How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Blog

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Your “domain name” is basically your blog name in a world wide web address (e.g. www.yourblogname.com) format. It could also be .org, .net, etc. depending on what you choose.

For example, the domain name for this blog you’re reading now is www.blogsavvypanda.com. So, my blog name is “Blog Savvy Panda.”

The biggest excuse most people have for not getting started on a blog is that they can’t pick out a name.

I don’t want this to discourage you from taking that next step.

I want to help you brainstorm some ideas, so you’ll be confident about the name you come up for your blog.

Before I walk you through and explaining how to choose a domain name for your blog, I want to tell you the story about how I choose my first blog name.

If you’ve been following me, you already know that I named my first blog about personal finance, finsavvypanda.com (FinSavvy Panda).

There are some mistakes I made when I decided on my first domain name and I want to give you some tips on how to start brainstorming some names without making those same mistakes I did.

• Mistake #1: I wasted SO much time trying to find the “perfect” domain name.
• Mistake #2: I was trying to be different and unique (too much).

I remember before starting my blog, I was thinking SO much about my blog name and A LOT of words, phrases, and thoughts were running through my mind – it was VERY overwhelming!

Can you relate?

Just like you, I was extremely excited about starting my blog, so I wanted to come up with THE perfect name!

Now, here’s the first thing to keep in mind when choosing the perfect name for your blog.

 

Don’t forget to save this blog post here on Pinterest so you can refer back to this and avoid these silly mistakes when choosing the best name for your blog!

 

Choosing the Perfect Blog Or Domain Name

Hm… I take that back.

There is actually NO such thing as choosing the perfect name for your blog. It’s the truth and I’m going to tell you why in a bit.

Similar to many other people who started their blogs, I spent so much unnecessary time overthinking this and I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.

Thankfully, I stumbled upon a pro blogger who said your blog name isn’t going to determine the success or results of your blog.

That pro blogger also said that your thoughts about your blog name may change 6 months or even a year down the road due to different reasons. It could be that you look back and think how silly your name sounds (geez – that’s me now), or it could be that you are planning to change the goals and direction of your blog.

Plus, even if you don’t like your name anymore, you can always easily change it down the road.

And guess what, she was ABSOLUTELY right about those points!

So, I followed her advice to STOP overthinking and decided to come up with the name “FinSavvy Panda” (which I now kind of regret, so I’m going to give you quick and easy tips on how to not make the same mistake as me).

For those of you who don’t know what “FinSavvy Panda” is supposed to mean…

It’s supposed to be a short form for “financially savvy” panda because my blog is about money and personal finance.

I was trying to be “unique” and I called myself “FinSavvy”, and I added the term “panda” because I like panda bears. So, hence my domain name finsavvypanda.com.

Even though I get many questions about my name because readers are confused about what “Fin” in the “FinSavvy” term means, this hasn’t harmed my blog or brand in any way!

In fact, the blog with such a silly name has been consistently generating a healthy income month after month – you can also take a look at how I made $22,343.23 blogging in a month since writing this post.

After gaining more experience in the blogging world, I want to give you my best tip when choosing your domain name.

 

How To Choose A Domain Name (And 3 Things To Consider)

In this section, I’m going to give you pointers, so you won’t regret it later on. But again, you can still change your name down the road in the worst-case scenario.

 

1. Choose Words or Phrases That Are Easy to Remember

I regret trying to be “different” and “unique.”

If I could change just ONE thing, I would’ve considered a name that’s simple and easy to remember – especially when you want your readers to remember your short and sweet name in a heartbeat.

For example, because I blog about money and personal finance on my other website, I should’ve chosen words like “finance,” “dollar,” or “money” in my domain name.

Someone actually emailed me and told me they thought I was referring to the fin of a shark, so “fin” doesn’t translate the same ways as “financially” when a reader sees this. Plus, the term “financially” is too long (that’s already 4 syllabuses in one word – “fi-nan-cial-ly”).

Sigh… “Finsavvy?” What the heck was I thinking? *FACEPALM*

 

2. Use .com instead of .org, .net, etc.

When choosing your domain name, I highly recommend going for the most popular and standard form, “.com” and not something else.

Things like .org are more for non-profit organizations, and .gov sites are usually related to government entities.

Just trust me on this one, you are better off with “.com” in your domain name and you can’t go wrong with it.

However, there is one exception.

If you are expecting the majority of your audience to be readers from where you live or reside, you can choose the domain that represents your country. There is nothing wrong with choosing “.com” in this case, but it’s a good idea to use the domain that is associated with your country.

