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How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Freelance Website: 3 Quick Questions to Answer

How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Freelance Website: 3 Quick Questions to Answer

If you want to be a writer online, you need a website.

Nobody’s going to argue with that. As a freelance blogger your website is one of the deciding factors in getting you hired.

But choosing the right domain name for that website is a HUGE obstacle for some writers. I’ve seen people dither over this decision for weeks, wasting time they could’ve spent marketing and blogging and earning.

To make this simple, I’ve broken down the basic process of choosing an effective domain name into just 3 questions. Answer these, and you can choose your domain name today. Tomorrow, on with the making money. 🙂 

Just to be clear: all the example domain names I give in this post are ones I made up on the spot. They may or may not already belong to somebody, and they aren’t recommendations.

Question 1: SEO or Brand Recognition?

Do you hope to bring a lot of clients to your website via search engines?

If so, you’ll need to consider what words your ideal client will type into Google when they need a freelance writer, and use those in your website. Having them in your domain name itself isn’t necessary, but it can help people to recognise that your site is what they’re looking for.

Here are two simple ways to choose domain names.

  • Location: if you specifically want local clients, you can include the name of your nearest town or city in your domain name. (Examples: LondonBlogger.co.uk, ChicagoWebContent.com.) To be honest, though, I find this approach kinda weird and impersonal — as if your location were the most important thing about you, which I’m sure it isn’t.
  • Specialism: if you write in a specific niche, you can include that in your domain name. (Examples: TechnologyWriter.com, HotelBlogger.com.)

SEO is lovely and all, but I believe you’re better off focusing on brand recognition than on search engine attention. Why?

First, because the way Google and other search engines decide which sites are at the top of their search results can change from one day to the next. And they’re not big fans of exact match domain names like CheapAirlineDeals.com or Best-SEO-Tool.net. You don’t need the extra worry of “What will I do if Google updates its algorithm and I drop out of the search results?”

Second, because waiting until a potential client hits Google looking for a freelance writer is much less effective than reaching out and talking to your potential clients before they start searching.

And third, because you might change your niche or your location — you don’t want to have to register a new domain name every time that happens!

Rather than hoping to win clients by snagging their attention on a search results page, build and focus attention on your business brand.

Question 2: Your Name or a Business Name?

Using your own name as your domain name depends on how rare a name you have and how much you can tweak it to differentiate yourself from anyone with a similar name. I use Namecheap.com (affiliate link) to look up domain names, check they aren’t already taken, and buy the ones I want.

The most popular and most logical domain name to use is FirstnameLastname.com, but if you find that somebody’s already using that, there are other “your name” options:

  • FirstnameMiddlenameLastname.com
  • FirstnameMiddleinitialLastname.com
  • LastnameFirstname.com
  • YourinitialsLastname.com
  • FirstnameLastnameWriter.com
  • LastnameWriter.com

(Each time I used “writer” in these examples, you could use a variation like “writes”, “writing”, “blogger”, “blogs”, “blogging”… you get the idea, right?)

For example, my name’s pretty rare. There aren’t any other Sophie Lizards that I know of, though there’s a Sophie Lizardi somewhere in South America (but she isn’t a freelance writer, so that’s fine).

I use SophieLizard.com as a personal portfolio site that links to my writer site, to this blog, and to whatever else I want people to know about me. And my writer site URL is LizardCreativeChaos.com. Why the “creative chaos”? It does nothing for my SEO, but it tells potential clients a lot about what to expect. 😉

If you give your business a name other than your own name, you can use that as your writer site domain name, as I do with Lizard Creative Chaos. The benefit of this approach is that you can choose your business name (and matching domain name) to be any or all of the following:

  • easy to remember
  • easy to spell
  • indicative of the service you offer
  • indicative of your style and personality

This is also a good option if “your name” domains aren’t easy to get hold of, if there’s another freelance writer with a similar name to yours, or if you want to keep your FirstnameLastname.com domain for a different purpose.

Question 3: Which Top Level Domain?

If you had a shiny new domain name in mind but somebody’s already registered the .com version of it, you might be tempted to go for one of the alternative top level domains. (The top level domain is the part after the last dot in the domain name, e.g. com, org, biz, net, and so on.)

