Cost: About $9

STEP ONE in the “Top 10 things to do when starting a blog” series.

Ideally, the name of your blog should also be the domain address where the blog can be found. That means that not only do you have to come up with a memorable name, but it should also be available with a .com ending. (No, www.myblog.com is not available!).

To find out if your chosen name is available, visit www.godaddy.com and type the domain into their search bar. It will return the availability status of your domain.

When choosing the name of your blog, you have three main options:

1. Use your personal name:
This works best if the blog is a personal diary, or posts about topics relevant to your career. In the latter case, your blog becomes a part of your brand, and should be treated with great care. If you decide to go this route, first check that your name is available as a top level domain.

2. Use a name that is somewhat relevant to the topic about which you will be blogging.
For instance, if you are going to be posting about museums in Paris, then opting for a self-descriptive name like “Paris Museums” or “Must See Paris Museums” is a good idea. Once again, first make sure the domain names are available. This is the best method to choose if you want to monitize your blog, and sell ad space on it. If your key words appear in your title, you have a more favorable chance of getting traffic directed by search engines.
Here are some examples of blog names that follow this route:
Problogger.com

3.Use a name that has nothing to do with your topic.
The immediate advantage of this is that the domain name has a good chance of being available. (You can even use domain registras to help you come up with an original name). A disadvantage is that you will have to do much more marketing and search engine optimization since your name will not immediately suggest what it is that you are blogging about.
But never fear. Its been done before. All of these companies do/sell things OTHER than what their name might suggest:
Amazon.com
Jaguar.com
Technorati.com
Bloglines.com
Walmart
Godaddy.com

If you are stuck for an original name, use this tool to give you some ideas. Or this great one.

What kind of domain extension should I register?
If you live in the US, register a .com name, and don’t worry about any other endings. If you are a non-US blogger, I would strongly recommend that you reserve both the .com domain as well as the one that is pertinent to your country. Even if you expect your audience to be purely local, it would seem a pity to limit your reach right from the start. It is true, of course, that even with a country specific domain you can still reach a global audience, but why expect your audience to remember domain endings they are not used to using?

Where can I buy a domain?
I use GoDaddy for all my purchases. At time of writing, you can buy a .com domain for $9, and they also offer a lot of extra services like helping you choose a name.
Tip: If you sign up for a hosting plan with GoDaddy, then your next domain name registration will only cost $2!

If you are still stuck for a good name, read through this post about where famous brand names originated from. Maybe it will inspire you to come up with a killer-name!

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