How to choose a great domain name for your blog

If you’re planning to create your own self-hosted blog, one of your most critical tasks will be choosing the best domain name possible that matches your blog’s niche, keywords and title.

Your blog’s URL needs to be short enough for readers to remember, yet long enough to provide at least a hint at what your blog’s posts will be about.

Back when I was in the planning stage of creating this blog, I wanted a domain that included two things: (1) my name (in order to give the blog a personal touch) and (2) the word ‘tips’ (since tech tips are what the blog is all about). And since I planned to post at least once per day, the word ‘daily’ would be nice if I could work it in somehow. 

Naturally, the first potential domain name that I came up with was RicksDailyTips.com, and typing it into Godaddy’s domain search box revealed that it was indeed available. I registered it on the spot, and the rest is history.

But what if RicksDailyTips.com had already been registered by someone else? It’s actually rare at this point in time when your first choice for a domain name is actually still available. If this one had been taken I would have tried to find something that was as close to it as possible.

Leaving a word out (i.e. RicksTips) occasionally works, but not very often. Since available short domains are fewer in number than long ones, in most cases we have to either substitute one word for another or add a word (i.e. RicksDailyTechTips).

It’s also a good idea to try to match your domain name up with the actual name of your blog as best you can. It worked out perfectly in my case since the blog title and domain are exactly the same, but that won’t always be possible. When it isn’t, just try to get the two as closely aligned as possible, even going so far as to adjust the title to match the domain if need be (but don’t choose a BAD title just so it will match a good domain).

One last tip: If the .com version of your preferred domain name isn’t available and you’re having trouble finding something reasonably close, consider registering the domain as a.net. In other words, instead of RicksDailyTips.com I could have easily considered RicksDailyTips.net.

Bonus tip: If you’re trying to decide which domain registrar to use (an online service used to search for and register domain names), I highly recommend Godaddy. I truly believe they are the best around. Although their prices aren’t the cheapest you’ll find, they’re very close to it, and the extra dollar or two that you’ll pay to register your domain will be money well spent in my opinion.