When you first start out blogging you probably will start out with a free blog such as blogspot. By doing this you don’t have the option to have your own domain name. This however is important if you want to be serious about your blog. If you are serious about blogging you should get your own hosting (as mentioned before in a previous post) and your own domain name. Once you decide to buy a domain name you need to find one that is not registered yet. This task can be a bit more difficult then you expect because majority of the good domain names are already taken. However there are a few tools you can use to find domain names. To save you time here are some services to find available domain names: Instant Domain Search – checks the availability of a .com, .net and .org domain as you type AJAXWhois – checks the availability of a domain for your preferred extensions as you type Domjax – free domain name search tool DomainsBot – suggests available domains Nameboy – domain name generator MakeWords – domain name generator Dyyo – helps you find 4 letter domain names 5Letter – helps you find 5 letter domain names Whois Source -lets you know if a domain is already registered and displays the details of the registration Choosing The Right Domain Name So now the task is to find a domain name that works for you. I think a domain name that is catchy, short, and easy to spell is the best way to go. A domain name also that describes what your blog is about. Don’t get a domain name with hyphens and numbers in it. These type of domains can be difficult for visitors to remember and can oftenly be misspelled and therefore you can possibly lose traffic to other websites. Also if possible try to choose a .com domain name because they are most popular and people will assume your domain name to be yourblogdomain.com. It is more likely for a user to try yourblogdomain.com then yourblogdomain.net or something else. If you plan to start a personal blog then one thing you can do is to include your name in the domain name. Make sure however that you aren’t using your name if its long or difficult to spell. If that is the case you can possibly lose traffic by having a domain name that is long and difficult to spell. So if you have a long name try and shorten or abbreviate it so make it easier to remember for the viewers of your blog. By making it easier you encourage viewers to remember your domain name and therefore come back again. So when you plan on getting a domain name try to use the following guidelines so you come up with a domain name that is: catchy, short, easy to remember, and doesn’t have hyphens.
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