My advice? Don’t do it.

If someone’s already using the .com version of your dream domain name, then you’ll end up splitting your audience between people who go your .biz (or whatever) site and people who accidentally go to the .com site instead.

That’s annoying even if your business doesn’t directly compete with that other site — but if the other site belongs to another writer for hire, then you’re in a bigger pickle and your potential clients will get confused. Some businesses buy up all the top level domains for their chosen domain name, just to make sure they don’t get used by anybody else.

There are more top level domain choices now than ever, but .com is everybody’s first guess so that’s what I stick with. If the .com domain name you want isn’t available, I’d choose a different name rather than a different top level domain.

OK, have you chosen the domain name you want? Super. Now go and get it registered!

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Comments

  2. Oh dang, it would be cool to win but I’d rather pay the $8 for a domain registration (that’s what I pay at Name Silo) than risk having someone else see the domain I want here and register it before I have the chance. I do have a writer site at http://professionalseowriter.com, but I’ve come up with another name that I like better and I plan to build a new site around that brand, rather than just using a keyword phrase for my domain as I am doing now. Google used to like that, but not so much anymore.

    I have my own name registered (bethannyparker.com because bethparker.com was taken by another writer!), but my plan is to use that site for creative writing (fiction, poetry, and songwriting) and use the other site for web content writing, which is my bread and butter. I also have a domain registered with a pen name that I plan to use only for children’s picture books (MissMaizie.com – she/me is also a clown!). Since the audience for each type of writing is different, I think it makes sense to keep them separate and have separate e-mail lists for each.

      • LoL. I remember doing this myself when I was trying to get a good writer site and wanted to ask what to get, at the same time. I even sent an e-mail to Carol Tice, asking whether she liked one or the other domain name, but didn’t ask openly in forums.

  3. My freelance writing business is Write About Everything. I have not been working for the past few years, but I am getting ready to gear back up and try to re-establish myself. WriteAboutEverything.com would be my first choice, but maybe its time for a fresh name for a fresh start. Not sure. I would love input!

    • Hi Teresa,
      Sophie wants us to provide input to other comments, and quite frankly, I do NOT feel qualified to give any suggestions. But I can tell you what my first impression is to your website name: With the name ‘WriteAboutEverything’ my first impression is that you provide information on how to write about diverse topics in all markets from blogging, to ad copy, to magazine, newspaper, books, including the various styles: fiction, biography, non fiction, history etc. That is what I would be assuming given your title. So if that is what your niche is, for me, you nailed it. : ) But please remember, I’m only one person, I’m not a ‘pro’ and my domain name doesn’t match my niche one tiny bit! : ) I do, however genuinely wish you the best of luck. I can tell you have passion, so take that passion and follow your instincts. : )

    • Hi Teresa,

      I checked and writeaboutEverything.com isn’t available, so you may try with something like iWriteAboutEverything.com which is available. You might not like the i in it, but Google pardons you for using it. 🙂

      • IWriteAboutEverything.com is interesting — I think you’ll come up with other effective ideas if you mull over exactly what your site’s for and who you want it to appeal to. I see Write About Everything as a pun (“right about everything”) which is funny to the people who notice it, but like you said, a fresh start for this new phase of your career might be a good idea.

        Think about what you want to write for the next five to ten years, and focus your domain name choice on that or on your own name. 🙂

        • For a domain like this one with many words in it, I would try using a website like nameboy.com, which can offer many suggestions, if you just give it a primary and a secondary word for the domain name.

          There’s also a checkbox to suggest rhyming domain names. Try it out.

  4. I used my existing domain for my site, and since it includes a less common word (continuum) the number of times I’ve had to spell out my email has become frustrating. Time for a new one, I think!

