Blog domain names can be assigned to the default designation of the server of your domain or, you can buy a domain name and the servers identity will not appear.
What exactly are you talking about? ... you say.
OK. Lets look at our options.
This blog is hosted by Blogger. You will note that the URL is shown as
http://www.ripalongwithme.blogspot.com
The word "blogspot" is the trade name for Blogger hosted blogs, and its inclusion in the URL shows everyone that this is a Blogger blog. As long as the title you want to give your blog has not already been taken, there is no cost for this blog or for the title. The same would apply if you chose to use Wordpress, the URL in that case would include "wordpress" or one of two other selections that Wordpress offers. Wordpress will give you up to 3 blogs for free.
Choosing the right domain, or "title" for your blog is important. It should have relevance to the topic upon which you will be blogging. Lets take this blog and another one I put up quite some time ago as examples.
The first blog is AppleSeeds Grow blog. This I put up a few years ago. The intention here was that I wanted to use the word AppleSeeds as an analogy to planting seeds of wealth, health and wisdom. The content carries some philosophical meandering, tips on good health and on growing wealth. I publish a newsletter by the same name and some of its content gets published on this blog.
The choice of AppleSeeds it turned out was poorly thought out. Originally this blog was devoid of any ads, then as I developed some Internet Marketing smarts I decided to monetize this site with Google Adsense.
While the title and word embody a powerful imagery on personal development, Google does not take to imagery too well. Even though I chose to allow Google Adsense for content, when Google went crawling through my blog, the first thing it picked up was apple and for the longest time the type of ads that were posted on this blog had to do with apple, the fruit, which of course had nothing to do with my content. Visitors who came to this blog certainly had not interest in apple seeds or apple sauce and so the ads were not being clicked, hence no income from Google. It has only been recently that the ads have turned more towards content rather than the title. Interestingly I never saw an ad that was for Apple Computers!
Rule No. 1: Keyword Blog Title should be relevant to your topic.
The second blog I want to call your attention to is this one. Once again when I put this blog up in November, its intent was somewhat different from what I have since turned it into. I and a number of my colleagues bought a program called Rip2 It. While it was promoted as a turnkey system that was as easy as ABC, many of us were having difficulties with the A B Cs and my intention was to post my progress through this program and in Internet Marketing. If you read the summary above under the title, you will understand the original direction or purpose of this blog.
Each December I review the year and make adjustments for the coming one. As I looked at this blog, I thought it could serve a better purpose, not just for a small group of people who were on the Rip2 It program, but to a larger audience who were just starting in Internet Marketing. It was then that I thought about setting out the step by step process of creating a blog. I have since decided on a different title, but will leave the current one up for a while so that readers understand what I mean.
Rule No. 2: Decide on the purpose of your blog.
An example of a good blog Domain: http://www.mercedesbenz.rip2itblogs.com There is no question about it. This is a blog on Mercedes Benz, the content supports it. But where are the ads? The purpose of this blog is to support and point traffic towards its website http://www.BuyMeAMercedesBenz.com. We'll talk about that later.
I strongly recommend that you check and see if the title of your blog is available as a dot com domain name, that is without the word "blogspot" or "wordpress" showing up in the URL. WHY? So you have full ownership of the name.
Someone I know started a travel blog. He called it Travel Sapien. Its a Blogger hosted blog. As travel blogs go this one is somewhat unusual and over time began to draw traffic. Someone checked to see if the dot com URL was available, it was and it was bought. Here is what happened:
My friend's blog URL published address: http://www.travelsapien.blogspot.com
Competitor boughtand owned this published address: http://www.travelsapien.com
Can you see the confusion that this caused the search engines? It took some finagling but my friend now owns the dot com domain name.
There are many sellers of domain names. One of the most popular and the one I use is Go Daddy
Rule No. 3 : Buy the dot com URL name
ACTION ONE: Decide on the Title of your Blog.
ACTION TWO: Check availability of dot com URL, if availble buy, if not, search for a different title/domain for your blog.
Quick Links:
Go Daddy
AppleSeeds Grow
Mercedes Benz
Buy Me A Mercedes Benz
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Good point. People love to mirror success or at their worst find a way to extract a pound of flesh by confusion. Totally agree with your comments. No matter all the day owning a .com is a vital marketing component. If you plan to earn money with your blog INSURE you have the .com name or you can bet someone will grab it to either take advantage of your hard work with the blog or in hopes you will eventually wake up knowing you should have it and then need to negotiate a purchase from the holder of the .com. When building a building you start with a solid foundation. No different here. Think out all the possibilities from your point of having success. Think success from start up and you won't make mistakes by sharing your good Blog name with a poucher.
ReplyDelete