Blog Monetization: Using A Unique Domain Name

There are thousands of bloggers all around the world who are making a difference in people’s lives, one post at a time. When blogging first became the rage, the majority of bloggers were drawn in by how easily they were able to use the blogging format as a venue in which they could express their thoughts.

Since that time, the focus of blogging has changed somewhat to also include blog monetization. With this focus in mind, it is important to realize that the name you choose for you blog, will be a powerful tool in your efforts to reach the audience you are seeking.

Why Is Using A Unique Domain Name Important?

Well, let’s start with the name your parents gave you. They took care to give you a name that they felt would be a good fit for you throughout your life. Your name is how others are able to identify you. When someone pronounces it wrong, you notice don’t you? It just feels wrong when someone mispronounces it.

Starting a blog is an act of creation. Maybe not quite as high of an achievement as having a child, but significant non-the-less. The custom domain name you choose for your blog will be how others will identify it in the months and years to come. Just as a parent feels the obligation to give their child a good name, so too are you obligated to seek out the best name for your blog.

Your Hosting Choice Makes A Difference

A lot of people feel it is best to start out with a free blog hosting service such as WordPress.com or a blogger account. While these are free blog hosting services, they also append their own name to the name that you choose for your blog. So if your chosen name is heavensgarden, it would appear as heavensgarden.wordpress.com or heavensgarden.blogspot.com. This also means that should you ever decide to move your blog, the name people have come to know it by will change. People that are involved in affiliate marketing have run into some issues using Blogger, and as a result, have chosen to move their blogs.

Something you may not know is that both of these services also offer the option of using a unique domain name. This choice has a cost to it, as you will be required to purchase the domain name you wish to use in both cases. Domain names are purchased through domain registration services such as GoDaddy.com.

In the case of WordPress.com, there is also an additional cost for them to map your unique domain name on their servers. At the time of this writing, that cost is $10 per year. Blogger accounts will require their own custom domain name followed by the setting up a CNAME and ANAME record with the domain name provider. Serious online marketers tend to avoid this issue altogether by not only registering their own domain name, but also setting up WordPress on their own WordPress friendly web hosting account where they have greater freedom in what they are allowed to do on their blogs.

Find WordPress Friendly Web Hosting

WordPress friendly web hosting can be found for under $10 per month and most providers give you the ability to host as many domain names as you’d like on a single hosting account. Taking the time to seriously consider which hosting option is best for you from the start can help you to avoid having to move or rename your blog at a future date.

Keep It Short And Relevant

The longer the name, the greater the chance of people misspelling the name when they type it in. That is just a simple reality. If it happens too often, people may give up looking for you or they may land on a similar site and be drawn away from you. Because of this you want to choose a name that is as short and as easy to type as is possible.

As far as relevancy goes, wherever possible, you will want to include one of your top keywords to enhance the SEO effectiveness of the name. However, even more important than the SEO aspect is the fact that a name that is totally irrelevant to the niche of your blog may discourage people from visiting.

It is basic human nature to associate things with each other. So, if your blog is about gardening, you will want a name that in some way either includes the word gardening or a word that others will associate with gardening. A name like growbountifulblossoms.com will instantly bring the thought of growing flowers to mind.

An added consideration that very people few take into consideration when choosing a name is that of possible future PPC campaigns. You see most PPC campaigns only allow a specified number of characters in the name that is shown in the ad. Many marketers have found out the hard way that the domain name they have chosen is simply too long to be displayed and are faced with the problem of choosing a new name or not using PPC.

This is certainly a situation you will want to try to avoid, particularly if you have already developed a significant following. At the time of this writing, I believe that the character limit for the Display URL for a Google PPC ad is 35 characters, including the 4 characters in the www. portion of the name if you are using it as part of your URL. Many marketers leave off the www. portion of the name for this reason. If you are using a WordPress.com account, that takes away 14 characters right there. A blogspot.com name would take away 13 characters.

OK, so now we have a few ideas, let’s simplify.

1. Choose the niche that will be the focus of your blog
2. Decide on the type of hosting that will work best for you.
3. Research relevant keywords and phrases for your niche
4. Look for short domain names that are relevant to your niche and keywords
5. Setup your blog

The name you choose for your blog can either be a powerful tool to assist you in gaining traffic and enhancing your efforts of blog monetization, or it can detract from all of your efforts to reach the audience you are seeking. After reading the above, I am sure you will agree that a lot of time and consideration needs to be given to choosing and using a unique domain name.

Register Your Custom Domain Name

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com