    • Hi Hazel,

      Very simple to choose a good domain name for you. Get either of these available domain name:

      writerhazel.com
      hazelwrites.com
      hazelwriting.com

  5. My site is called Addicted to Writing, though the domain is pinartarhan.com. The first site I started is an entertainment website, and that has my name on the URL. I didn’t want to switch hosts – I like their customer service, and pay extra for another domain, so I made my writing website URL writing.pinartarhan.com. It’s simple, gets the point across and I guess it sounds a bit broad, which is OK because I cover both fiction and non-fiction writing. I’m however a bit slow with my free blogger sites. Blogger is tougher to manage, but I didn’t want to create two more sites with my name in them. So if I do win, it will get to be “Datingandrelationshipsinthe21st Century.com”, or just datinginthe21stcentury.com for my dating blog or “beautyandfitnessforthefunlovinggirl” for my beauty blog. I realize they are a mouthful, but they are the names & brands for the blogs:)

      • With blogger, it’s either the same or very similar. With the writing site, I changed the name later. I hadn’t had found the name I wanted yet so…that’s why they are different. Not ideal, perhaps, but it didn’t seem practical to try to move everyone to a new site with a new name.

        • Hi Pinar,
          My domain and site title don’t match either and after seeing Alicia’s comment, it makes me kick myself even more. However, you appear to be established and doing well, so perhaps for you it doesn’t matter. Your site ‘Addicted to Writing’ has me curious so I’ll have to check it out. I think your writer site name is perfect because it is your exact name and you are blessed with an uncommon (yet beautiful) name.

          For some reason, while your anticipated site names make sense, it’s just too long to me. I can’t really think of how to shorten though. Maybe try using ‘trend’ or ‘modern’ to kind of shorten the 21st century thing? datingandrelationshiptrends? moderndatingandrelationships? That’s still a mouthful though. Regardless of the length, the DM clearly states what the site is about…and I think that is a huge plus. : ) And I’m only ONE person of millions. Good luck to you and I know you’ll be great. : )

          • If your domain name is based on your own name, then I think you can get away with giving your site a name/title of its own – like Alexis Grant used to run The Traveling Writer at AlexisGrant.com (before she refocused her site onto entrepreneurship more than travel).

            What worries me is the idea that potential clients will visit pinartarhan.com rather than writing.pinartarhan.com, get confused, and leave. Is there no way you can import the content from your writer site to pinartarhan.com and redirect the traffic to come with it?

            • Hi Sophie,
              You are right, but I’m afraid the initial site has so many posts, and internal and external links that it’d be a near disaster to try and sort them out…But the entertainment site has a hire me page that describes my services and links to my writing site. It also states that my writing site has my portfolio and my writing covers other areas. Maybe I should post a portfolio page on my entertainment site as well, just to be on the safe side…

          • Thanks, Lynn:) I also believe the pros overweigh the cons. It’s hard to find the perfect name and URL that will please you, give your audience the right idea while attracting them and be simple enough to be remembered…

    • Hi Pinar,

      You don’t have to switch hosts to be able to use another site or link your writer site to another domain while keeping the same domain you use now as your blog.

      I’d suggest getting getaddictedtowriting.com which is available so that it’s almost the same name as your blog name. Google ignores words like the, get, etc. So, that extra word doesn’t matter in the domain name too much.

      • What worries me is the idea that potential clients will visit pinartarhan.com rather than writing.pinartarhan.com, get confused, and leave.

        What Sophie said is what I think too. So, what you can do is – make pinartarhan.com as your writer site (just need to move content from writer.pinartarhan.com to pinartarhan.com).
        Then, move the blog from the current pinartarhan.com to pinartarhan.com/blog (like most people have, including me). And, then, redirect writer.pinartarhan.com to point to pinartarhan.com/blog. Not that hard to do.

        If you need help, I’m ready to help with the above, or you can contact your webhosting support.

        Later, you could even move the blog to it’s own domain and just keep a link on your writer site pinartarhan.com from which people can click and go to your blog. This is how Carol Tice did too. Sophie knows this. This is my plan as well.

  6. I’ve included my blog in my writers site. I was told that many times people will Google a writer (or anyone, for that matter) by name, so my URL is http://www.shaunalbowling.com. The name of my site is Bravewarrior’s Feathered Pen. I chose it because my pen name is Bravewarrior. I’ve had mixed reviews about my site. Web Relief loves it and Carol Tice thinks it’s confusing. My alexa.com global ranking is pretty good for a site that’s only been live since August 2013, so for now I’m going to keep things as they are.

