So, I am going to assume that you have chosen your blogging platform and you awakened from that possibly technically boring entry in Part I. Welcome back. Get some coffee! Let's talk names. First up, what do you want to name your blog? This is probably one of the most important decisions you will make. People may not judge a book by its cover, but trust me, they will judge a blog by its name. What message do you want to send? Do you want to declare yourself a mom blogger in the title? How much information do you want in your name?
How about a few examples. Let's take Busy Mom. Her title is brilliant and tells you what you are getting right up front. You will be hearing about life from a busy mom. You can safely guess she is a mom blogger. Now, let's look at Mir's Woulda Coulda Shoulda. Her name does not shout mom blog. It intrigues and makes you want to know what she "would, coulda or shoulda" done or not done differently, right? And then there is the middle of the road that hints at being about motherhood but just might simply be about life in the suburbs. Suburban Oblivion is a great example of just such a name.
Now, I know that people change their blog names. I did. I was once Java Diva and then switched to Mommy Needs Coffee. You will still find Java Diva in a lot of blog rolls after several years. Now, changing names is possible, but sometimes it takes a while for readers to get used to it. Take BlogHer's own Chris Jordan. Once know as The Big Yellow House, she is now the ever popular Notes From the Trenches. Still the same great writing on the same great blog. Just the name changed. (And the url, but that is for later.) She was good about talking her readers through it. Before you know it, people will move on and almost forget your old blog name. But let me warn you ahead of time, it is not without it's own share of headaches. I suppose what I am telling you is this: Choose your name carefully, as you did the names of your own children. You can certainly change it later, but it confuses people and there will be a lot of pouting along the way.
Now that you have chosen a name, let's look at your options. If you have a platform with an extension like blogspot, typepad or wordpress, you have a lot more options. I do suggest, however, that you double check to see if the actual domain name itself is available in case you decide to host elsewhere at some point or just want your own domain without extension. A great example of a blogger who did this is Melissa Summers with her blog Suburban Bliss. She started off as suburbanbliss.typead.com and then bought her own domain and it is now suburbanbliss.net. If you do choose the name you really like that does not have a free domain of its own, do not fear. Remember, you can change it later if you need to. I did and your readers will follow you. You just need to remember to redirect them if the software doesn't do it automatically.
You blog name should be as unique as you are. Try not to fall into the trap of thinking your blog name has to Say It All. Though your name really is important, your writing will ultimately be the winning factor regardless of your name. Blogging is about writing. You probably wouldn't call a book you wrote: A Bunch of Crap I Put Into Print. So, you may not want to name your blog: My Words I Typed Out That Are Pure Drivel. See my point? Though it is the writing, you want to hook people with the name.
Of course, you can always choose to name your blog by using your own name. Many bloggers use their own name in their url, but name their actual blog something else. An example is our own Grace Davis. Her blog is State of Grace, but her url is gracedavis.typepad.com. See? So many choices.
Which leads us to what we will cover in our next installment: How much information do you want to put out there about yourself, your children and your life. Stay tuned!
~Jenn is now going to ponder the wonder of blog names.~
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You can also find my writing at Mommy Needs Coffee, Mommybloggers and Aggroqueen.
image created with Spell with Flickr.
Comments
Oh, well.
By: collectionofmemories Posted: 45 weeks 8 hours agoMaybe some of us should have taken half a year to come up with ours like we did with our kids (per your suggestion).
come check out my blog at www.collectionofmemories.wordpress.com
I think your blog name is great!
By: Jennifer Satterwhite Posted: 45 weeks 8 hours agoSome people do spend 6 months coming up with kids names and blog names. I had an un-named daughter for 12 hours of her life. Well, she was sort of named. She had two names and we tried them both out and finally decided the day after she was born.
It is all about what you want, my friend. And your blog name is exactly what I was talking about. I am going there expecting a collection of memories (maybe written and pictures?), so I assume it will be about your thoughts on life and family. Am I right? I am off to check!
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~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers |Aggroqueen
Do a little research before choosing your blogger name, please!
By: MamacitaG Posted: 45 weeks 6 hours agoIn the beginning, it didn't matter as much, because there weren't that many bloggers out there yet, and anything you liked was probably up for grabs. Now, however, there are a lot of us, and it's a good idea to do a little research before choosing your blogger name. Choosing a name that is already associated with someone else causes confusion, frustration, and, yes, maybe some anger, too. Also, in the words of my very upset 10-year-old self who still resides in my head, "It's not FAIR!!!!!!"
Please pick a name that isn't already somebody else's. It just isn't nice when you begin to use a name that is already established with someone else.
Sorry to put a post in your comments, but this is really bothering me. I know, "childish." I can't help it!!! It's not FAIRRRRRRR!
"Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum."
Great point about name research
By: Jennifer Satterwhite Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoSometimes people think they stumbled onto the perfect unspoken for name only to discover that it is already associated with someone else after they start to use it. I have had it happen to me with Mommy Needs Coffee and the author was sure to make it very clear that we are not one in the same. However, yes, it is frustrating when you build your name and find it used somewhere else as well.
Just remember that sometimes it is by accident! :-)
Thanks, MamacitaG for bringing attention to such an important part of blog naming.
~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers
Once a Big Yellow House,....
By: Denise Posted: 45 weeks 5 hours agoI don't care if Chris never lived in a Big Yellow House and deceived us all of those years - she is still and always will be "Big Yellow House" - so there!
The moral of the story is - choose a name you can live with 'cause if you try and change gears somewhere in the middle someone like me will come along and give you a hard time about it for the rest of your life.
BYH, BYH, BYH - someday I'm going to start a petition to get her to change her name back to BYH - and move into a BYH, too.