For example, if you plan to start a personal finance blog that is all about Canadian finances (e.g. investing in Canada, TFSA vs RRSP, Canadian coupons, saving money tips for Canadians specifically, etc.), or a travel website that only talks about cities and places in Canada, then it’s best to use “.ca” instead of “.com” in these scenarios.

However, if you live in Canada and you want to start a blog that has the intention to attract the US and other international readers, then stick with the “.com” domain.

Another example is if you plan to write everything about real estate in the UK and you are only focusing on UK readers with no intention of attracting foreign readers from other countries, then it’s best to stick with the “.uk” domain.

 

3. Choose Words Associated with Your Blog Topic and Niche

Depending on what you decide to blog about and what you want your blog’s focus to be, I highly recommend choosing words that are related to those topics.

I go into details and talk more about this in the next section to help you choose a domain name for your blog.

Remember what I said earlier in the first point – choose words or phrases that are short and easy to remember!

And don’t try to be too unique or different (like the mistake I made with my first blog) because you want your readers to have an idea of what your blog is about the moment they see your blog name and land on your page.

 

Examples Of Choosing A Domain Name For Your Blog

When deciding on a blog name, you’ll want to think of a few words related to your niche because that will help people understand what your blog is about.

Here are some examples of domain names in several different niches to give you some ideas. At the time of writing this, these domain names were still available.

By the way, you can use this domain name checker to see if your blog name is still available. If it is, I highly recommend you to act on it quickly and use this guide to start your blog because it can be taken by someone else at any time. This happened to me when I started my second blog, and it also happened to my friend when he waited.

 

Example 1: Something you want to talk about

Depending on what you want to blog about, come up with words that can work for your blog, and personality. If you haven’t decided on what to blog about yet, then you should check out this post that will answer your question, what should I blog about? here.

Here are some examples of some popular and profitable niches:

 

🏠 Home Décor and/or Renovations: DIY, sweet home, house, apartment, cozy, indoor, reno, decor, inspiration, woodwork, paint, furniture, project, etc. An example is brightandcozyhome.com (Bright and Cozy Home) or justapaintbrushandfun.com (Just A Paintbrush And Fun).

 

💗 Self and Personal Development, Motivational, Self-Care, or Positivity: inspire, inspiration, bold, happy, motivation, drive, bloom, live, mindset, etc. An example is beboldandinspired.com (Be Bold and Inspired) or growbigandbloom.com (Grow Big and Bloom).

 

💄 Beauty, Makeup, or Skin Care: beautiful, beautify, pretty, gorgeous, makeup, bright, clear skin, glow, healthy, young, younger, youth, youthful, ageless, tutorials, glam, glamourous, divine, luxe, bold, natural, pure, lipstick, blush, pink, girl, woman, timeless, makeover, etc. An example is skincareessentials.com (Skin Care Essentials) or pinkblushandlipsticks.com (Pink Blush and Lipsticks).

 

🏃 🏋️ Health and Exercise: healthy, live, wellness, fit, nutrition, exercise, workout, calories, clean, run, heartbeat, heart, running, steps, diet, etc. An example is healthyandglowingme.com (Healthy And Glowing Me) or stepstoahealthieryou.com (Steps To A Healthier You).

 

🎨 Creative Arts and Crafting: DIY, crafts, crafter, arts, crafting, handmade, made with love, color, paper, project, supplies, fun, mod podge, brush, glue gun, burlap, doodle, craft room, family crafts, etc. An example is agluegunandme.com (A Glue Gun and Me) or funanddoodles.com (Fun And Doodles).

 

🍔 Food and Recipes: yummy, delicious, breakfast, brunch, dinner, tasty, mouthwatering, dish, kitchen, chef, food, foodie, bites, recipes, baker, taste, cook, cooking, cookbook, vegan, vegetarian, greens, honey, simple recipes, fast recipes, etc. An example is justcookinghere.com (Just Cooking Here) goingveganforlife (Going Vegan For Life).

 

💰 Personal Finance: money, dollar, financial, debt, savings, save, save money, cents, moola, budgeting, budget, coins, counting, debt free, penny, pennies, dime, wallet, broke, etc. An example is countingmycoins.com (Counting My Coins) or mywalletisfat.com (My Wallet Is Fat).

 

👛 Frugal Living: frugal, save money, frugality, penny, pennies, dollar, thrifty, thrift, money, coins, more with less, simple living, etc. An example is simplefrugalhacks (Simple Frugal Hacks) or thesparklingpenny.com (The Sparkling Penny).

