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In this episode of GradBlogger, we talk about how to name your blog, podcast or youtube channel. We discuss why this is an important topic and a six-step process you can use to name these platforms or anything else in your business. We also discuss four tips for picking a blog name and give several examples, including instances where bloggers used their personal names for their domain.
Disclosure: Some of the links in the podcast show notes and transcripts are affiliate links (indicated with [Affiliate] in front). If you choose to make a purchase through these links GradBlogger will earn a commission from that purchase at no extra cost to you.
Introduction
[00:00:00] Welcome to Episode #4 of GradBlogger! Where we are helping academics build businesses and change the world through blogging, podcasting, and video. I’m your host, Dr. Chris Cloney, and in today’s episode, we talk about how to name your blog, podcast or YouTube channel.
This is a critical first step. It also happens to be the place where people get stuck. They fail to launch their blog because they get hung up in picking a name. So in today’s show, we’ll go through a six-step process that I use to create my blog names.
I’ve had three blogs so far:
- MyDustExplosionResearch.com
- My original blog, DustSafetyScience.com, which is now my business blog
- GradBlogger.com, which is where this podcast is hosted
While going through the six-step naming process, I’ll present some examples of websites and blogs run by friends of GradBlogger, so you can get see how they went about selecting their blog name. We’ll also talk about using your own name for your blog and how you can make that work as well.
Some of the information from this episode comes from the first lesson of the GradBlogger ‘Getting Started’ mini-course. The full version is a 10-day email course designed to get your blog up and running in a maximum of two weeks. If you want to sign up, here is the link.
Why are we talking about how to name your blog?
[00:01:49] Your blog’s name is the first thing visitors see when they visit it or type in your URL. It tells them what the blog is about and serves as a brand ambassador, so you want to create the best possible impression.
As I mentioned previously, this is also where people get stuck. I’ve seen people work on a blog for up to a year without launching it because they haven’t found a name that works. Choosing a name should only take two days or a week at most, and I’ll show you how to do it in this episode.
You can also use this naming strategy to select titles for:
- Programs
- Coaching courses
- Webinars
- Individual blog posts
- Anything else you’re doing with your platform or your business.
How to generate blog name ideas
Step 1 – 10-minute keyword session
[00:03:16] Sit down with pen and paper and do a 10-minute keyword session. After setting a timer, write down all the keywords you can think of that are associated with your topic. When I was doing this exercise, I used words like:
- Dust explosion
- Dust fires
- Venting
- Suppression
- Industrial safety
You should be able to come up with a list of 25 to 50 keywords relevant to your research topic or expertise within 10 minutes.
Step 2 – Take a break followed by another keyword session
After the 10 minutes is up, take a break. Go on a 20-minute walk or eat lunch and then do another keyword session. This is when your brain will start to fire on all cylinders. After this second session, you start seeing connections and matching things up.
I learned this mind-mapping trick from Pat Flynn and use it for making many of my business decisions. I believe he covers it in detail in his book [Affiliate] Will it fly?
Step 3 – Additional keyword research
We covered this keyword research idea in Episode #1: Content creation strategies for your research blog. Go to Amazon and search for textbooks about your field. In my case, I typed in ‘dust explosion’ and came up with a list. You can generally flip through tables of content as part of Amazon’s preview mode, so browse through the textbooks for more keywords.
Other resources you can use for keyword research include:
- Research papers
- Quora, which collects ideas and opinions from people
- Answer the Public, a free visual keyword research tool
Step 4 – Highlight 5-10 of the best keywords
Now you should have anywhere from 50 to 80 keywords. Review them carefully and highlight five or 10 of the best ones.
Step 5 – Word mashup and select the top three
Now it’s time to get creative! Take your top five or 10 keywords and start doing some word mashups by combining them in different ways. You can use spreadsheet software like Excel to list them all and do some different copy-paste combinations. Select the top three, one of which will be the future name of your blog!
Step 6 – Hit the streets (one week max)
It’s time to give your top three choices a practice run. Talk to people about them and note the reactions. Are the potential titles easy to say? Do listeners perk up upon hearing them? Give yourself a maximum of one week to test.
