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10 Steps to Starting Your Blog from Scratch. (Part 3)

In this entry I am going to cover my next 2 steps – Finding a domain name and search engine submission.

With the research complete, a niche selected, and a business plan in place it’s time to think about the domain. In all my research I have found that not enough emphasis is being placed on selecting an effective domain name. Since the internet first took wings all those years ago, domain names have always played a big part in attracting visitors. I remember quite a few years back when I started my very first web site. I made some horrible mistakes that I now look back on and laugh. Use the information here and avoid making those same mistakes.

Choosing a Domain Name

Choosing the wrong domain name can have some negative effects that you may not have thought of and there are some simple, time tested guidlines that should be followed when making the choice.

Domain names are so often undervalued in the whole scheme of things but you should take the time to get this right. Afterall this is where your personal branding begins. There has been so much written over the past year or two about personal branding so I am not going to rehash it but you should know by now that branding is everything. It’s that first impression and ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’.

• Where possible choose a name that has relevancy to your site. I know this seems like a ‘given’ but its amazing just how many sites use cryptic or simply unrelated domain names.
• Avoid using dashes or hyphens. When people talk about your domain you want them to easily be able to communicate the name. Hyphens complicate this and could inadvertently send your prospective visitors to another domain of the same name without the hyphen.
• If possible include you targeted keyword into your domain name. For example, I am targeting keywords and phrases centered around income money and international opportunities so the domain name works in that respect.
• Avoid very long domain names. My own domain name is getting to that limit however it is still limited to 2 words. I am sure you have seen sites that seem to use an entire sentence for a domain name which is something you certainly want to avoid.
• Be creative and build in a little intrigue if at all possible.

I first learned about branding and its importance more than 15 years ago at a workshop with one of Australias leading marketers Bob Pritchard.  My Australian vistors would know a lot of Bobs work. He’s the guy responsible for C’mon Aussie C’mon for the World Series Cricket, Comet express ‘When it absolutely positively has to be there over night’, Woolworths ‘Th Fresh Food People’ and, believe it or not, for Warrick Capper though I’d rather forget that one and I think Bob would too but they all made a tidy profit off Warrick’s short shorts and that’s the message here. If you want to stand out from the millions of other sites then Branding Is Everything!

Now there are some very big differences between online and traditional marketing but some of the same important principals trangress both activitie. In particular branding. It can spell not only the difference between success and failure but also between good and great. Brand yourself well and you’ll be capitalizing on it for years to come.

Site Submission

The moment you have selected your domain name you should be submitting it to the search engines. I bet your asking, why would I be submitting my site if I don’t have a site built and the answer is quite simple.

Some search engines, Google in particular will actually take quite a long time before the spiders even come and have a sniff of your domain. It takes even longer for your actual pages to be crawled and indexed. From my research it is clear that Google will in fact after recieving your submission take a look at your site but not include any data or indexed pages for a period of time. Based on others experiences this can sometimes be up to a month.

I am not going to try to explain the reasoning behind this because I am not an SEO expert but its not really relevant anyway. The fact is that’s it how it works. So getting your site submitted sooner rather than later will save you some precious time getting listed and indexed in the major search engines. By the time the spiders come back there will be some contect for them to index that should get listed and cached promptly.

In summary, your domain name is your brand so spend some time and choose something that will give the right image to your potential visitors. Once you have the domain name registered go and submit it to the search engines right away and get listed sooner.

Related Posts

1. 10 Steps to Starting Your Blog from Scratch. (Part 5)
2. 10 Steps to Starting Your Blog from Scratch. (Part 2)
3. 10 Steps to Starting Your Blog from Scratch. (Part 4)
4. 10 Steps to Starting Your Blog from Scratch. (Part 1)
5. 3 Steps to Better SEO Performance

Tags: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, entrepreneur, make money blogging, Marketing