Are you planning to start your own blog, but you have yet to choose a good domain name?
How do you get a good domain name for your blog? The name of your blog is very important, isn’t it?
Choosing a good domain name can be a first obstacle that many budding bloggers struggle with.
They become paralyzed by their indecision and don’t want to pick the wrong domain name for their blog.
But I can immediately reassure you: there are actually no wrong domain names. Not really.
You don’t have to stress too much about this. There are things that are more decisive than choosing your domain name.
So don’t spend too much time on it. Use the tips I’m going to give you in this blog article to make the decision.
CHOOSE DOMAIN NAME
Choosing a domain name for your blog is actually not that difficult. Most people are creative enough to come up with a name.
What is sometimes disappointing is that the name you like is no longer available for you to register.
Buying domain names is big business. There are companies that buy domain names and keep them for a while and then resell them later for a higher price.
I’ve heard it before that someone chose a perfect domain name only to be disappointed when that name was already registered by someone else.
What makes it worse is that sometimes they don’t even do anything with that domain name…grrrr.
So it’s important that you have some flexibility when choosing a domain name for your blog. You may need to tweak your initial idea a bit to find a domain name that is free to register.
In this blog article I’m going to give you advice and tips on how to brainstorm to find a great name for your blog in whatever niche you are in.
It is best that you suddenly check whether your ideas are free to register.
My website is hosted at Combell.com . They have a specific page where you can check the availability of domain names: Combell.com/domain names .
You can also easily check this with other hosting companies. Here, for example, the page where you can do this at Neostrada: Neostrada.nl/domeinnaam-register .
WHICH DOMAIN EXTENSION SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?
One of the most common questions newcomers have when registering their domain name is “which extension should I use – .be, .nl, .com, .org, .net?”
My advice is to always go for .be or .nl depending on whether you are active in Belgium or the Netherlands.
If .be or .nl is no longer available for your domain name, I would try to choose a slightly different domain name that is free to register.
If you really want to stick with your original domain name choice, .com, .net or .org are the best alternatives.
Even if you blog in English, .com as an extension is better than .be or .nl.
TIPS FOR CHOOSING A GOOD DOMAIN NAME
1) DEFINE YOUR NICHE
Before you start brainstorming the name of your blog, you need to know what your blog will be about.
If you don’t know what you’re going to blog about yet, you need to determine that before you can choose a name for your blog.
Before choosing a domain name, ask yourself the following questions:
- What niche are you in?
- What topics will you blog about?
- Who is your target audience?
- What is the tone of your blog?
It is important to think about the above questions because the name you choose for your blog should resonate with your target audience.
The most obvious way to do this is to use search terms in your domain name that are related to your niche.
For example, my blog is about making money on the internet. That is why I chose the domain name GeldVerdienenOpInternet.be.
The advantage of a domain name with a search term is that people immediately understand what niche it is about.
Even without people visiting your blog, people will understand what your blog is about.
However, it is important to be aware of the limitations you may impose on yourself by choosing a domain name with certain search terms.
For example, I think affiliate marketing is the best revenue model for starting bloggers. I have written a lot about affiliate marketing on my blog.
However, I have not chosen a domain name that contains the term affiliate marketing because this could be too limiting and would give me fewer opportunities to write about other revenue models on the internet .
It’s good to focus on a clear niche. Make sure that your domain name is not too narrow so that you can expand the topics you write about in the future.
2) CHOOSE A SHORT AND CATCHY DOMAIN NAME
Ideally, you want to choose a domain name that is short, catchy, and memorable .
A long, generic name such as LekkereReceptenOpGrootmoedersWijze.be is not very useful.
Try not to use too many words in your domain name.
In addition, your domain name should be easy to read with a clear separation of the words if they are consecutive in your web browser.
You should also be careful not to accidentally choose a domain name that could be read differently if you read the words together in the URL in your web browser.
