So, I am going to assume that you have chosen your blogging platform and you awakened from that possibly technically boring entry in Part I. Welcome back. Get some coffee! Let’s talk names. First up, what do you want to name your blog? This is probably one of the most important decisions you will make. People may not judge a book by its cover, but trust me, they will judge a blog by its name. What message do you want to send? Do you want to declare yourself a mom blogger in the title? How much information do you want in your name?

How about a few examples. Let’s take Busy Mom. Her title is brilliant and tells you what you are getting right up front. You will be hearing about life from a busy mom. You can safely guess she is a mom blogger. Now, let’s look at Mir’s Woulda Coulda Shoulda. Her name does not shout mom blog. It intrigues and makes you want to know what she “would, coulda or shoulda” done or not done differently, right? And then there is the middle of the road that hints at being about motherhood but just might simply be about life in the suburbs. Suburban Oblivion is a great example of just such a name.

Now, I know that people change their blog names. I did. I was once Java Diva and then switched to Mommy Needs Coffee. You will still find Java Diva in a lot of blog rolls after several years. Now, changing names is possible, but sometimes it takes a while for readers to get used to it. Take BlogHer’s own Chris Jordan. Once know as The Big Yellow House, she is now the ever popular Notes From the Trenches. Still the same great writing on the same great blog. Just the name changed. (And the url, but that is for later.) She was good about talking her readers through it. Before you know it, people will move on and almost forget your old blog name. But let me warn you ahead of time, it is not without it’s own share of headaches. I suppose what I am telling you is this: Choose your name carefully, as you did the names of your own children. You can certainly change it later, but it confuses people and there will be a lot of pouting along the way.

Now that you have chosen a name, let’s look at your options. If you have a platform with an extension like blogspot, typepad or wordpress, you have a lot more options. I do suggest, however, that you double check to see if the actual domain name itself is available in case you decide to host elsewhere at some point or just want your own domain without extension. A great example of a blogger who did this is Melissa Summers with her blog Suburban Bliss. She started off as suburbanbliss.typead.com and then bought her own domain and it is now suburbanbliss.net. If you do choose the name you really like that does not have a free domain of its own, do not fear. Remember, you can change it later if you need to. I did and your readers will follow you. You just need to remember to redirect them if the software doesn’t do it automatically.

You blog name should be as unique as you are. Try not to fall into the trap of thinking your blog name has to Say It All. Though your name really is important, your writing will ultimately be the winning factor regardless of your name. Blogging is about writing. You probably wouldn’t call a book you wrote: A Bunch of Crap I Put Into Print. So, you may not want to name your blog: My Words I Typed Out That Are Pure Drivel. See my point? Though it is the writing, you want to hook people with the name.

Of course, you can always choose to name your blog by using your own name. Many bloggers use their own name in their url, but name their actual blog something else. An example is our own Grace Davis. Her blog is State of Grace, but her url is gracedavis.typepad.com. See? So many choices.

Which leads us to what we will cover in our next installment: How much information do you want to put out there about yourself, your children and your life. Stay tuned!

~Jenn is now going to ponder the wonder of blog names.~
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image created with Spell with Flickr.