Comments on: 6 Steps to Better Blog – Part Two

By: Hal Brown

Hal Brown — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:37:13 +0000

Bummer, been there more than once. A assume you've tried various combinations and alternatives? Keep in mind, this is probably a good thing for SEO, since you've already used that name on Blogspot. Starting fresh won't ring Google's chimes about possible redundancy.
I'm not an SEO expert by any stretch of the imagination. I am going to suggest blogs about blogging you should read as often as possible at the end of this.
A good one to start is seosmarty.com by Ann Smarty. I also suggest anyone serious about promotion follow her on Twitter @seosmarty
Ann has implemented a great idea about how to seriously promote your blog.
Good luck with the name.

By: missy

missy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:57:58 +0000

And it was all for naught – gifts2love is not available! How do I have a blog of that name and it's not available “out there?”

By: missy

missy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:54:51 +0000

Ok, great. Thanks so much. I will do this before Monday! And thanks for the advice about the name.

By: Hal Brown

Hal Brown — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:10:52 +0000

Keep it coming - That's what this is about. And thinking about different names is a good idea even though gifts2love is good. Think of it like this: Does it easily roll off the tongue? Is it easy to remember? Does it reflect my business or organization? Is this how I want to be branded? You get the idea.

The only possible problem with gifts2love is, people will constantly ask if it is 2 or to. When we get into promotion you'll see, you should have business cards etc to solve this problem.

I'm working on the next part, hosting how-to. This is a biggie. Looks like I can have it ready by Monday.

By: Hal Brown

Hal Brown — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:02:51 +0000

You should follow this as we go. I'll tell you how to have your web online so that you have it prepared before the search engines find it. We will get into that as we go. BTW, gifts2love appears to me as perfectly OK. Rules are not set in stone. Think of them more as common sense guidelines.

By: missy

missy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:05:03 +0000

And this is my fourth comment today. Someone's gonna shut down my comment pass! I'm still debating the name. I like your advice to do more than one – just in case. I'm thinking of something a little broader than gifts2love, but not sure. Thinking through comments – a blogger's favorite thing!

Websites that suck – never heard of it and love it.

Thank you again for doing this. I just retweeted it, by the way.

By: missy

missy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:59:29 +0000

Thanks, Randy and Hal, for those comments. I think gift2love is easy to remember (even if it violates one of the rules of no numbers)! :)

And, should I start "building as we are going along with the series, or would you suggest waiting until more are posted?

I like to plan . . .

By: missy

missy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:57:19 +0000

Oh, I found it. Apologies, apologies.

By: Hal Brown

Hal Brown — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:11:12 +0000

I'm only telling you what I know as a website builder, Rose. If you do this for money dashes matter. Maybe you and your group don't mind at all. In fact, I don't care if a URL has a dash, but others do. I've heard it too many times from clients.
Also, if a dash will fix the URL so it doesn't look strange, then it is better to use a dash. sams-spoons.com is definitely better than samsspoons.com.

A short, straight, *memorable* URL is always best for people in general. Broken URLs are not as memorable, tend to be misspelled and are harder to brand. The resale value is always lower. If you use more than one dash they tend to look spammy.

Whatever you do, don't use an underscore. Google will treat it as a dash, but people will see it as a space, and of course you can't have a space in a URL.

Check out some URLs at http://ajaxwhois.com/ with dashes and without dashes. You will find that it is easier to get a domain with a dash than one with a single word.

The bottom line is, if you and your clients are happy that's what matters.

By: Rose

Rose — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:41:38 +0000

I have a domain with dashes in it and given the member base I had I don't think people minded them that much. I say had as it was a writing community that changed over domains. It's about to be launched as a woman's network.

Personally I don't care if a domain has dashes or not.