Four tips for picking a blog name
[00:07:13] Now that you’re ready to choose your blog name, here are four tips to get you started.
Tip 1 – Get feedback on the name
People can be so eager to unveil their new blogs that they don’t take time to get feedback on the chosen name. The problem with being in a hurry is that you could end up with a name that doesn’t work, like I did when I started. Get feedback by talking to people, in person or in online communities, and asking their opinion.
Tip 2 – Say it out loud (lots of times)
Say the name out loud- a lot! And not only to yourself. With my first blog, MyDustExplosionResearch.com, I found it easy to say but noticed that other people struggled with it when introducing me or announcing me during presentations for example.
Tip 3 – Get the .com if possible
Although multiple domain extensions are available today, .com is still the most recognized and authoritative. There’s also the risk that someone else may take the .com version of your blog name if you don’t and use it to build a more authoritative web presence.
Tip 4 – Pick something and go with it
Do not take more than a week to come up with your domain name. (If it’s taking longer, ask yourself whether you may be letting fear get in the way of your moving forward.) You can always change it later, like I did when MyDustExplosionResearch.com became DustSafetyScience.com. Right now, your goal is to start communicating with your audience ASAP.
The obvious choice (using your name)
[00:10:23] You may be wondering if you should use your personal name, such as (in my case) ChrisCloney.com. There are some definite advantages to this approach:
- It helps build your personal brand
- You ‘own’ your online presence: people who Google your name are more likely to find you than someone else with a similar name in a different field
So why didn’t I do this? In my case, it didn’t work because a personal name makes it harder to house multiple interests. For example, I have:
- DustSafetyScience, which aims to reduce fatalities in industries handling powdered materials and-
- GradBlogger, which helps academics build businesses and change the world
These two brands don’t overlap, so I it is difficult to place them under one roof. I do own the domain name ChrisCloney.com, which I may use in the future to highlight my speaking engagements and list my other sites on it, but unless your blogs are connected, it can be hard to group them under a single domain.
Tip: Use a hosting service like [Affiliate] GoDaddy or [Affiliate] BlueHost to check if your name is available as a domain name, even if you’re not planning on using your personal brand on your website. If it is, buy and park it. As I stated earlier, when somebody Googles your name they’re less likely come up with somebody else, and if you eventually want to use your name as your brand, you have that option.
Examples of not using your personal name
[00:13:24] Now I want to talk about some example domain names, starting with my own and moving on to other GradBlogger friends in the academic entrepreneurship space.
MyDustExplosionResearch.com
This was my original blog, and in retrospect, I can say that the name wasn’t very good. I chose the name after using my keyword strategy because its connection to dust explosions was clear, but I added the ‘my’ even though dustexplosionresearch.com was available.
Here’s a tip: don’t do that! Within a year the site became the authoritative platform for dust explosion research, but I had this stupid MY stuck in the front. I also found that people had trouble saying the name, so make sure to get others to say the name before moving forward with setting up the domain.
DustSafetyScience.com
This is where I now house the DustSafetyScience podcast and the Combustible Dust Incident Database. It’s a much better name for my website for several reasons:
- The alliterative ‘SS; rolls off the tongue more easily
- It has an attractive acronym: DSS
- The ‘Safety Science’ encompasses everything from human factors, government regulations, and engineering technology
- The intended audience understands the ‘dust’ aspect
I migrated MyDustExplosionResearch over to DustSafetyScience in April 2018. The steps involved will be discussed in a future podcast episode, but traffic soon increased, which proves that these transitions won’t hurt your business or blog.
GradBlogger.com
I still remember the first time I said ‘GradBlogger’ to someone else. I was in a coffee shop with a friend who’s a successful blogger and online marketer. The name came from two keywords: ‘graduate student’ and ‘blogger.’ As soon as I said it, his eyes lit up and he exclaimed, “Oh, I love that name!”
The second person I spoke to about GradBlogger asked if I had bought that domain name yet. As I mentioned to project to others in online communities, they would always ask how the ‘GradBlogger’ project was coming along. The name was catchy and easy to say so I knew I could build a successful brand around it.
Now I want to provide three examples of other academic bloggers who decided not to use their personal name to build their platform.
