Starting A Blog - Domain Selection
July 7th, 2008 by CourtIn this video, we are going to discuss some of the factors we need to consider when choosing a domain for a profitable blog. This is all part of my new starting a blog video series that will include 50+ videos about creating a blog for profit. Make sure you subscribe through RSS so that you don’t miss any of the original videos or follow-ups.
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July 7th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
First!!! (just kidding)
Some good basic info here Court! I had a hard time finding a domain name that I liked that was available. I didn’t want to use the word QuickBooks in my domain name to avoid any trademark issues even though that’s what it’s all about. I also wanted to stand out as not just a boring site about accounting. So with a tip of my hat to Vic, I chose http://www.AccountingUnleashed.com
I hope the name is memorable for those that see it and it will be fun for me to sport a bit of an attitude so I can live up to the Unleashed! part of the name.
I look forward to the next video - please post them more often!
Thanks,
Mike Debyah
July 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Hi Court,
Another great video, thank you!
I try to choose domains with my main KW, due to quicker ranking, but I think a couple of times I made the mistake of doing that and the domain turned out to be too long and I wonder if that may cause me problems with people easily remembering the domain. If the KW are too long then maybe using your Blog Name in the domain for brandability might be a better option.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
The trade off between using your name, building brand-trust around the person and having a keyword in the name is too varied to give a one-answer-fits-all response. I think you covered that nicely.
dm
July 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Court, this may all come up when you discuss KWs,
but it also muddles my understanding of domain
names:
Let’s assume the .com domain is already taken
for the choice term fat dogs (fatdogs.com).
If I amend that domain with additional letters or
words, will my domain come up when people
search for fat dogs? (Examples: fatdogsS.com,
fatdogsmagazine.com)
And as an aside question regarding KW
frequency– Does the # of searches for
the term fat dogs, also include all those
people who were searching for dogs only?
Are the KW counts different depending
on whether the words are in quotes, etc
or not?
Thanks.
July 8th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Getting ranked for keywords actually doesn’t have a ton to do with your domain name! You can get ranked for any of the terms you described with ANY of the names you described!
July 7th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
[…] creating websites is Court’s Internet Marketing Site. You can see a great video about how to chose a domain name for beginners that should help you pick a domain name for […]
July 8th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Great video Court. I look forward to the rest of the series, you never know when that one good tip is going to pop up that will add another stream of income.
July 8th, 2008 at 9:25 am
A friend vom Germany told me that you have some videos on your blog.
So I came here to see them and I have to say that they are really great!
I found some hints and tricks which were definitevly very important for me. So thanks a lot!
July 8th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
What is your opinion on hyphenated domain names? For example courtney-tuttle.com or bobs-blog.com, etc, etc, etc… Should they be avoided altogether or are they “the next best thing” (or maybe even the best thing)…
July 8th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I don’t like them from a branding standpoint on this type of a site! I would be harder to get people to come back… think of explaining to a friend in real life how they can find your site.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
So no hyphens from a branding standpoint. I’d bet they’re ok on a site that you expect to have mostly search traffic on though (think keyword sniping). Do you think that .com really makes a difference? I know that’s what people normally go for, but I can’t see reallygreatdomain.com being that much better than reallygreatdomain.net. Great video & thanks!!
August 24th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Hey Court, thanks for all the great videos. You’ve really shed some light on the gray areas to me. You’re awesome!!
Are there any reasons you would be for or against registering two domains; one with hyphens and one without.
For example:
mysuperdomain.com and my-super-domain.com
To me, it seems that the one with hyphens would look better in search results as it is easier to read.
The only reason I’m considering owning both is to prevent someone else from getting one and becoming my competition.
What are your thoughts? Thanks in advance.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:25 am
I had a client who, by chance, registered a domain name that included a frequently searched keyword phrase (sans hyphens). Even though her blog postings are all over the place (her creativity can’t be “constrained” by thinking about keywords) she’s still getting visitors on the keywords contained in her domain name. For as new as her blog is, and no more effort than she’s put into the blog, she’s doing very, very well traffic wise. That experience has really opened my eyes to the importance of the right domain name. Of course, you already knew that!!! You rock, Court!
July 9th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
thanks for the video, enjoyed it very much and gave me insights in some new blogs project, so again thanks! regards, aislin
July 9th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Nice video again. It was hard thinking of a name. I thought of MarkNelson.com but there are a million Mark Nelson. My blog is about teaching about money with an emphasis on teaching kids about money. We tried to find names with money in it but hard to find. We settled for financialhat.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Love the content, not quite sure how much I like the video format. I read fast and I skim faster, so the video thing slows me down. Maybe that’s the point
I actually think this is a flaw in search engine mechanics. With the Internet being jammed by both legitimate and junk sites, finding a name with keywords is more complicated by the day. After all, Google doesn’t have any keywords about search in it’s name! It seems more likely that supergreathomeloans.com is an ad choked money generator with little value than something like Finance Gourmet is, but still the former gets a bump in rankings. Go figure.
Let’s face it, every new “Big Thing” on the Internet does NOT have keywords in it’s domain name (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) but Google insists on making us a slave to this domain name game. I think it is time for them to come out and say publicly that domain names have no bearing on search ranking except for proper names. (Obviously, Ford.com should get some juice in searches for “ford”).
July 13th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Hi Court, Are numbers in domain name good? Generally, i do hear that numbers don’t make for a good domain name but that surely makes your blog’s name distinct and easy to remember. Say, for waytoblog.com, if we use way2blog.com, Its sure to catch your eyes and attention. Isn’t it?
July 14th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I use a number in one of my domains and I have not had any problems whatsoever!
July 18th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Excellent video Court. I am looking forward to the rest of the series.
July 19th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
[…] 4. Starting A Blog – Domain Selection […]
July 28th, 2008 at 5:01 am
Superb video, this is the first video of yours that I saw, I am going to see rest of them tonight.
Thanks for taking for time and doing it for us.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Great video! I agree that the choosing a domain name is very important. I try to go for the keyword, however, good luck at this point. So a lot of the time going for something that is memorable and for branding purposes is the right choice. I do not know why I still check to see if things like mortgage.com are available.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:09 am
[…] See the warning post: Starting A Blog - Domain Selection […]
August 7th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I’m sold :)) +1
August 8th, 2008 at 6:44 am
I want to restate my comment about my domain name financialhat.com
We didn’t settle, we thought it was a great name.