Here is how to choose and buy your domain name.
So you have set out your business plan, to choose a domain name, here are things to keep in mind.
Your domain name is a web (home) address. To do this, I believe you have decided on a particular niche (area of interest/concentration) to blog about.
Start with a name research.
You want a name that easily tells what your blog is about without any further explanation to the person who comes across it. Doing this will require you to ensure that the main keyword, vision, or mission of your blog is included in your name choice.
Remember the name example we started with at the beginning posts of this blog (goodlooks or goodlooks.com), the name tells you we are dealing with fashion and making people look good. A combination of 2 or 3 words is good. Anything longer than that will make it difficult to remember. Places to search for name ideas include but are not limited to;
You want to keep the name short, sweet, and memorable.
Your readers have short-span energy at typing and will not like to type a long string of words to access your site. Think of Google. It’s made up of 6 English letters. You may not be able to find a word that short but keep your letters within a range of 10-15 characters.
Brandable names are sweet. Names ending with adjectives such as –ify (e.g. blogify), –ity (e.g. blogity), –able (e.g. blogable), –ful (e.g. blogfull) are great. Avoid using hyphen in your name for example good-looks.com.
Just keep in mind that such names are usually more expensive, especially if the main word is in English. Adding such an adjective to your native name idea or word will be a better approach.
You don’t want a funky name.
It could lead to misspellings and errors. When I started my first blog, I used a very long name and it had entrepreneurial in it. The word “entrepreneurial” was difficult for people to remember and spell correctly. Names that have biz or bizness instead of business will have issues with people spelling it wrongly.
You don’t want a misleading name.
Since my blog was young at the time, I thought I could use an abbreviation, and the abbreviated word ended as TEA. After six months, I was evaluating my blog growth when I realized I was competing with tea companies and I wasn’t even writing anything about tea in my blog posts. You don’t want that for yourself.
Decide on whether to use www or non-www.
There is basically no difference or why one is more preferred than the other. You can choose www.goodlooks.com or goodlooks.com. Just remember the option you chose and stick with it whenever a domain name is mentioned.
Use your name.
Yea. If all attempt to find a suitable name fails, use your first name and surname. For example, if your name is Roselyn Rice, you can choose to go with roselynrice.com or roserice.com.
This is because, it’s easier to flip and start blogging about something else, just like you would change your life by making a career switch in the corporate world than to buy a new domain name and start all the blogging setup afresh.
Next.
Check for name availability.
When you have come up with a set of names, say 10 names, you will move to check for its availability. To do this;
- I suggest typing the names in google.com, bing.com, and any other browser you know of, to see if any company has something related to the name you are choosing. This is because, some names are trademarked and even though some trademarks are territorial, you don’t want to deal with such problems should you wish to expand your business to such countries.
- Check if the name is trademarked here; names like Google have a lot of trademarked names. You can search the platform with the term “Google” to see them.
- Now go over to the hosting company you wish to use their platform to purchase your domain name to search for the availability of your domain.
- Stick with a .com domain extension. Not .com.ng, not .com.whatever your nationality is, unless, your blog is strictly addressing readers from your home country.
How to buy your domain name.
In deciding which platform to buy your domain name, you will consider both pricing and good customer service. Domain hosting websites where you can buy your domain name include but are not limited to;
Most hosting platforms look alike. On any of these platforms, for whichever one you decide to use, simply create an account.
Go to the email address you used to create the account and activate your account. Log in again and find the Domains Tab → Register a New Domain.
A search bar will appear. Input the domain name you wish to buy with the domain extension and click on search. The availability and price for the name will appear. Add to Cart and proceed to enter your card details to make payments.
Once this is completed, the domain name you purchased will appear on the Domains Tab → My Domain.
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Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliations with the domain name goodlooks.com or roserice.com or roselynrice.com. It was merely used for explanation purposes.
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Now that you know how to choose and buy your domain name, let’s go to the next steps.
Step 3: How and Where to Buy Your Hosting with your Naira card.
Step 4: How to connect Your Domain name and Hosting if You Bought them Separately.
Step 5: Choose Your Content Management System.
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Happy blogging…