Your blog’s name may actually be holding you back.

I know, that’s a horrible concept, isn’t it?  But it’s entirely possible that your blog’s name may be entirely, well, misnamed.  Your blog’s name needs to do three important things, and if it fails to do any one of them, it’s holding you back.  What are those three things?

1. Your blog’s name needs to summarize your blog.  If people can’t tell when they see your blog’s name what you’re going to be about, then they’re likely to not care.  Oh, sure, you’ll get some people who are intrigued by your name who wonder what it is, but unless they’re also impressed by what they see they’re not going to stick around.  Let’s say you’re going to start a video game blog:  Which of these three sounds most like a video game blog to you: The Big Score, Arctic Thunder, A Blog In the Dark.  Now, the second one is an actual video game name.  The third is a parody of the video game title “Alone In The Dark”  But the first one probably sounds most like a video game blog to you–the second could be about snowmobiles and the third could be a religion blog for all anyone knows.

2. Your blog’s name identifies it.  When people talk about your blog–and you want them to–you want them to easily remember what your blog’s name is.  Do you want them saying: “Dude, did you read Explosion-of-cherry-pants.com last week?” “No, I tried, but I couldn’t find it.”  “Did you add the hyphens?” “Hyphens?  Aw man, there’s HYPHENS in it?  No wonder I couldn’t find it!”  Fast, simple, memorable, easy to spell.  That’s your blog name.

3.  Your blog’s name establishes its image.  If I start a video game blog and call it Bit Bites, and populate it entirely with long form posts, chances are people will be confused and hate me.  Conversely, if I start the same kind and call it The Academy of Video Entertainment Studies, and populate it with short, punchy, expletive laden articles, chances are people will feel CHEATED, and hate me.  The kind of name you give your blog lets people know, on a limited level, what they should expect from it.

So that’s why your blog’s name is so important.  Take a look at the brand you’re projecting, and if you’re not getting the kind of results you want, maybe you should reconsider the name.