FromPhDtoLife.com (Dr. Jennifer Polk)
FromPhDtoLife.com is the blog of Dr. Jennifer Polk, who also runs BeyondProf.com and other sites that support the academics in career transitions. The name focuses on the audience, which consists of people wanting to find meaningful career paths using their PhDs. When you go to the site, the first thing you see is a smiling picture that really shows off her vibrant personality, so it’s very much her platform even though she didn’t use her name.
Pfforphds.com (Dr. Emily Roberts)
Dr. Emily Roberts has a site called Personal Finance for PhDs. The domain name, Pfforphds.com, is an acronym. This is an option if your keywords are longer and you want a name that’s catchy and easier to remember.
This site’s name focuses on the solution (personal finance) in addition to the audience, which is PhDs. It also has a prominent and welcoming image of Dr. Roberts, so her personal branding remains closely tied to the site.
CareerPathWritingSolutions.com (Dr. Heidi Giusto)
CareerPathWritingSolutions.com by Dr. Heidi Giusto was named using a traditional keyword-based approach that I outlined in the six steps above. It focuses on the solution, which includes resumes, grant proposals, and other high-stakes writing. Although the site doesn’t emphasize her personal brand on the homepage, Dr. Giusto still demonstrates her personality in the ‘About’ section.
Examples of using your personal name
[00:21:28] Now let’s move on to some instances where the blogger inserted their name in the domain and talk about how it fits with their overall branding.
SophTalksScience.com (Dr. Sophie Arthur)
SophTalksScience.com by Dr. Sophie Arthur takes a hybrid approach that reflects what she does: talk about being a graduate student (and now PhD holder!) in scientific fields. The domain includes her name, topic, and solution.
EchoRivera.com (Dr. Echo Rivera)
EchoRivera.com by Dr. Echo Rivera concentrates on a single topic: turning academics and scientists into first-rate presenters. Instead of buying a domain name like AcademicPresenting.com, she went with her personal brand, which works well for her because she’s passionate about presenting and visible in the community.
LindsayPadilla.com (Dr. Lindsay Padilla)
LindsayPadilla.com is another heavily personalized domain name. If you go to the website, you can see that Dr. Padilla is front and center, along with the different projects she works on. She covers a lot of topics and her domain name changes along with them.
I was interviewed on Episode #44 her podcast Academics Mean Business, which is about academics in the entrepreneurship space. She has also created courses like Build A Better Beta, which teaches academics how to put their own courses together.
Katypeplin.com (Dr. Katy Peplin)
Katypeplin.com is a showcase for Dr. Katy Peplin, who focuses on the ways that the right support (productivity, emotional, etc.) can make grad school easier. The About page is really personal and helps you understand who she is and why she is passionate about supporting academics. Dr. Peplin also runs a website called Thrive PhD so in this case, this seperate part of her brand has its own website presence.
LisaMunro.net (Dr. Lisa Munro)
LisaMunro.net is a website that Dr. Lisa Monroe uses to help people become better writers. Although the site doesn’t have her personal branding elements right up front, anyone who reads her work will be struck by how warm and personal it is. This is also an example of using an extension other than .com.
KatieLinder.work (Dr. Katie Linder)
KatieLinder.work by Dr. Katie Linder covers all of the projects that she’s working on. She does podcasts, courses, books, webinars, coaching, and even website development. This is an excellent example of having your personal brand being in the website name and still being able to house multiple different types of projects. Having them all under her personal domain also demonstrates an important point; that she is the common thread that holds these passions together.
Conclusion
[00:25:45] As all of these examples show, there’s no one size fits all approach to naming your blog, website, or other online presence. There are so many possibilities, depending on what you want to achieve with your business and your personal brand. The big takeaway is that you need to get started. Choosing a domain name is an important step, but it’s not irreversible, so don’t let uncertainty hold you back.
Please rate and review GradBlogger on iTunes, because your honest feedback will help us get the blog and the podcast out to more people. I also challenge you to:
- Have a name selected for your blog by the time the next episode comes out
- Buy the domain
- Once you finish setting it up, share your blog in the comments section of this post
I’m really looking forward to seeing what people come up with!
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