Finding Your Perfect ADR Blog Name

In Choosing a Perfect Blog Name, Performancing.com’s Chris Garrett suggested these six criteria:

1. Readable
2. Pronounceable
3. Spellable
4. Memorable
5. Concise
6. Unique

To which I’d add, though not as concisely as Chris,

7. Conveys Blog’s Purpose

Readable, Pronounceable, and Spellable

Readable, in my book, means understandable. A visitor to your blog can read the name and clue in, pretty quickly, to what it generally means. This means minimal or no mediator jargon (unless, of course, your target market is mediators, but even then it’s a good idea to keep it to a minimum), and being witty only enough to be entertaining, if you must, yet not enough to be obtuse.

Select words that people rarely misspell, so you don’t risk difficulty in locating you during web searches or when they try to type your domain name directly into their web browser (I’ll say more about this later when we discuss domain names). If you’ve got a last name that’s a challenge for people to spell correctly, consider choosing a blog name that doesn’t include it.

Unless you intend to become as famous as Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. And I bet some still struggle to recall the spelling of his name. I can pronounce it but had to do a web search to get it right.

Memorable and Concise

Choose a name that’s brief enough to be easily memorable but with enough substance to convey a message. People don’t want to type very lengthy names into a web browser. The less they have to type, the less chance of mis-recollecting the correct name.

Memorable, Unique and Conveys Your Blog’s Purpose

This is all about business branding and a lengthy subject in its own right. People write entire books, even series of books, on the subject. I’ll take a pass with the key basics next.

Copyright 2006 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.