    • Hi Shauna,

      I too think it’s confusing to use a different site name and a domain name. If I were you and would have the pen name as Brave Warrior, I’d get one of these domain names (all are available):
      abravewarrior.com
      ithebravewarrior.com
      iamabravewarrior

      • Thanx for the feedback, Raspai. Unfortunately, I’ve already bought the domain name. When you Google Shauna L Bowling, my site comes up, several articles I’ve written and even comments I’ve made on the ‘net. The main purpose of my site is to try to drum up freelance business. My domain name and the site fee I paid are good until August 2014. I may have to take another look at the overall picture when it comes time to renew.

        • You don’t have to use more than a dollar or two to get a new domain these days, nor change the hosting. And you wouldn’t lose visitors or traffic, either. By the time you have to renew the site and hosting etc, the domain name I mentioned above may be already gone. Anyway, that’s just a suggestion.

          Name + family name isn’t bad and I like your (clean) site 🙂

        • I think you have a fine domain name, Shauna. What might confuse some people is that they expect you to use *either* a pen name or a real name, but not both!

          If you want to appeal to a wide market of businesses that could become your clients, then the Bravewarrior name may put them off (they’re expecting Shauna, pro writer). If you want to write specifically for clients who are into the eco-warrior / shamanic vibe, though, then the pen name won’t hurt and may help to emphasise your commitment to these values.

  7. This is super helpful information, Sophie. I currently blog at TheWritingRealm.com and just set up pages offering my writing and mentoring services. I’m not entirely sure if that’s the right choice or if I should go with a completely different website for my writing services.

    • It’s fine as a starting-point, Alicia. You’ll always have the option of creating another site on a separate domain later if you want to, and some freelance bloggers are very successful with a simple Hire Me tab on their blog (Tom Ewer’s a fine example).

      One thing you might want to do, though, is register AliciaRades.com so that nobody else grabs it — then if you want to use it in future, you know you’ve got it. 🙂

      • I’ve actually registered the domains for my two youngest kids’ names (the older ones can get their own if they want them–they’re adults now). I had to use the middle names because first + last was already taken. Maybe someday they’ll have a use for them, and if they do, they’ll have an aged domain waiting for them. I even put up a tiny bit of content with Amazon links. Every now and then, they actually make a sale.

        • Nice idea. 🙂 You could even save the Amazon income in a high-interest account and hand it over when they’re older. “Here’s your trust fund, kids!”

      • Hey Sophie,

        This post inspired me to start my own writer website. I settled on AliciaRadesWriter.com. The reason I chose this opposed to just my name is that I’d like to start publishing some of my fiction, and I don’t want fans to get confused, so when I’m ready for an author website, I’ll do something along the lines of AliciaRadesAuthor.com.

        • Great, nice and quick! Another suggestion from me is to also get WriterAlicia.com and WriterAliciaRades.com and then point them both to your AliciaRadesWriter.com website.

          Sophie would be able to tell whether this is a good suggestion or not, but I think this could help people find you if they only searched for Alicia and writer, as well. Not a big deal getting two domains for 1-2 bucks each.

          And, I like your new writer website. Nice and clean. Which theme did you use?

          One small suggestion I can make is to change the background of your image from white to the light gray one, to match the page background. Use some color dropper tool to get the exact color of the page background. The white background in the image shows up.

          Also, at least link your e-mail address (the yahoo(dot)com one) to the actual e-mail address, so people can e-mail by just clicking on it.

          Just my two cents.

          • And well, you should have a professional e-mail address, not a yahoo/gmail one. Use something like alicia[AT]aliciaradeswriter.com or even writer[AT]aliciaradeswriter.com

            Create them from your cpanel

            • Hey Raspal. I really like your suggestions. I already registered the domain name before I saw your comments. I still think aliciaradeswriter.com is good, but I do like your ideas. And I was thinking about getting a different email. Your suggestion for alicia at aliciaradeswriter.com is a good one. Thanks!