3) DO NOT USE NUMBERS OR SPECIAL CHARACTERS
Numbers can make a domain name confusing . Do you use a number or do you spell the number?
The only situation where I would recommend using a number in your domain name is if you already have an established business name that includes a number. Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it.
Also, don’t use special characters in your domain name, especially hyphens.
Hyphens in domain names used to be used to split words, but today this is no longer done.
For example, consider a domain name such as my-best-recipes-secrets.be
Not only does it look outdated, but imagine trying to pass on your domain name to someone: “my hyphen best hyphen recipes hyphen secrets…”
I think you get it.
Choose a domain name without hyphens that is easy to read.
4) DON’T USE BRAND NAMES
Using a brand name in your domain name can cause copyright infringement issues later on.
Imagine that after several years of hard work on your blog, Apple lawyers send you a letter telling you to stop your blog DearAppleProduction.be because it infringes their brand name.
While this is very unlikely, it is safer to avoid such a scenario by not using a brand name in your domain name.
5) FIND INSPIRATION
Do you need inspiration to choose a good domain name? There is endless inspiration to be found on the internet.
Google some search terms in your niche and see which websites and domain names appear in the search results.
Check out which domain names your competitors have chosen for their blog.
Also read a number of articles on some of those blogs and write down which words and search terms come back. Those can be good words to use in your domain name.
Another very good source of inspiration for choosing a domain name is bol.com/boeken .
From the books, select a category related to your niche and browse the titles of thousands of books for inspiration and ideas.
6) REGISTER YOUR DOMAIN NAME
After you’ve chosen your domain name, it’s time to register it.
My blog is hosted at Combell.com . I am very satisfied with this as I have never had any problems with my hosting. They also have a friendly customer service who always answered all my questions quickly.
You can register a domain name with Combell via this link: Combell.com/domainname-registration .
WHAT TO DO IF YOUR DOMAIN NAME IS NOT AVAILABLE
As I mentioned earlier in this article, there is a chance that the domain name you want to register is no longer available.
There are a number of things you can do if this is the case for you. Below are some good tips for choosing a new domain name.
ADD ADDITIONAL WORDS
Sometimes you just need to make your domain name a little longer by adding a word to get a domain name that is available and still fits your blog.
LeukRecepten.nl , for example, already exists. You might consider registering LeukReceptenBlog.nl.
Try to make it a bit longer by adding an extra word.
Try adding different words at the beginning or end of your domain name.
MAKE IT REALLY UNIQUE
Another strategy for finding available domain names is to be truly original.
Think for example of Google, Twitter, Spotify. Some of the biggest brands aren’t even real words. They are made up.
CONSIDER ANOTHER LANGUAGE
Another option is to use a different language.
You may not need to translate your entire domain name. One word can be enough to find an available domain name. FoodAndFriends.nl , for example, is also a Dutch-language blog about good food.
USE A DIFFERENT EXTENSION
If you really don’t want to change your domain name, you can consider using a different extension.
Besides .be, .nl, .com you can consider other extensions such as .co, .net, .org, …
FINALLY… DON’T WORRY TOO MUCH
While everyone wants to pick the perfect domain name, it’s really not the most important thing to build a successful blog.
What matters is what you do with your blog.
If you hesitate too long before choosing a domain name, your blog will not get off the ground.
Is MoneyEarningOnInternet the perfect domain name? Maybe, maybe not. More importantly, I continue to publish valuable content to help my readers start a blog and monetize it as well.
My advice is to quickly pick a domain name that you’re happy with and then focus on things that are more critical to the success of your blog, such as publishing valuable content.
I hope I was able to help you choose a good domain name with this blog article. Be sure to leave a comment below this article if I can help you with anything further.
WANT TO MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR BLOG?
Do you want to make money blogging ? The first step is choosing a good domain name and setting up your blog.
That’s actually the easy part. Then comes the harder part of getting enough traffic to your blog so that you can monetize your blog.
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