 

💲 Investing: currency, coin, cash, dollar, invest, investing, investor, Greenback (for the U.S), Loonie (for Canada), pounds (for the U.K.), growing, wealth, wealthy, dividends, invested, wallet, growth, balanced, think big, financial, wall street, value investing, balanced investing, growth investing, rich, etc. An example is investingismygame (Investing is My Game) or thegreenbackinvestor.com (The Greenback Investor).

 

🌎 Travel: travels, traveling, fun, eats, entertain, places to go, places, visits, world, view, traveler, footsteps, diaries, adventure, flying, flight, fly, destination, backpacking, backpack, resort, escape, world, jungle, abroad, passport, anywhere, etc. An example is meandmypassport.com (Me and My Passport) or 365daysofvacay.com (365 Days of Vacay).

 

As you can see, there are so many possibilities and a lot of words you can put together that describe you and your blog. However, DON’T overthink this part because your blog’s domain name isn’t going to determine the success of your blog.

 

STILL CAN’T DECIDE ON A NAME? You can actually start your blog now even though you cannot decide on a name yet. Bluehost allows you to decide on a name later here, which means you can start your blog and build it without wasting precious time deciding on your blog name! The more important part is setting up your blog and getting your amazing content ready for your readers!

 

Example 2: Mommy blog + something you want to talk about

If you’re a mom, chances are you’re going to be able to relate to a lot of other mom readers with your personal experience, stories, and skills.

For example, let’s say you’re a busy mom and you love to organize everything in your home. From your kitchen and washroom cabinets to your bedroom wardrobe, you just love to organize and you’re excited to teach people about this topic.

You can use quick and simple words like mom, busy, organized, order, organizing, cleaning, etc.

In this case, you could come up with a domain name like momheartsorganizing.com (Mom Hearts Organizing), or busyorganizedmom.com (Busy Organized Mom). At the time of writing this, these domain names are still available.

As you can see, those names are easy to remember. Not only that, but your readers can tell what your blog is about based on your domain name – a mom who loves organizing or a busy mom who is good at organizing.

Another example is it could be you’re a mom who loves to decorate a home and you want to tell your readers everything you’ve learned about home decorations and share your experience with them. You can use easy words like mom, mama, mum (if live in the UK), home décor, sweet home, style, DIY, etc.

In this case, you could up with a domain or blog name like homemeetsstyle.com (Home Meets Style) or homesweetmama.com (Home Sweet Mama). Again, at the time of writing this, these names are still available.

 

Example 3: Your first name + something you want to blog about

This is very similar to example 2.

Instead of using the word “mom” or “mama,” you can replace that with your name, or nickname, along with words or phrases that explain what your blog will be about.

An example is jessieheartsorganizing.com (Jessie Hearts Organizing) if your name is Jessie and you want to write about organizing.

Another example is britneylovestotravels (Britney Loves To Travel) if your name is Britney and you want to blog about travel and eats.

If you are a college student and want to blog about student life, you can use the word “college” or “student” in your domain name.

 

Example 4: Words or phrases that are more general and broader for a “lifestyle blog”

If you are unsure of what to blog about, or you tend to like writing about a lot of different things, then you can come up with a more general lifestyle name that fits you and your blog’s brand or personality.

The easiest approach to this is using your name or nickname in your domain name because this gives you the freedom to write about anything you want. Or you can use words like explore, lifestyle, inspire, life, glam, girl, dreamer, fun, chic, adventure, wild, blog, etc.

Again, if you’re not sure what niche to choose or what to blog about, the great thing is you can still start your blog and choose your name later.

And don’t worry, you’re not alone!

In fact, I get a lot of readers who tell me they have NO clue what to write about, or that they’re afraid they may want to end up wanting to write about something else that’s not related to their domain name.

The possibilities are limitless, but again, don’t overthink or dwell on it too much!

 

If you’re still stuck, I’m telling you to DON’T spend your time worrying too much about this because it would only delay you in starting your blog. Bluehost has an option here to choose your name later so you can get started on your blog without the stress of picking a name first.

This is what you would click on if you want to choose your domain name later when you follow my easy step by step tutorial on how to start your blog here.

If you have a domain in mind, then great! If not, that’s okay because you can still start your blog and choose your name later.

I hope you found this blog post helpful in answering your question of how to choose a domain name for your blog. Once you start your blog using my tutorial, send me an e-mail at ling@finsavvypanda.com and let me know!

I am very excited for you to start your blogging journey and I’d love to hear from you!

Happy blogging, my friend!