5 Easy Steps to Choose a Great Domain Name for your Niche Blog

In terms of niche blogging, picking a domain name simply requires you to align your choice of a domain name with your overall niche blogging masterplan.

Are you planning to build a flagship blog with a large audience? Or do you want to create multiple smaller blogs which focus primarily on search engine traffic? Your choice of the flagship or brute force method will determine the type of domain name you will choose.

Many articles about domain name selection primarily focus on several key points such as the length of the domain name, keywords vs. brand, suitable top level domains as well as multiple domain name registrations.

While there are many differing opinions on the various factors surrounding domain name selection, the process of choosing the actual domain name for your niche blog is surprisingly simple and straight forward.

Five Easy Steps to Choose a Good Domain Name

Here are five steps which I personally use to choose the domain names for my niche blogs. Note that before embarking on the following steps, you should already have chosen the appropriate niche for your blog.

1. Determine your niche blog strategy. If you are focusing on search traffic and multiple small blogs, go for keywords in the domain. If you are building a flagship or medium-sized blog, pick a domain name that is brandable, short and memorable.
2. Make a list of keywords. If you’re using a keyword for your domain, come up with 10 different keyword variations. For example, if you are writing about ipods, you could try ipodlove, ipodreviews, ipodfetish and ipodjunkie.com. If you’re short of time, run your primary & secondary keywords through a domain name generator.
3. Brainstorm domain name brands. I personally use Urban Directory very often if I’m going for branding because they offer multiple slang-based variations of your keyword that are often catchy, brand-able and search traffic friendly.
4. Check for Domain availability. After coming up with a list of the keywords, visit AjaxWhois or DomainBot to confirm if the domain names are taken. These domain name checkers operate via Ajax and are quickest ways for you to test all the various domain names you’ve written down.
5. Register your domain. Proceed to the domain name registrar and purchase the domain you want. Consider buying other top level domains (.org, .info etc.) if you are going the flagship route.

And you’re done! You should take no more than one hour to come up with the domain names for several blogs. Spending any more time on this isn’t productive because other tasks such as setting up the actual blog will take a lot more time and energy.