A lot of people are interested in how to make money with a blog, and believe it or not when you're planning your blog there are things you can do when choosing a domain name that makes it easy for you to reach your goals, and there are things you can do that will make this process harder.
This post is for business owners who want to build a conversion focused website that they can use to make money, specifically passive income.
One of the most important things you can do as a site owner is to make it easy for tons of people to find your site on the web. Targeted traffic is crucial to your blog's success.
The goal of any blogger is to create a huge audience consisting of raving fans and loyal customers. Targeted traffic allows you to reach your goals.
This article will show you how the domain name you choose can impact how easy or hard it will be for people to find your business on the web.
You'll learn several things that you may not know about your domain and how it works to make your blog or website a success.
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Clever Is Okay, But Easy Is Much Better
When starting a blog or website, the inclination might be to try to come up with names that are clever and catchy.
There is nothing wrong with that, but you should prioritize making your address on the web easy to find.
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Why You Need Your Own Domain Name
Domains give your business a unique identity. Having your own domain can make a huge difference in your blog's success.
Think of the differences between using these domain formats and how they accomplish the goal of simplicity and helping people find the respective locations on the web.
- https://www.yourdomainname.blogspot.com
This is a free domain on the Blogger platform. It is longer and slightly complicated to type. I highlighted the word "blogspot" in red because I wanted to point out an important issue.
The word "blogspot" shines the light on Blogger, the blogging platform owned by Google.
Consumers are used to using domains like the one in the example below. - https://www.yourdomainname.com
This domain format is what people are used to seeing. In addition to being easier to type, there are other positives from this format that you want. It looks more professional, it's short, and to the point, making it less complicated to remember.
This format shines the spotlight where it should be... on your company. The same logic applies to any company that you're associated with that might supply a free website.
Having a free website sounds great, but these free sites help you build the company's brand and not yours. The optimum situation would be to bring the focus to your site/brand.
If possible, purchase your own unique domain and redirect your newly purchased domain to the company supplied domain. That way, you get the exposure, not your company.
See if the Domain You Want is Available
Key Points to Consider
Most people don't realize just how important a domain is until they have been blogging for a while.
The longer your domain is, and the more hyphens, underscores, periods, etc. people have to remember, the more likely it will be that they will get something wrong and miss out on finding your blog or website.
So the only traffic you would likely get with the blogger domain in the first example would be traffic from people who click on your links.
You would probably get very little traffic from someone who remembers the name of your blog or website.
After you've been blogging for a while, it's not an optimal time and in some cases it's too late to change your domain. So take a look at the points in this article to avoid having those issues.
Take a few moments to think about your domain name now, and reap the benefits throughout the life of your blog. #blogging
If you have a complicated domain, you may receive feedback from people who say they can't find your blog. Most people will just leave and never come back.
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Take Time Today, Avoid Issues Tomorrow
Here are 7 reasons why it's important to give time and consideration to the domain name you pick for your blog.
Attempts to come up with clever, witty names may end up costing you some important things like traffic, customers and prospects.
- Traffic. Domains are how existing customers, passers by and prospects will find you on the web and it gives them an idea of the information they will find when they land on your pages.
If you make your domain easy to type and remember, you'll receive more natural or organic traffic which is every blogger's dream. - A Permanent Location for Your Blog. Domain names become the permanent location, address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for your site.
A URL is the human-readable text that was designed to replace the numbers (IP addresses) that computers use to communicate with servers.
Your domain gives your blog a home on the web, and your web hosting is the physical space where you blog's software, database, images and files are located on the server.
Without hosting and a domain name, you have no blog. If you are planning to sell products on your site, you will also need a security certificate.
The term top-level domain (TLD) is the formal name for the suffix that appears at the end of a domain name. Some examples of top-level domains include: *.com, *.net, *.org, *.edu. - Keyword Juice. Domain names that contain keywords can give your site a ranking boost that contains more natural (organic) traffic. Consider placing the primary keyword you want to rank for in your domain name. Including keywords in your domain name helps improve the user experience on your site.
