Whenever I tell people that I’m a blogger they say, “Do you make money with a blog?” To which I reply, “Yes, I do!”
Many people are just beginning to realize that they can make money blogging (and I’ll cover that in coming weeks). Lots of us start out the same way…blogging about our kids. But then we realize that with just a few tweaks, we could blog about things we love AND make money too!
I thought that it might be a good idea to start sharing with y’all what’s working for me – and maybe what’s not so you don’t make the same mistakes. So let’s start with buying a domain name.
8 Tips for Buying a Domain
Buying a domain name is usually the very first thing a blogger does, but what you may not realize is that it’s probably THE biggest decision you make in your life with your blog.
I made a few of these mistakes because I just didn’t know any better…hopefully I can catch a few people BEFORE they get started.
1. Try to keep it to 2-3 words (there are very few 2 word domains left for the normal $10/year price tag)
2. Try to stick with dot com (.com) since that’s what most people assume everyone is using
3. Steer away from numbers, dashes, and underscores (Play2Lean – oops, but in my defense PlaytoLearn was taken)
4. No product names (the company can force you to remove your blog)
5. Make sure it’s easily spelled (I own sarahkostusiak.com but don’t use it since it’s hard to spell)
6. Make sure there are no double letters ( i.e.-cattalk.com the first word ends with a t and the second starts with one)
7. Make sure it will fit your current brand as well as any future (make sure it’s broad enough so that when you change your mind about what you’re going to blog about, it still makes sense)
8. Use your blog keywords in your name (cattalk.com fits here because it tells you what the site is about)
Basically, take your time and really think through your domain name before you buy.
It’s also recommended that you buy your domain name from one company (I use NameCheap) and your hosting from another company (I use Hostgator) just in case there are any problems. This practice will keep you from having any unnecessary downtime.
If you need any help getting your blog set up, check out my Blog Design Services and/or my Build Your Blog with WordPress course to help you become familiar with your blog and get up and running as quickly as possible.
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Happy Blogging!
