Make an impression: choosing a domain name for your blog

Choosing a domain name for your blog is an important first step, so read on if you are planning to create your own blog!

It is no secret that blogging has its many benefits, from content marketing as a side hustle to personal motivations like sharing knowledge or expanding your network. Blogging is an important component of your online presence. It gives users a value-added experience when they visit your site or online space.

With that in mind, once you have decided to make a blog, start thinking about building your site and registering a domain for your blog. This entails that your personal brand, domain name, and site name should be in sync with each other for maximum effect.

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Ready to start thinking about building your own blog? You’ll need to grab a domain name first. Domain names are typically the ones you type in the browser window and and in either .com, .org, .net, or the ones that belong to a country such as .ai, .jp, or .io. Selecting a good domain name should make finding you easier, make your content more accessible, and memorable.

Here are some of the key steps and things you should think about when choosing a domain name for your blog:

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1. Pick something memorable and unique

It is important to make your domain name memorable.

This makes it easy for people to come back to your blog. If they love your content, it makes them promote or spread your blog easily to other interested people.

A good example of this is SakuraIndex.jp , an anime and Japan culture website. The domain name is a combination of the words “Sakura”, a flower popular in Japan and “Index”, which is a list of things. Looking at the domain alone, you can think that it contains topics about Japan.

You can try making up some relevant words for your site, combine them, or split them as you wish in order to make a good domain name.

You can also use keywords appropriate for your covered topics for your domain for maximum effect.

For example, if you want to highlight that you will constantly talk about gaming, you can put gaming in your domain. An example would be “back2gaming.com”, a blog about gaming or topics related to, or, going “back” to the gaming topic. Or if your online persona is popular and is your keyword itself or you’d like to take advantage of your online persona’s identity, you can use it appropriately, such as in the domain name “Reimarufiles.com”, which showcases topics that are part of the person “Reimaru”’s interests.

2. Pick something short

Related to the first point, you will need to pick something short. Choosing a domain name for your blog that is snappy not only makes your domain unique, according to The Businesswoman Media, you also get to sound more professional, straight to the point, and authoritative.

You will also get to make good use of a short domain name by utilizing short links or URL shortening, where sharing your links becomes aesthetically pleasing and easy to share on social media (such as Twitter).

3. Select an appropriate domain name extension

Domain name extensions are the parts at the end of the website’s URL. Common examples are the .com, .org, and the .net extensions. These are particularly cheap and easier to communicate with since saying “my website is at so-and-so dot com” can be easily understandable. However, since it is one of the first domains that were made available, it will be hard to buy one that is unique to your business.

In this regard, you may want to pick an extension more suited to your region. There are many benefits to this.

For example, if you pick a .asia domain extension, it will tell your friends and family that your blog originates in the asian region. Selecting an asian extension gives your domain an Asian flavor.

The following is a list of the commonly available domain extensions for the Southeast Asian region:

.jp - Japan
.kr - South Korea
.ph - Philippines
.sg - Singapore
.my - Malaysia
.id - Indonesia
.th - Thailand
.asia - For the entire Asian region

Editor's note: Curious about which are the most expensive domain names? We got you covered here!

Things to not consider when choosing a domain name for your blog

Make no mistake: a domain name is a property that is very important, especially to a brand, company, or a person. There are things that you should take into consideration when selecting and registering your domain name.

Domain names should not be trademarked or a registered brand that is not yours. You will open yourself to a potential lawsuit for copyright infringement. When you do, you will not only receive a cease and desist letter, but you’ll also lose your existing market by rebranding and handing off your original domain; not to mention expensive attorney’s fees. GoDaddy follows the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. ICANN policy here.
Domains names that are too long. This will have the opposite effect of #2 in the points to consider. You wouldn’t want for people to easily forget your blog site when they want to share information with friends, right?
Domains names that can be misread. This one’s a doozy: if your domain name can be read in a different way than your intended way, think about another option. An example would be therapist.com, where it can be read as a site by a therapist, or a rapist (the rapist .com).

In a nutshell

Choosing a domain name for your blog is an important part of your blog’s identity, and should be thought out well and not on a whim. The key points to consider are that domains should be: