Facibus On Blogging

This is the second in a series of get a real blog posts, designed to help you make the jump to self-hosted blogging (if that’s what you want to do).

Note: I’ll let you know right up front that I have an interest in getyerown.com - I’m using it to illustrate some of the examples below. Most domain registration resellers operate in more or less the same way - please use whichever one you feel most comfortable with. Just compare prices first

I’d also like to add that the following is a longer post than most I write - the subject material is complex and I’m only covering it at a fairly superficial level. If you have questions, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Domain names are important if you want to increase awareness of your blog. Whether you’re promoting a cause or selling a book or making money directly from the blog, the right domain name will help you achieve your goals. There are two approaches to this - a “shirley” name (in other words, calling it anything that might as well be Shirley Temple) and stacking your domain name with the same keyword or words that people will use to find you on Google. Of these, the latter is the better - all things being equal, Google will give a higher relevance to a domain name that matches the entered search terms. In plain language, “acmewidget.com” will rank higher than “acmebolts.com” on a search for Acme Widgets (notwithstanding that the Acme Bolt Company might have a higher page rank for their site - but this is one of those “all things being equal” discussions, where you are wanting to stack as many positives on your side as possible - please get the right domain name, it will help you, even if you never want to sell your blog).

Keywords that fit your niche
Firstly, it is important that your domain name fits your niche as closely as possible - and wherever possible, it should be loaded with niche-specific keywords.

Example: Let’s say you’re living in Canberra and run a television repair business - what keywords do you think that your customers are going to type into google or whitepages.com.au (or any other business directory service) to find you? How can you make it easier for them? You can probably guess that canberratelevision.com or canberratelevisionrepair.com are the obvious choices - but how do you know?

Enter Overture’s Inventory tool. It is easy - you enter the search terms you’re interested in, and it returns the most popular associated searches across Overture’s database. Searching on “Canberra Television Repair” didn’t bring up any hits - I guess because Canberra is in Australia - but “Television Repair” showed the following results.

You can see that “television repair” ranked second in associated searches - so it is actually a good combination to go for.

Once you’ve found the right combination of keywords, what do you do next? Find the right domain name

Finding the right domain name
This is not as easy as it sounds. Truth be told, if there are two good keywords that go together to describe your niche, someone has probably grabbed them.

Some rules of thumb:

• if you’re never ever going to sell the domain name/blog, then monetary value of the domain name alone doesn’t matter as much. That said, domain names are more valuable if they are going to bring in more search engine traffic (and you might be wanting to do that, so you may as well go for the best name you can).
• all things being equal, .com names are worth more than .net, which are worth about the same or slightly less than .org, but all these are worth more than an equivalent .info domain name. This is very much an “all things being equal” thing - trust me, facibus.com is not worth anywhere near as much as problogger.net
• all things being equal, shorter names are more valuable than longer ones. They’re also easier to remember. Imagine telling someone your domain name over the phone - it is pretty hard to misunderstand “news.com.au” or “acmebolts.com”
• complex words, words with different ways of being spelt, and uncommon words can make your life harder - netmarketing.com vs netmarketting.com, enroling vs enrolling, and so on. These are the province of the typosquatter (someone who makes money from common mispelling of popular sites or where people get the .com and the .net mixed up - generally frowned upon).

There are a couple of ways to find the right combination of keywords such that it works for Google and for human readers:

1. magnetic words, and
2. a domain name suggestion service.

Magnetic words are easy - just write all the keywords you can think of on little bits of paper and move them around (just like you would the magnetic poetry kit words on your refrigerator at home). When you come up with something that doesn’t sound too revolting, check a domain name reseller to see if it is available.

A simple domain name suggestion service is available through getyerown -  I typed in acmebolts.com (which is already taken) but it suggested the following alternatives under the Smart Search tab:

You can also have a lot of fun with NameBoy. NameBoy does the same smart search but does it, well, a little smarter. Here’s how NameBoy handles the keywords “acme” (used as primary) and “bolts” (secondary):

What I usually do is to use NameBoy then buy the domain names from getyerown - it works out a little cheaper. NameBoy wants USD15.00 a year for .com domain names and getyerown USD7.15 (USD6.95 plus 20 cents for the ICANN fee). Please register domain names with whoever you feel comfortable dealing with - for example, if you are an Aussie, Melbourne IT charges AUD69.50 a year for .com domain names, but their offices are right here in Australia (if that is important to you then the extra is worth thinking about).

There is another alternative - to buy the right name even though it belongs to someone else. Naturally, this costs more. If you would like to know more about how to do this, please let me know, and I’ll add a post to the series that covers it - I’ve done it, and it can be fun - but be careful that you don’t get sucked into the hobby of domaining - it can be a trap!

Next: we’ll look at finding the right blog platform.

This is the first in a series of get a real blog posts, designed to help you make the jump to self-hosted blogging (if that’s what you want to do).

So… what do you want from your blog? Sounds like an easy question. Have a look through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for bloggers and you’ll see it isn’t quite so simple (and it requires a lot of self-honesty):

• Physiological needs are those required for minimal physical subsistence - the stuff that we need to live, and while I believe that all the layers of the pyramid are important, we can go without the others for short periods. Is it relevant as a motivator for bloggers? Unless you are being tortured into blogging, or use blogging itself for sexual gratification, then it probably doesn’t apply. I’d rate this as a fairly rare motivator.
• Safety is important - and I believe that this covers physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual safety. I can only think of a couple of cases where safety is a motivator for bloggers: (a) when the blogger’s personal beliefs rely on a view that needs to be promulgated through blogging (as in a spiritual mission), or (b) there is a fear of a loss of safety through not blogging (and granted, this could be the same thing). I’m guessing that both of these cases are extreme.
• Love/Belonging is where it starts to get interesting - there is a fine line between blogging because all of your friends do (acceptance of peer pressure is usually placed in the Love/Belonging category), and blogging for the recognition of your friends (which is probably placed in the Esteem category - can anyone confirm?). Regardless, I believe that Love and Belonging are noticeable motivators for bloggers. Will they be sustainable when things become impossibly successful? Love may conquer all, but could the lack of it motivate us to blog?
• Esteem is probably the easiest category of need to identify with blogging. If we look deep inside ourselves, chances are that most of us blog because we like the recognition that it brings. Sure, the recognition may be shared with a business or a partner. Low self esteem increases the need for recognition, but I wouldn’t draw the conclusion that successful bloggers have low self esteem. The esteem might come from blog income, an increase in services sales, or increased product awareness. It may be that the esteem payoff, if not forthcoming, is a prime source of the blog monster.
• Self-Actualisation is the first of Maslow’s growth needs, and is where a lot of us see ourselves as bloggers - we’re on a mission to improve ourselves and others. Sometimes we succeed While I jest, I believe that there is an important thing at work here - creativity. In blogging, we generally think, solving problems in a way that reinforces and extends this aspect of our life experience (in plain language, we use what we have to get what we want and what we have gets better as a result). I’d argue that while self-actualisation is essential to a well-rounded life, it is not a sustainable motivator for bloggers - exercising our creativity is usually a by-product rather than a key motive to keep blogging.

At the time I picked Esteem as the likely need being met by blogging for most people - but a lot of people had differing opinions.

In more practical terms, for the purposes of this exercise, it might be worth picking one or more of the following statements:

• “I have stuff that I want to get off my chest and I don’t care if anyone else ever sees it”,
• “I want to blog to promote my business/book/charity/patient support group/cause”,
• “I want to be better known in my profession”, and/or
• “I want to make money from blogging”.

It can be the hardest thing in the world to be honest with yourself. A little self-honesty now will help you a great deal further down the track. The thing is, if you picked anything but the first option, you would be better off with a self-hosted blog complete with your own domain name. In every case, it is easier to get exposure that way (all other things being equal).

Some of the other factors (such as platform and making money) are linked to a certain extent, so it is important to know which of the above statements fits - and not just now, but where you see yourself in 12 months time. Pick one for now (and it is OK to change your mind later, trust me)

Next: we’ll look at picking the right domain name.