How to Name (Or Misname) Your Blog
One of the things that distinguishes a blog from a plain old website (POW) is that it has a title. Yes, yes, individual web pages all have titles (or should — you’d be surprised at how many pages are untitled or have the title “Untitled Page”), but it’s not the same thing. To quote the American Heritage Dictionaries:
An identifying name given to a book, play, film, musical composition, or other work.
A blog definitely qualifies as “other work”. (Well, it’s certainly “work”!)
Make Easy Money With Google? Who Chose That?
In some ways I regret choosing “Make Easy Money with Google and AdSense” as this blog’s name. The decision made sense at the time, as the name derives directly from the title of my first AdSense book, Make Easy Money with Google: Using the AdSense Advertising Program and the blog was initially meant to be a marketing vehicle for that book. The blog’s evolved since then, however.
You might wonder where the name came from. When I first approached Peachpit Press with the idea for my book, I didn’t have a proper title in mind. My working title was “GooglePot”, i.e. “create a money pot with Google” and of course it made no sense to use it (legally, if nothing else) as a proper title. I had to refer to the book as something, though, and that’s what working titles are for.
Ultimately, it’s the publisher’s decision as to what title goes on the finished book, although the author is consulted. Out of all the titles that were presented to me, however, “Make Easy Money with Google” was the best of the bunch, which is why I (and the editors) chose to go with it. It was hard to come up with a great title, there’s no denying it, as the title had to appeal to complete newbies (the book assumes you know very little about creating websites) and yet still had to be catchy enough (”hey, make money!”) to grab some attention on the bookshelf. (Calling it The AdSense Guide for Newbies might make sense now, but at the time no one had really heard of AdSense, so an AdSense-heavy title wouldn’t appeal to the non-webmasters I was targeting.)
Unfortunately, the name belies the fact that this is (for the most part) a quite serious blog about Google’s AdSense program and online marketing in general. I should probably rename it, although with all this history behind it I’m not sure it’s a good idea. But if I were to start over again, what steps would I take to name my blog?
Blog Naming Tips
Here are some ideas on how to proceed with the naming of a new blog:
- Make it short. One big problem with the name “Make Easy Money with Google and AdSense” is that it’s too long. And too wordy. Look at ConversionRater’s list of top web revenue blogs, for example, and you’ll see that my blog’s listed simply as “MEMWGA” since the full name is too long.
- Make it unique. This one’s tough, but try to make the name as unique as you can. It’s tough because chances are good someone else is using the same name on their blog. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it yourself, because titles are not subject to copyright protection. If the title is truly unique and/or distinguished you could potentially apply for trademark protection, however. Keeping your blog name unique is one way to avoid potential legal difficulties. More importantly, it makes it easier for readers to find you.
- Relate it to the domain. Ideally, there’s some relation between the domain name and the name of the blog. The two don’t have to be identical, but the closer they are the more of a boost you’ll get in the search engine rankings and the easier it will be to find the blog. The perfect domain is probably already taken, however, so don’t be surprised if you have to compromise on this one.
- Maybe throw in a keyword. Including a relevant keyword in the blog name can also help with the rankings. It can also help with AdSense ad targeting and other monetization schemes. I wouldn’t say this is absolute, however, as there are many ways to get relevant AdSense ads.
- Think about the future. Having a niche is great, but what if you want to expand your niche? Will your blog name restrict you too much, or does it allow you to wander off in different (related) directions?
The next time you create a blog, spend some serious time thinking about its name, because naming a blog is a lot like naming a child: it requires a lot of thought and can have unforseen consequences in the long term.
Sponsored Link: Learn more about the ins and outs of
AdSense by reading Uncommon AdSense, my latest book about AdSense.
Eric Giguere is the author of Uncommon AdSense and the award-nominated (that just means it lost!) blog Make Easy Money with Google and AdSense.
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3 Responses to “How to Name (Or Misname) Your Blog”
Good points, especially about including keywords. While short and unique are good goals, I would like to suggest that the name be made up of real words. Zillow? Joomla? Kijiji? What the hell? I’d like to be able to pronounce it, spell it, and remember it.
Changing names and changing domains is a surefire way to lose traffic and recognition.
[...] How to Name (Or Misname) YourBlogOne of the things that distinguishes ablogfrom a plain old website (POW) is that it has a title. Yes, yes, individual web pages all have titles (or should you d be surprised at how many pages are untitled or have the title Untitled… [...]
Amen about changing domains. I’ve already been through that with this blog and it definitely had a negative effect. When I recently moved to WordPress I was quite cognizant that changing the URLs of all my posts wasn’t going to be that great, either, but at least I was able to properly redirect all the old posts to their new addresses and minimize negative effects, though for now all the pages have lost PR because of that.
That’s why I hesitate to change the name of this blog, even though in some ways it might bring me new readers that would otherwise skip such a spammy-sounding blog….