The art of naming your blog

When my wife and I were trying to decide on a name for our child, we heard a great deal of advice including:

1. Think of a name that is easy to pronounce
2. Try yelling the name to see what it sounds like. Remember you will be yelling for your child at the playground, athletic events and other times.
3. Don’t try to be too clever when it comes to spelling a name. Remember your child makes the name. The name doesn’t make the child.
4. Pick a name that has significance to you or your family.
5. Select a name that will grow with the child. It’s one thing to name a kid Sport when he’s a baby but will that name work when he’s an adult?

What’s not surprising to me is when a client asks what to name his or her business blog, I use some of the same tips.

I recommend every business have a blog for four main reasons:

1. It’s free advertising – a way for you to get your name and your expertise in the market.
2. It draws traffic to your other social media sites and your webpage
3. It establishes you as a leader in the business.
4. It helps people identify with who you are, what you do and builds trust with your customers.

The first step in starting a blog is selecting a name. And to be honest, sometimes selecting a name for a blog is harder than picking a name for a child.

Here are a 10 tips for naming your blog:

1. Start with knowing what your blog is about. If you own a bookstore, you wouldn’t want to write about fly fishing. For a bookstore, you could write book reviews, events at your bookstore, how to start a book club, news regarding books including local authors and national prizes. Creating a list of blog topics is a good start on helping name your blog.
2. Begin playing with words. Start thinking about all the words that make you think of books or bookstores. For example: pages, chapters, words, characters, comfortable, adventure, relaxing, protagonists…
3. Write down all the words you have come up with on notecards. Put the notecards in hat and pull them out two at a time – for example – Chapters and words. Then write down chapterswords and wordschapters. Keep doing this until you find a name that works.
4. Know who your target audience is. Are you writing for book club members, authors … Think of key words that your target audience will be searching for on Google.
5. What is going to be the tone of your blog? Serious? Silly? Sarcastic? The name of your blog should match its tone.
6. Write down three to five names you like and share them with trusted colleagues or friends. Google the names or go to GoDaddy.com to see if the names are available. Unlike naming a child where there can be six Ashleys and five Bens all in the same kindergarten class, when it comes to blog names, it has to be an original.
7. Sleep on it. While you may find what you think is the perfect name, give it a day to think about it before starting your blog site. Last thing you want to do is start a blog and then decide you don’t like the name.
8. Be patient. Don’t settle on name because you are in a hurry. But do give yourself a deadline.
9. If all else fails, name the blog after yourself.
10. Most importantly, select a name you like and you are proud of. Blogging takes a lot of work and if you pick a name you don’t like, it just makes it that much tougher.

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