  8. Hi Sophie, Thanks for another great post. I have gone down the route of using my own name – http://www.mel-wicks.com – for two reasons: One, I operate in a reasonably small geographical/population area and my local audience already know my name and what I do, so it made sense to promote my new freelance writing business under my own ‘brand’; and two, I felt it gave me the flexibility to change direction without having to change my url, if that’s what I want to do. I have used my tagline to describe what I do (business writer), which I hope is enough to satisfy the SEO side of things. I hadn’t thought about buying up other top level domains to protect my name, but good point. I still feel like a babe-in-the-woods about all of this, but I’m learning fast! Thanks again, Mel

    • Hi Mel,

      Why not get melaniewicks.com (it’s available, so snatch it) and remove the dash in your above domain name? You won’t lose visitors if you use a 301 redirect to point the old domain to the new. I did this for one of my blogs too.

      • Raspal’s right, you could give yourself a new domain name without the hyphen in the URL (people tend to forget to type in the hyphen, and then they get lost) and redirect all the traffic. Up to you to decide if it’s worth the time and a few dollars for an extra domain name registration. If you’re happy with the hyphen and clients are finding you OK, then there may be no need.

        If your clients are mainly local, you could also consider adding your location into your site’s tagline to help them find you in online searches. 🙂

  9. Hi Sophie,

    Very lovely post on getting a good domain name for your writer website!! Secondly, lovely site at sophielizard.com with the onmouseover effect. Which theme are you using?

    I myself spent hours and days, thinking about the perfect domain name for my blogs and websites. Just a waste of time. However, I’d still recommend psychicwhois.com to anyone wanting to try find a good domain name with a little brainstorming. The domain name you type is instantly shown as available or not. Very nice tool, IMHO. Using Godaddy or Namecheap for searching an available domain name is time consuming as they have to search the database and display another page. On Psychicwhois, it is as instant as Google instant searches.

    At this time my writer site is at my personal blog’s domain (the URL linked to my name above) – RaspalWrites.com. I got it after seeing many U.S. writers getting a writer site by just adding the word “writes” to their names.

    For me, RaspalWriter didn’t sound very nice, and WriterRaspal.com had a double R in it, so I didn’t get these. Another option was raspalthewriter.com, but didn’t get it yet.

    A few months ago, I changed my tech blog domain from easytechnicalblog.com to savvytechwriter.com. This is a better domain name for a writer website. I may use this as my writer site but the content at my writer site needs a good overhaul first.

    Last week, I purchased a short domain name rspl.ws (pointed it to bit.ly) as rspl is what I sometimes use as a short form of my name (with vowels removed). Someone mentioned .ws isn’t a good extension to use as it’s used by spammers, but I had already purchased the domain. Interestingly, .WS may also be used as a WriterSite (.WS could be thought as short for Writer Site).

    Just yesterday, I purchased a new domain name – mywritersite.com . Sounds nice, and the word “writer site” in it sounds good too. Haven’t yet decided, still playing with some themes to use on this one before I may use it as my writer site.

    Only down side of savvytechwriter.com and mywritersite.com is, they don’t contain my name.

    I’ve used Godaddy for all domain purchases and always used coupons. Always got them at 1 or 2 USD. That’s a dirt-cheap price for a domain name, for an year.

    Thanks for reading this long comment.

    • Raspal! Thank you for the information on psychowhois.com!!! I am sooooo bummed right now. When I registered my domain name…which I’m disliking more and more…lynnsilva.com was taken by a realtor a few hours away from me. When I checked just now…it’s OPEN!!!! This has been a bad month for me with Christmas, a broken computer and a broken cell phone…but WOW…I’m so excited! I may be able to purchase my own name as a domain!!! Thanks so much!!! : )

      • Sorry, it’s psychicwhois.com instead. Sorry for getting psycho and remembering it wrong. I always make that mistake.

        Use a coupon (Google for it), be it with NameCheap or GoDaddy. You get domains in 1 or 2 bucks these days, using a coupon. I got all of mine for 1 USD.

        And yes, lynnsilva.com is available. Get it for 1 or 2 bucks before anyone else gets it.

  10. Alicia, though WritingRealm looks nice in writing, to me it seems a little difficult to say. I’d say the same thing about the word WritersResidence.

