Blog names and domain extensions

Sometime ago I wrote the article “How to Choose a Blog Name“ where I described three simple rules that you should follow when naming your blog. On the third rule I argued that a blog name should be equal to the domain name or else you will lose readers along the way.

When people come to your blog through a search engine or through a link on another blog they will read the blog name and go straight to the content. Should those people want to return to your blog after a certain time they will just type the blog name followed by a .com, and if they do not find the blog there it is probable that they will just forget about it and move on.

Apart from making the blog name match the domain name, however, you should also pay attention to the domain extension. As I mentioned before most people are used to .com domains, whenever they need to type something they will always try first the .com. Not everyone has a .com domain for their blog, though. A simple solution to avoid losing readers if you have a .net or .org extension, for instance, is to add the extension to your blog name or logo.

If you have the domain “techblog.com” you should name your blog “Tech Blog”. If on the other hand you have “techblog.net” or “techblog.tv” you should name your blog or design your logo as “TechBlog.net” and “TechBlog.tv” respectively. This simple tweak will ensure that readers will remember the extension of your domain if they decide to revisit the blog in the future.