. You want at least a few thousand searches per month for whatever keywords you’re blog topic is on.

What can you do with this information?

If you choose a domain name with the words people are searching for this tells the search engines that your blog is about this topic, and thus helps your blog get on the front page of Google a lot easier and quicker.

Let’s use the blog topic “duck hunting” again. If you chose a domain name “duckhunting.com, chances are you’ll land on the front page of Google very easily. So whenever someone types in “duck hunting” you’re site would pop up as a search result. But, “duckhunting.com” is probably already taken and that’s why you should look at the other similar words too.

As long as your domain name has words that are relevant to “duck hunting” in it (if you’re blog is about duck hunting) then you’ll be fine. But exact keyword matches in you’re domain are the most powerful, but they are usually taken.

>>> Start jotting down ideas for your domain name, and we’ll soon be checking them to see if the domains are available.

Here are some more domain name tips.

It usually goes like this, the shorter, more catchier and relevant your domain name, the better. If you are choosing a domain for your brand or business, then you will want the exact name in your domain. Other than that, then you will want to choose the most relevant domain for your website or blog. It’s best if you can choose a domain name that explains what your site is about. Like for my landing pages and mini sites, I like having the name of the product or service in my domain url.

Does .com .net .org or .gov really matter?

Yes, .com domains are the most popular and the most powerful for regular blogs and sites. Get this first if available. .net are similar, but not as popular. .org is usually for nonprofit organizations. .edu is used for educational sites. .gov is used for government sites. and .biz is for businesses.

However, you can basically use any of them if you really wanted to for whatever you want. I always get the .com first and if not available I will grab some .orgs or .nets. Also, if you own a business, a brand name you want to keep to yourself, or want to go all out with you’re blog’s domain name, then I would scoop up as many as you can. The .com .net .org .biz all of them with you’re exact name that you want to protect, and keep from anyone else getting it in the future.

Does the format of your domain name matter?

Yes, as in format I mean this “www.makemoneyexample.com” to this “www.make-money-example.com”. A domain with NO hyphens is best, but if they are all taken up I have grabbed a few of them in the past, not so much anymore. I’ve learned domains with hyphens in it is unprofessional and are just low quality. Surprisingly they still do well in the search engines.

What’s the best domain for SEO?

This again would be the name that is most relevant to your site with the least amount of hyphens. What I do is look at all the popular relevant keywords for my new site and choose a domain name from that list. If you have your main keywords in your domain name, you’ll be able to rank easier for the keywords. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and be on the front page of Google before you even get content on it.

I’ve learned that Google looks at domain names to partially figure out what the website is about, this also will factor in how important it is and where it should be placed in the search engine results pages (serps). I’ve had this happen to me only a few times. I bought the domain and registered it. As soon as my dns was changed over, my site was already on the first page of Google for competitive keywords.

Now, you should have your brand name, or if you decided to choose that later on that’s cool too. But at least have some ideas for the domain name of your blog. It’s time to check your domain ideas to see what’s available and get your hosting. See you on the next post.

FYI: I am only guiding you step by step on how to get your domain and hosting thru one company and that is Hostgator. I explain why in next post. But they are the company I’ve been using and the only company I recommend.

I am a self taught Internet Marketer for nearly 2 years now, who started blogging a little over half a year ago. There are many reasons why I chose to and why you should start a blog if you haven’t already, but I’m not going to get into that in this post. Through trial and error, research and observation. I now know there are only “4 key ways to become a successful blogger” or make a blog successful. Especially now, with the new flood of wannabe Pro Bloggers and people who want their share of the cash cow that blogging has created.

4 Ways to Have a Successful Blog

1. Valuable Content – Your blog contains content that is helpful, unique, has value and over delivers with information about the topics you write about. It could also have really great and valuable videos or pictures.

It took a little while for me to finally catch on to this concept. You see, when I first started blogging I use to spread news and blog about things all the Big Blogs were blogging about as it happened. If you’re new to blogging and have a new blog, you’re not going to be able to compete with the accomplished blogs with huge lists of followers and authority.

Why would people come to my blog if I’m writing about the same things other people are or even if I’m changing it up a little with my own opinions? There still no reason for them to recommend or ever come back to my blog. You gotta give people something different, original, informational, helpful and eye popping content that is different than everyone else.

2. Awesome SEO – Your blog is successful because you get huge amounts of traffic from the SERP’S or search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

I keep track of many different groups of keywords, but one of my main groups of keywords I watch carefully is the “Make Money Online” keywords. Many times I checkout the sites and blogs that are on the front pages of Google for Mega Keywords like “make money” which is searched in the millions per mth. Think of the traffic you would get if you had a blog on the front page of some keywords like that. Yeah, I know it would be nice.

Anyways, some of the blogs that are on the front pages for mega keywords are some of the cheesiest sites that I’ve ever seen. Even the design, functionality and content of their blogs suck. After reading a few posts I can tell right off the bat that they really have no clue on what they are talking about. So how did they get on the front page of Google then? They have hired a SEO team or they used proper seo techniques and gotten themselves on the front of the serp’s probably over a long period of time.

3. Big Name or Big Brand – It’s pretty simple, you already are a Huge well known Brand Name or you are already a well known famous person and you start a blog.

The chances are it’s not  going to take you to long to get traffic to your blog and become successful. Many people who have a huge audience and authority in another field start blogging because they know or hope that they can expand their already big name or business into the blogging world.

Many of the Big Time Bloggers like “Problogger” have worked their butts off and used their skills, experience and intelligence to create a Huge Brand Name. It’s pretty safe to say, anything “Problogger” touches or endorses will be successful.

4. Tons of Exposure – I’ve seen other groups of blogs that do well and primarily are successful because they are forever promoting and marketing the heck out of their blog and name. Any chance they get they promote. Whether it be blog commenting, to putting their name out on articles and on other sites. They promote all the time for more exposure.

I don’t know about you but the type of blogs I like reading have original and unique content that helps me become a better blogger and person. All the three other reasons I listed have really no affect on me as in returning to their blog other than for networking purposes. I now know that’s what I need to do with my blogs in order for me to reach my goals and to get the exposure that I want to get.

If you want to actually be a successful blogger and I’m talking like “six figures a year” then you better be doing one or all of the 4 ways of becoming a successful blogger above…. or you just have Mad Skills that not even I can comprehend. What are your thoughts on this post or does anyone have anything to add?