    Try psychicwhois.com and see if you can come up with some good domain names. Don’t waste much time though.

    My suggestion to you, and be QUICK on this one: Get WriterAlica.com before anyone else gets it. It’s available. You can continue using WritingRealm as your blog, and use WriterAlicia, as your writer site. You can contact me for help on any technical aspects of these and I’ll do it free.

  11. Lisa, I have NEVER looked at your writer’s site until now and I am incredibly jealous and proud at the same time. It’s lovely. 🙂 I love the font and colors – it’s far different than most other writers’ sites.

    And Sophie, you know I have breebrouwer.com (and geekmylife.net for my blog, though now I’m sad I couldn’t convince the owner of geekmylife.com to let me buy it from him). HOWEVER… how cool would it be to brand myself as BrouwerBloggingBliss.com? 🙂

    • Hmm. I gotta say, I don’t think “bliss” when I think of you… no offence! Bliss to me is housewives or meditation or somesuch. Soft and squishy. You’re smart and sharp and shiny. 😉

      If you’re thinking of buying up any extra domain names, geekmybiz.com is available, as is geekmyblog.com. Might make nice spinoff sites if you win the contest!

      • Yeah, super true about the “bliss” part. Maybe something simpler like BrouwerBlogging.com would be best if I ever wanted to re-brand.

        Good idea about the spin-offs!

        • BloggingBrouwer.com sounds better to me. Both would be nice.

          How about just breeblogger.com or bloggerbree.com? Just a thought.

          geekmylife.com is expiring on April 20, so if the guy hasn’t used it for almost 3.5 years, there are chances he may not renew it. It’s the same thing with raspal.com – I think some company or someone from Japan owns it and only has a placeholder page on it. When it was available back before 2004, I didn’t have money or any method to purchase it, or a need, then. Later, I wanted it but couldn’t get it. It’s just registered and a placeholder page displays Japanese on it since many years. Just waiting till April 10 this year, when it expires. Trying to contact these guys didn’t get me any reply.

          • Raspal, I contacted the guy who owns geekmylife.com and he CLAIMS he’s going to do “something” with it in the future but he’s not sure when, and thought he might be willing to let go of it for $1400 or more (since two estimating sites apparently thought that domain is worth that). I told him no, and that he should let me know if he ever doesn’t want it. But… I’ll keep a good eye out on April 20 to see if he doesn’t renew and score it that way, instead! I’d rather not give up that name (Geek My Life just has a good ring to it), but that’d be the alternative if I had to.

            • Hi Bree,

              GeekMyLife without doubt sounds so, so lovely. I love the sound. MyGeekLife doesn’t sound that nice.

              I think, the best way could be to backorder that domain, though I don’t have much idea about backordering. But anyway, what you may lose is just 50 bucks compared to the 1400 which the guy is asking for the domain.

              There’s another nice .com domain name I found which you may like, but I don’t wish to reveal it here – will PM you in the forum. 🙂

  12. Hi Bree,
    No need to be sad on that one. You know Problogger is on .net too, right? Though Darren got the .com some time ago too. But he’s not using the .com as the main domain for Problogger.

    How about BlissyBloggerBrouwer.com istead of BrouwerBloggingBliss.com? Or even, BlissyBloggerBreeBrouwer.com? Long, but sounds lovely to me. 🙂

    • Thanks, Raspal. I do know for a fact that some of my friends and acquaintances online tried the .com link once without me telling them the real address, and they realized immediately it wasn’t my site (the guy who owns it hasn’t blogged since 2010, even though he told me he wanted to start blogging again last year, which is why he didn’t want to sell me the domain…).

  13. Hi Sophie!
    As usual, your posts are amazing. I’ve yet to set up a separate ‘writer’ site and it’s been established that my current site name is not one I’m happy with. However, the GOOD NEWS is that when I was fist domain name hunting, my name was taken. Thanks to Raspa’s post, I searched again just now and it is not taken!!! So it is more than obvious that if I am blessed enough to win this, my writer site will be lynnsilva.com! : )

  14. My last name is long and difficult to spell (almost everybody gets it wrong), so although it is available, I don’t think it’s a good choice. And my first name is so common that most permutations of it are taken. I guess I need to come up with an awesome company name!