~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings
Now Denise, we all know we have to embrace change
By: Jennifer Satterwhite Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoSometimes blogs get new names, people get new titles and friends get married and have new last names. Gotta go with the flow, sister.
But you do have a point. Some people will not let it go when you try to change. tsk tsk ;-)
~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers
I recommend not using you name as an url
By: Susanne Fritz Posted: 45 weeks 4 hours agoI did it and it a) tells everybody who cares to look at it what my full name is, and b) it is a very unusual name and hard to spell. Nobody ever remembers my url.
And I also recommend thinking about you blog name in terms of a couple of years. My blog started out as "Diapers and Music", and then, poof, diapers vanished from my life (not the music though). It's still on a couple of blogrolls with its old name. So, it's all a little confusing and I could have saved people from that by thinking more like two seconds back when I started.
creative.mother.thinking
Names as urls are an important thing to think about
By: Jennifer Satterwhite Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoThere are some advantages in having your name as a url if say you are a freelance writer or author and that is the easiest way to find you.
Thinking about names down the road is something you should consider when choosing. But again, you can change. One thing that is great about blogs is that they capture who are you are a particular time. Using phrases like mommy, diapers etc are perfect for your life at that time. Later, let your blog change with your life. At least that is my take on it.
~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers
Naming Your Mom Blog
By: Liz Rizzo Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoSo the other day - without being a mom, and without having any immediate plans to become one - I suddenly decided that if/when I do become a mom I will start a new, second blog. This, of course, led me to start thinking about what I would name my mom blog. And how so many good names are taken! So, if it ever happens, I likely will have been thinking about it for *years*!
I have such mom blog envy. ;)
Liz Rizzo
I blog at Everyday Goddess and On The Lot.
I recommend Big Yellow House!
By: Denise Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoTeach Chris a lesson! ha.
This is actually interesting. I am not a huge fan of online nicknames or blog names that label me as "X" but I do often think about what I MIGHT choose if I liked to do those sorts of things.
Now about the mom blog envy, might I suggest you grab that domain right now and start blogging about having mom blog envy. I think you might find a very large following, very quickly. It's a brilliant name for a blog.
~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings
Denise, you are in BYH timeout!
By: Jennifer Satterwhite Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoWhen you get out of time out you can read this. ;-)
I think everyone's blog name says something about them. Whether you call it a label, nickname or what, it speaks volumes. Just something to think about.
~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers
See all of the time you have to come up with a perfect name Liz!
By: Jennifer Satterwhite Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoDenise did have one good point when she said to go ahead and get a name now. Honey, I have more domain names than children right now. *grin*
If you decided you want to write about mom blog envy, I am sure that would go great. Even be a good blog name. Either way, there are as many great blog names for mom blogs as their are moms. Trust me. You WILL find the perfect one and know it when you are ready.
If not, let me know. I will let you have one of my eleventy hundred.
~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers
Thanks for this series!
By: Florinda Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoOn topic: I ended up giving my blog a nickname, since I think the actual name's probably too long, although it's pretty descriptive.
I mostly wanted to say your timing with this series is perfect, and thanks for writing it! I'm sending every post to my sister for encouragement and reference - she's hovering on the verge of starting her own mom blog. She's already picked out a name for it.
Florinda
Blogging at The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness
Thanks, Florinda
By: Jennifer Satterwhite Posted: 44 weeks 6 days agoI am so happy to hear that this series is helping you and your sister. It makes a huge difference to read comments such as these and know that I am hopefully helping another blogger get through these first few steps.
Even though you think your blog name is long, I do like the name it. Very descriptive!
~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers
Yes!
By: veronique Posted: 44 weeks 5 days agoIsn't it funny how naming a blog is very much like naming a baby? You get mad at other people who pick the same name. Sometimes you spend tortured hours coming up with just the right thing, and sometimes it's just obvious and right.
Vero.
Little Elephants
You'll also find me on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog and at eHub
I love the reference
By: Jennifer Satterwhite Posted: 44 weeks 5 days agoAbout getting mad when someone else chooses that name. Oh, the pouting that happens. Or when you have something similar (though different) and the other person throws a fit.
But as you said, sometimes it is just obvious and right.
~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers
Another thanks for the series!
By: Christine Watch Me Posted: 44 weeks 4 days agoI'm pretty new to the blogging thing, and I'm very much looking forward to the next installment of this series. I've wondered about my blog title (which I chose spontaneously as my kids called to me, "Watch me! No, watch me!"). I'm happy enough with it, but when looking at the url it is a bit cumbersome.
http://watchmenowatchme.blogspot.com/
Thank you!
By: sarabird Posted: 44 weeks 3 days agoI would also like to thank you for this series. I am very new to blogging and it has been really helpful! I struggled with a name for my blog and I'm still not sure I'm happy with it. After reading your post today I think if I'm going to change it I should do it soon while I still have no readers :)
Thanks again!
Sara
sarahappilyeverafter.blogspot.com
Another great post
By: mama2bna Posted: 43 weeks 3 days agoI love this post for how accessible it makes blogging, less intimidating for people who have not yet done it. Perhaps even letting them feel as if they are ahead of the game as they can be strategic from day one.
! started my first blog shortly after giving birth to my first daughter (I am a real name user and picture poster) Briar. I picked lifewithbriar.blogspot.com and called it Life with Briar. When we had our second daughter I felt awful not including her and changed the name to Tumble Dry. It's funny how well others have done with the switch, while I still mumble "Life with Briar" sometimes. My second blog, The Wink, is toddlywinks.blogspot.com. My original intent had been to have an anonymous site on The Wink, refering to my family with fake names, but it didn't fit for me.
Thanks for this post.
Amanda
The Wink
Tumble Dry