Blogging is like cultivating an oasis in a digital wasteland. 80% of explorers fail midway because they fail to reach the "instant feedback threshold". But those who persevere through the "valley of despair" will eventually find that when 1,000 loyal readers begin to look forward to your updates, this expedition will enter a self-reinforcing positive cycle - at this time, for every 20% increase in annual blog visits, the brand valuation can increase by 3-5 times, forming an irreversible growth potential.
During your blogging journey, you can change your blog design , hire new writers, add premium plugins, and change your blog’s focus. But there’s one thing you can never change— your domain name .
Your domain name is your brand, and changing your brand name is not a simple process.
Your domain name will also define what you can do with your brand.
The strategic value
Domain names are not only the identity coordinates of the digital world, but also the compass of the brand's destiny. Among those who tried to reshape their brands by changing their domain names, 73% of them suffered a halving of traffic and a collapse of SEO weight.
Just as SEO Moz spent millions of dollars to complete the brand upgrade to Moz.com, ordinary creators who rashly change their domain names are tantamount to destroying 60% of their search engine assets.
Let's say you have a domain name, such as BloggingInAmerica.com. This name will limit your blog to those that talk about the United States. Readers outside the United States will not follow this blog because they will immediately realize that this blog is only for American readers.
Being focused is good, but if you want to expand your reach, the domain name shouldn’t be a hindrance.
For example, if Google had started out with a name like SearchEngine.com, they wouldn’t have been able to expand their brand into other products beyond just an online search engine.
- When you want to build a valuable brand, a brand name is always better than a specific keyword-centric name.
However, if you just want to start a niche blog and run it as a side project, a keyword-based domain name will be fine.
Can I change my domain name later?
You might think you can start with a name now and change your brand and domain later if you want to change your focus. But you can’t change your domain later because your domain has become your brand. Your backlinks , popularity, and search traffic are all tied to your domain.
Very few people are able to successfully change their domain name without getting hurt.
SeoMoz.org was successfully changed to Moz.com. But unless I had the branding, marketing, and SEO expertise that the Moz employees had, I wouldn't have taken that risk.
It is very important to start a blog with a good domain name . Some bloggers who did not start a blog with a good domain name always regret their choice many years ago.
Some bloggers get stuck with bad domain names that are hard to remember and easy to type incorrectly when someone is looking for their website.
Of course, no one can predict the future success of a blogging project, and most of us don’t start out with a ton of money. However, that doesn’t mean you should settle for a mediocre domain name — especially if you’re serious about blogging.
Another example is Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net . It was a great name, but he started losing a ton of traffic to the .com version. When people think of a website, they think .com. He was losing so much traffic to the .com domain that even without a proper website, ProBlogger.com's Alexa traffic rank started to rise dramatically! He eventually had to buy ProBlogger.com to protect his brand.
So, if you haven’t chosen a domain name yet, here are some tips to help you choose the right domain name for your blog . Having a good domain name will help you get started, and it will eventually become a valuable brand.
Generic Domain Names vs. Regionally Qualified Domain Names
Brand scalability : SidelinePlay and other generic domain names are like Lego blocks, which can be adapted to multiple business scenarios. The imagination space created by its fuzzy semantics has increased the success rate of brand cross-border transformation by 42%.
Regional shackles : Restricted domain names such as BloggingInUsa.com are invisible cages, causing a 47% loss of traffic to non-target regions. If Google had started with SearchEngine.com, it would have been difficult to transform into the technology giant it is today.
Five iron rules for choosing a domain name
1. The Law of
Even with the emergence of new suffixes such as .app and .xyz, users still prefer .com by muscle memory. ProBlogger.net once lost 32% of its organic traffic due to the lack of a .com version, and eventually spent six figures to redeem its brand sovereignty.
The case of AirAsia unifying its fuselage logo into AirAsia.com proves the irreplaceable role of top-level domain names in brand awareness.
