This is part 2 of a 10 post series on How to Make Your Own Blog.
One of the first steps you need to complete to make your own blog is selecting the proper domain name. This may not seem like a significant step, but this task can play an important role in your future success with your website. Defining your purpose, researching proper domain names, and purchasing your own internet real estate are all important parts of making a blog. These and other helpful hints about choosing a domain are detailed below.
Define Your Purpose
There could be several reasons of why you want to make your own blog, which is why it is very important to define your purpose before picking out a domain name. It is important to have an idea of why you want to start a blog before taking any additional steps. Without a plan or goal for your site, you may realize further on down the road that you chose the wrong domain name.
Here are a few popular reasons for starting a blog.
- Business – A blog can be a great opportunity for a business to adopt an online presence. If you are starting a home business for example, putting together a website in a few easy steps can get you online very quickly.
- Personal – If you are looking for more flexibility than what social networking tools like Twitter or facebook can offer, then setting a personal blog can help.
- Niche Website – Another popular reason to make your own blog is building a niche website. A popular way to build passive income involves setting up niche websites that are optimized properly for earnings.
Over the course of these posts, I will be providing examples of how I am going to start a new site and provide every detail along the way. The purpose for my new site is to help build links and drive traffic to my other websites. My goal is to purchase a piece of internet real estate that can be leveraged to eventually build important links to other online sites.
Researching a Domain Name
Researching a domain name is a critical part of building a successful blog. Once you have defined your purpose to make your own blog, the next step is to start your research. The amount of research you will need to complete will depend on what type of blog you are starting.
Here are a few tips to think of when you begin researching domain names.
- Picking an Extension – Do your research on extensions for your domain before making a purchase. There are several options including – .com, .info, .net, .org, .me, and .biz are just a few choices to pick from. Be sure to learn what each type of extension means and what they should be used for.
- Keyword Tools – Try to leverage online tools to help aid your search for a domain name. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool and the Micro Niche Finder Keyword Software are a few popular options.
- SEO – Make sure you study up on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the importance a good domain name plays in getting your site to rank high. Depending on the purpose of building your site, you may want to spend a lot of time picking a SEO friendly domain name.
- Is Your Domain Available? – Once you have a domain name(s) in mind, type it into any internet browser to see if it exists. If the page cannot be found, then the chances are good that the domain name you are thinking of using is probably available.
In the case of my new website, I spent about 30 minutes using the AdSense Keyword Tool to find commonly searched keywords. Since my site will be used to write articles and link back to my other blogs, I began searching for terms like “articles”, “online”, “free” along with a few other keywords. I will use these results to help pick out a domain name that is representative of my site.
Purchasing a Domain Name
Once you have researched and selected your preferred domain name, the next step is to make the purchase. This step may scare some people off and prevent them from making their own blog. The steps required to purchase a domain name are actually very simple.
Here are a few simple tips that will help you make your domain name purchase an easy process.
- Vendors – There are plenty of vendors available where you can purchase your domain name. Some of my favorites include GoDaddy and Yahoo! Domains. Be sure to shop around and find the company that is the right fit for you.
- Discounts – Check out sites like RetailMeNot.com for current coupon codes on discounts at some of the vendor sites. For example, you can usually always find some sort of discount using a coupon code for making a purchase on GoDaddy.
- Pricing – The pricing can differ by a lot when it comes to the different types of extensions. A “.info” domain name can often cost $0.99 whereas a “.com” site will probably cost around $10.
- Multi-year Discount – Some vendors that sell domain names even offer multi-year discounts which can help save money. If you think that your blog will be live for over 1 year, this may be a good way to save a little cash over the long run.
Based on my research, I purchased the following domain name FREEONLINEARTICLEBLOG.COM through GoDaddy.com. I also found a discount code for 30% which saved me about $3 pushing the total costs well below $10 for my piece of internet real estate. I now have completed a very important step in making my own blog and will be using this domain name through the rest of the setup.
Final Thoughts
If you have decided that you want to make your own blog, the process is not that difficult. Purchasing the proper domain name for your site is just one simple step that helps makes up the overall process. Do yourself a favor and spend some time on picking out a domain name as it will benefit your website in the future.
During the next segment, we will be looking for a hosting account where we can link up our domain name that was just purchased.
What tips can you provide others who are looking to purchase their first domain name?
Related posts:
- How to Make Your Own Blog – Introduction
- How to Start Your Own Blog
- 3 Ways to Earn Blog Income
- Use Carnivals to Drive Blog Traffic
- Creating an Online Brand for your Blog
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
John,
Very nice detailed write-up on choosing a domain. However, as a beginner, it’s important not to get too caught up with choosing one. Some people might take days just to decide, leading into months!
Registering takes less than a minute (with NameCheap). Plus, if you don’t choose the perfect domain name, they’re so cheap, you can always register another one.
Domain names are a key component to a web presence. Domain names convert the numerical format that computers use to identify a website into a text based name that is easy for human users to understand and recall.