    • Even though Jenny is a common name, it took me less than 3 seconds to check WriterJenny.com and JennyWriter.com and both are available. Unless, you don’t like them …

  15. Hey Sophie, thanks for, once again, bringing clarity to a difficult subject. Difficult for me anyway. Here’s the deal, my struggle was with WHY I should use a certain name or CAN I use this name or that name, or HOW do I know what I should choose? Questions like these and more were spinning me into avoidance.

    I wanted to make a thoughtful decision, but there was too much to it, and I’m a busy guy; I’ve got plenty to do besides worry about my freelance website, it probably won’t happen anyway (my friends in the low self esteem community will understand).

    Anyway, after reading your blog post I was stoked, because it gave me some much needed clarity, and in record time. Before I was finished reading I knew the name I was going to use if it was available. So I clicked through your link as soon as I finished and searched Namecheap for my first choice, it wasn’t taken so I purchased it.

    My new website is jadambailey.com, but my blog will be called Words Are Cool! That’s my plan anyway.

    Thanks again.

  16. My full name is Jonathan Adam Bailey. I changed it when I was seven years old and we were moving from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, California (about 8 hours away). The kids in my school made fun of me singing “Jon, Jon the Leprechaun, went to school with nothing on.”

    I told my mom I wanted to change my name, she played along and suggested my middle name, Adam. I was like, okay! She asked if I could spell it, so i did: A-d-u-m, hahaha. Anyway, I was in my new school a few days later and said my name was Adam and it stuck. Within a week they were calling me ‘Atom Bomb’, ‘Adam Ant’ and my all-time favorite ‘Where’s Eve?’

    As far as writing goes, I’ve wanted to use J. Adam Bailey for my bestsellers as well as blog posts, so I figured it would work. What do you think?

  17. I know the contest is over but I thought I’d add my 2 cents.

    When I was thinking of a name, I pretty much had those same questions in mind.

    So I wrote down my kids’ first names (3 of ’em) and picked two letters from each of their names: Aelris Blogging.

    It’s funny, though. A few of the names I thought of first were connected to fantasy characters in either card games (Magic the Gathering, etc.) or some online game. One character was a scantily clad woman! lol

  18. OK, the winners are:
    3 domain names: Raspal Seni
    1 domain name: Lynn Silva and Bethanny Parker

    Congrats, folks – I’m emailing you now. 🙂 For everyone else, you can grab a domain name at Namecheap for as little as $3.98 per year, no need for discount codes or special offers.

  19. Great advice on choosing a domain name, especially as you pointed out, if you move location or change your business. Thanks for the link to namecheap.com too, that’s been really useful. Can’t agree more with what you said about choosing your domain name carefully in terms of people trying to find you either. There are so many domain names out there that have nothing to do with the person who runs the business or what the business is about that it makes me wonder how on earth they make any money.

  20. Hi Sophie,

    Thanks for the great tips on what goes into creating an effective domain name. They all have value. At the same time, I believe one needs to be strategic when initially coming up with potential names. This means considering things like your mission statement, target audience, competition and reputation you’re trying to establish. It is then, at that point, where your tips can be applied to make sure you don’t do something foolish. Hope this makes sense and thanks again for the post.

    Joe

  23. Great tips! I think they key is to choose something simple and short with no confusing letter combinations or hard to remember words. Try to avoid “-“, etc. I usually hire a freelancer from websites and before we go ahead with the deal I always check the website so make sure its presentable with a pretty portfolio aswell 🙂

  24. Thanks for the great tips on what goes into creating an effective domain name. They all have value. At the same time, I believe one needs to be strategic when initially coming up with potential names. This means considering things like your mission statement, target audience, competition and reputation you’re trying to establish. It is then, at that point, where your tips can be applied to make sure you don’t do something foolish. Hope this makes sense and thanks again for the post. how do i promote video songs over internet through channels like youtube, vimeo, dailymotion

  25. Cool to see you link to Namecheap. I’ve used them for 13 years now and my experience is that they’re great for registering domains, but not the best for hosting. Are you using Namecheap for hosting this website?