- No Confusion Allowed. One of the things you should avoid is making people struggle when trying to find the information they're looking for.
An uncomplicated domain name helps search engines determine what your site is about and if done well, it can help them lead more people to your offers.
One the other hand, if you have a complicated domain, you may receive visitors that were looking for one thing and landed on your site by accident.
You may tell people about your site, and receive feedback saying they can't find your blog. If you receive feedback, that's a really plus because most people will just leave and never come back. The only fix for that is to use a redirect.
When your domain is complicated and hard to spell, people will give up when they can't reach your site. - The Old Switcheroo. Another issue is that if you lead visitors to something that doesn't line up with what they originally thought they were getting. When this happens, potential customers will leave and never come back.
For example if your domain name and site is about 'cooking', and a person clicks on one of your links and lands on a 'home improvement' page, that has nothing to do with cooking. Your visitor will most likely become confused and frustrated... leaving, never to return.
To give users the best experience, make sure there is a relationship that makes sense, between your domain name, your blog titles, your niche and the information a potential customer sees when they land on your site. - Free versus Paid. Platforms like Blogger, WordPress.com (different from WordPress.org), TypePad, LiveJournal and others offer free sub-domains domains.
However these sub-domains, like the one in the example require that you use a name that includes the platform along with any name you might choose.
So your free Blogger domain is actually a sub-domain of the blogspot.com top level domain, and it would look something like:
https://www.yourdomainname.blogspot.com
This example mean that your blog would shine the light on the Blogger platform (which is owned by Google) versus your brand.
Paid domains and hosting are required before you can install a WordPress.org self-hosted blog. A self hosted blog gives you more control over your content.
The paid domains are normally top level domains that you would receive when you sign up for hosting and would look similar to:
https://www.yourdomainname.com
In the case of a self hosted blog, it's important to have a paid domain and hosting set up before you can start building your blog. - Gives a Boost to Your Niche. Think about your blog and your theme or niche. Think about the topics you'll be writing about and the audience you want to attract.
Come up with at least three domain names that factors in the items we've talked about in this blog post (including keywords) that you like.
Write them down and use Hostgator's domain research tool to see if they are available.
If you find that the domain you want has been taken, you can try the other options. This will save time as your going through the process of registering your domain and web hosting. - An Affordable Boost. Choosing a great domain is one of the most affordable ways to boost your blog or website.
Domains are normally paid on an annual basis. But if you are panicking right now, please know that you can get a domain for less than $1.00 to $16.00 for an entire year.
The pricing on domains is very reasonable, so it won't break the bank if you pay on an annual basis.
The main thing you want from a registrar is that they have great customer service, in case you have questions or problems.
For hosting, you want great customer service, and servers that are up and working the majority of time 24/7/365. You don't want your customers to visit your site and find that it's down or crashed. - Don't Get Too Fancy. Try as much as possible to use the *.com suffix extension on your domain. Using some of the newer, unique endings like *.host, *.site, etc. will make it look like your site is not on the up an up for some people who are not used to seeing those endings on domains.
When people are typing your domain, they usually stick with the 'standard ending' and things they are comfortable with.
Using *.com is one of those conventional things that most people revert back to when they are trying to think of your site. - A secure solution. If you're asking users to provide information like their name, email address, passwords, etc. they want to know that their information is secure. That's why many hosting plans now include a security certificate.
And it's a plus with Google when it comes to ranking your content when you take security measures. As of July 2018 Google started explicitly warning Chrome users if a site is insecure.
The security certificate gives readers a symbol, the lock, as well as the secure version of the hypertext transfer protocol portion of your domain address, https (versus http) that shows your site has security measures in place.
A prominent warning from Google that your site is not secure may affect how long and whether a user hangs around your site.
Not having a secure site can negatively impact your bounce rate, advertising impressions, affiliate clicks, and e-commerce sales.
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