If you’re a professional on your niche or if you’ve simply chosen to dedicate yourself to blogging full-time, you’ve most certainly encountered a fairly common stepping stone for everyone seeking to build an online identity, promote themselves or sell – how to choose an attractive blog name that people will remember or, why not, even resonate with.

Have you only found uninspired blog names thus far? Do you feel that none of your ideas is good enough? Let’s check out a few strategies to pick a good blog name together and let’s go over the main differences between domain, URL and the name of your blog. I will help you with a series of questions that you should ask yourself in order to get closer to the online identity you want and achieve your online goals effortlessly.

First, let’s clarify some terms that get mixed up a lot:

Domain name/site domain – it is a specific, unique name, once paid for it becomes the owner’s. It is practically the name of your brand that visitors will use to find you online via search engines such as Google or Bing. For example, if we take the address of this blog - https://cristinatudose.ro, the domain is „cristinatudose”

URL – it is the unique address of the site which leads users to your blog. If we keep the above example in mind, the URL, in this case would be the entire address: https://cristinatudose.ro

Blog name – most often, it’s the same as the domain name. An example would be this one (domain copyblogger.com, site name Copy Blogger) or a well-known Romanian site - Times New Roman.ro, belonging to the humoristic Times New Roman online publication. However, there are also cases where the domain is different from the entire brand name so that users find it more easily. An interesting example would be this one – domain Eonline.com, brand name E!News.

Now, let’s move on to the questions:

#1 Personal blog or niche blog?

The first question you should answer when seeking to choose a domain or a blog name is – what type of blog will I have? In other words, what will I write about predominantly?

Here you have two main options – either choose a personal blog, where you can write about virtually anything you want/interests you, from opinions to analysis, or go for a niche blog, instead. What do we mean by niche blog? We’re talking about a specialized blog, usually focused on a single main field, or a main field accompanied by a few secondary, adjacent fields. Some examples here would be tech blogs, cooking, recipes & lifestyle blogs, traveling blogs etc.

No one says you can’t have a personal blog on which you ocassionally write about travelling, for instance. However, a niche blog involves a writer who has advanced knowledge about the field in question, one who is constantly up to speed with the newest updates, a writer who can deliver added value to his articles and an insight that other people might not have.

The opinions of someone who has never traveled a mile in his life about destination X, for example, will never have the same value as those of a person who went there and kept a detailed travel journal.

• How do I choose a blog name/domain name for a personal blog

Here you have several options. If you are comfortable with what you write being associated with your real life persona, if you want to build a personal brand through writing, a good idea would be to simply use your real name – e.g. andreipopescu.ro. If, on the contrary, you want to maintain anonymity, you can pick a noun/adjective or a sentence that will define the future content of your website – e.g. analysis.ro, social.ro or even go for a writer/blogger alias. An example here would be a popular Romanian blog – piticu.ro (translation – midget.ro. Funny, I know. But catchy too, right?)

• How do I choose a blog name/domain name for a niche blog?

For a niche blog, ideally you should include words which define that specific niche, maybe even an inside joke pertaining to a community. Some examples of niche blog names, off the top of my head, to give you some suggestions would be techexpert.ro or writing101.ro

Whether you choose a domain for a niche website or a domain for a personal blog, don’t forget to check if it’s available or if it was already bought by someone else. For that, you can use a site such as - Name.com.

It is very useful because, if the extension you’re looking for (.ro, .com etc.) is not available, you will be given some alternatives so that you can keep your chosen domain name and only change the extension.

#2 What is my target audience?

When you’re brainstorming blog name ideas that would best attract the target audience, another aspect you should keep in mind is – who will your articles be aimed at? How do my readers think? What keywords would they resonate with? What unique needs can my content answer? (information, education, entertainment etc.)

Many blog names include information about the target audience or even specific slang words of a community.

Boredpanda.com is, perhaps, the best example here. Both the domain name and the brand name communicate in simple and easy terms what the site is about and what needs of the target audience it answers (delivers content to fill your free time, eliminates boredom etc.)

#3 What will be the voice of my future blog?

In other words – HOW will you write? Will you have a specialized, serious, formal blog or, on the opposite end, an informal, casual, sarcastic or even funny blog?

The name of your blog should reflect the tone of voice of your future writing whilst also including those words that the intended public can easily resonate with, it should induce a specific mood from the first visit.

9gag.com, for example, has a domain name that promises to make you laugh, whilst websites such as PRWeek.com give you the first clue, from the title, that you’re about to see specialized, niche content delivered in a journalistic style.

If you’ve answered all of these questions and inspiration still stubbornly evades you, I have prepared an additional resource that I hope you’ll find helpful – an automated blog name generator using keywords (Lean Domain Search).

You want a website about cooking and tasty recipes? Just insert words such as „cakes” and „cooking” and a couple dozen attractive suggestions will be generated automatically. As an added bonus, the website also checks if the domain or the blog name you want is available.

Here is a test with the keyword „movies”:

Conclusions

An attractive blog name should define you, as a blogger, whilst also resonating with your target audience. It should include the specific characteristics of your content, as well as the voice of the brand you want to create in as few words as possible.

Don’t forget this last principle in choosing attractive blog names – less is more. Choose a domain and/or a blog name that is easy to remember, that can be typed in quickly so that your readers reach you without any difficulty.

I hope all of the above have made your work easier! Happy brainstorming and may you find the best blog names!

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