How to Pick a Stellar Blog Name
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Have you ever caught yourself singing a jingle you heard in a commercial? Well, I have. In fact, even though Kyle would be embarrassed on my behalf about this, I’m quite partial to the ‘my hiney’s clean, I’m Charmin, shiny clean’. So much so that I don’t even need to see the commercials to start singing it anymore. Nope, I can just be washing the dishes, making the bed, typing this… and I just start singing it. Now, to me, this is the mark of good advertising, and it is this idea that I want you to keep in mind as we begin talking about how to pick the perfect name for your blog.
But before we begin, let’s talk about why picking your name is important. Picking a good business name is important because people prefer to be able to reasonably assume what you do based on your name. If you pick a name that has nothing to do with what your profession is, people will have no idea what you do and usually pass you right on by. To explain further, let’s look at an example.
Jenny owns a business called Jenny’s Bake Shop. Carl also owns a business and calls it Carl's Place. Now, if you were new to town and in the market for delicious baked goods, and the names were all you knew, which of these two businesses would you make your way to? I’d hope your answer was Jenny’s business. Now I have one more twist for you. Jenny and Carl's businesses are in the same shopping plaza, and when you pull up to their shared parking lot, the first thing you see is a big store with huge glass windows, and lots of beautiful and decadent cakes, pies, and cookies inside. Automatically your brain starts thinking this is Jenny's place because there's no name on the outside of the building and you see cupcakes, but you'd be wrong. This is Carl's Place, and when you step inside you're welcomed warmly by several local residents and Carl himself. What happened here? Branding and marketing is what happened here. Jenny may have had the more obvious name, but because of Carl's ability to create such a warm and welcoming environment that brought people back time after time, Jenny's business was blown out of the water. So, if Carl was able to build a really great bakery without having his industry or product type in his business name, how come so much importance is put on your business name? The answer here is because your business name is how you differentiate yourself from your competition.
What if Jenny's store front looked identical to Carl's and her business name was displayed at the top in large, well lit letters? Would you have been drawn to her store because you already knew her name or would you just have picked the unidentified building? Chances are, you'd have chosen Jenny's business. For another example I want you to think back to Charmin… They’re a toilet paper company, but that’s kind of a taboo topic among society so not having 'toilet paper' in their name was a wise decision. They're smart cookies over at Charmin. But by not including 'toilet paper' in their name, the question they would have had to face at some point is how to convey to the public what their business is about. One of the ways they tackle that issue today is with the (really catchy) jingle that makes it okay to say their name AND talk about what they do. Now, the reason I bring up Jenny and Carl, and Charmin, is to let you know that there are no hard or fast rules to naming your business. It's a personal decision. But if you're looking for some tips and tricks to help you name your blog, there's one more example I want to throw your way.
Lisa owns an e-commerce business called LingeringLilies.com. Based on this name can you reasonably guess what Lisa does for a living? She makes lilies out of paper. So why is this clever? First, she used alliteration which is a common method used to help people remember things. Second, Lisa did a play on words by referring to her paper lilies which never die, as ‘lingering’ lilies. Third, Lisa made sure her business name was easy to sound out and therefore easy to spell for those who want to find her. Lastly, she used '.com' which is the most trusted (outside of '.gov' that is).
So how can you create a blog name that resonates like Lisa’s? To begin, you'll want to create a list of as many words you can think of that you want to associate with your brand. Then think about what words can be associated with your industry that you wouldn’t mind using. Next think of fun descriptive words that you enjoy saying or using. Once you’ve come up with as many words as you can, try pairing them together to create your business name. If you need additional assistance, here’s the process I used to come up with The Craft Mills, LLC. First I thought about what kind of blog I wanted, and at that point, I knew I wanted it to closely resemble a lifestyle blog. As the idea grew though, I also wanted to be able to sell the handmade business items my mom and I make, and at the same time, make it easier for other women to learn about how to start their own creative businesses. Next I started looking at the names of bloggers that I like, and there was one I was drawn to who just uses her own name. Naturally, I began looking into that possibility, but as it turns out, someone else who shares my name was already running a pretty great photography site so I had to move on from that idea. (As I wrote this I decided to check again and turns out I was able to buy it!) Then I thought, okay, what if I set aside the domain for what it will be when Kyle and I get married, but then I realized that wasn’t coming anytime soon, and even if it did, I have to spell his last name out letter by letter every time I give it out so why would I want a blog name like that? Moving on again, I thought about how the only name I would have through whatever state my life was in, was my first name… so I wondered, what could I do with that? Then I thought about a game we played at camp where you used alliteration to remember other campers’ names. I can still remember several of them (shout out to Miranda Marsupial!) so I figured this would be a good place to start. I came up with several different words that started with the letter M to pair with my first name and after a while I came up with MarveoluslyMarissa.com. The only reason I don’t use Marvelously Marissa as my business domain now is because I wanted the ability to build a brand that reached multiple areas and most people hear ‘Melissa’ when I say my name out loud which limits that. Thus, the search for the perfect name continued. It wasn’t until early 2019 that I thought about wanting to build my own craft business and thought about how there were so many variations of crafts that I started ruminating over that word and how I wanted to use it. Then, like a brick, it hit me. I could keep my roots in my domain name after all by calling my business The Craft Mills. What’s better is since for part of the business I would be working with my mom, it brought her (and my dad!) into the name. It was this name that I stuck with (even after learning my own name was available) because it was easy to remember, was a fun play on words and my last name, and covered so many different areas with the word ‘craft’ that I didn’t think I could do any better. Now, if after all this, you’re still having trouble coming up with the perfect name, send me an email at info@thecraftmills.com and I’ll do my best to help. And if you've picked a stellar blog name, you'll want to make sure you create wonderful blog content that draws in readers. To learn more about how to do that, check out this post.
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