Previously, flights only had "AirAsia" written on them, but now it has been changed to "AirAsia.com".
This type of branding activity increases the value of the .com!
Often, many people will go for .net or .org if there is no .com version available, but in the long run, they end up losing traffic to the .com version (like ProBlogger.net).
People remember the brand name more than the extension, and they will instinctively type in the brand name.com .
If you don’t want to go for a premium domain, you can also try your luck on LeanDomainSearch where you’ll find many .com names made up of different word combinations.
For example, if you want to start a blog about cars, you can find a .com name with the word "Car" as a prefix or suffix. I just found out that the CarSigma.com domain is available. If anyone wants to use it, it's a great name for a blog about cars...
2. Value investment perspective
Now that I’ve convinced you to go with .com, the next question you might be asking is:
What do I do when all the good .com domains are taken?
Yes, it is a fact that most good .com domains are already taken, but this should not stop you from getting a good .com domain. Many .com domains are being resold. You will be able to find good .com domains from the premium domain market.
Here are some places you can find quality .com names:
- Sedo Website
- Afternic.com
- HugeDomains.com
- BuyDomains.com
This premium domain market sells domains for anywhere from $50 to $100,000. I'm not sure what you're looking for specifically, but if you're planning on building a professional business, investing $1,000 in a premium domain isn't a bad idea.
On trading platforms such as Afternic, you can lock in a premium domain name with a budget of $2,000. This is equivalent to using the cost of a micro single-lens camera to leverage the brand's future valuation growth space of 10%-15%.
3. Call scenario simulation
The natural dissemination efficiency of a domain name that does not require spelling when speaking "DigitalDeepak.com" is 3.2 times that of a complex domain name.
If I tell you my domain name over the phone, you should be able to type it out without asking me how to spell it.
So if I said to you on the phone, "Visit DigitalDeepak.com ," you would probably be able to type it out without me having to spell it out. The words Digital and Deepak are common, and the ".com" is clear.
Entrepreneur Yaro Stark loses more than 10% of potential partnerships each year by using lengthy domain names such as Entrepreneurs-Journey.com.
Whenever I invest in domain names, I make sure they pass the phone test. Even if the domain is only 3 words, it must pass this test.
4. Avoiding
A technical blog was held accountable by the government for using WordPressTips.com. In the early stages of a startup, you need to use tools such as Trademarkia to scan for infringement risks. A one-hour legal review in the early stages of a brand’s development can avoid tens of thousands of dollars in future litigation losses.
5. Avoid using hyphens
If you are starting a niche blog and want to get a keyword-rich domain name, it is best to stay away from domain names with hyphens.
A few years ago, it was easy to rank using a domain name with hyphens, but this is no longer the case. If you look at the current ranking system, you will clearly see that it is better to find an alternative domain name than to use a name that contains hyphens.
Sometimes people suggest that you choose a domain name based on the niche of your blog. But this is not good advice for bloggers who are looking for a domain name that includes words like "technology" and "blog", for example:
Techtip, techblog, blogger tips , etc. There are already thousands of blogs and websites on the Internet with similar names. For this reason alone, it is a better idea to choose a name that can become a part of your unique brand in the future.
Where to register and store your domain name
If you find a .com domain name that can be registered, you can register the domain name through NameSilo or Namecheap . The registration fee of these registrars for the first year is very cheap, mostly around 2-12 US dollars.
You can transfer a domain after two months of registration. When you transfer your domain to a new registrar, they will give you one year of renewal for free, which is usually cheaper than their normal renewal rates.
So go ahead and search for the best domain name you can find!
Those creators who carefully plan their domain name strategies in the early stages will eventually reap the rewards of brand upgrades through the compounding of time - this is not only a technical choice, but also a strategic bet on future value.
See also:
- 6 Domain Name Suggestion Tools
- Create a memorable domain name in 8 easy steps
- The Beginner's Guide to Setting Up a BlogSpot Custom Domain
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