Should I use my own own domain name for my new blog…probably not!!
As many of you know, I have been talking about launching a personal blog lately. As it happens, I uploaded wordpress to kevinmuldoon.com last week and have messed around with over a dozen wordpress themes trying to get something suitable.
The reason I have taken so long to start this blog is because I wasn’t sure what type of blog it would be. I wanted a place to talk about my interests and for the most part that would be web development, gaming, martial arts, poker, movies, music, internet related topics and of course personal stuff. This is where I started to wonder if such a blog would suceed. I strongly believe that blogs should not cover too many topics, they should be targeted to one or two topics.
I have spoken about all of this in the past in my post ‘The importance of having keywords in your domain name‘ and Ryan Imel spoke about it too in his post ‘The Power of Specializing Your Blog(s)‘. However, it was John Chow’s post ‘Should You Use Your Name As The Domain Name‘ which has made me do a U-Turn on using KevinMuldoon.com.
I would much rather keep the domain for a holding page for all of my sites or even a personal blog for family or whatever. I am still starting a new blog though and it will be a bit more personal than Blogging Tips (however since it will be mostly about web development).
So what is this new blog about?
In short, my new blog will be about my work on the web. I have had a lot of ideas for posts in the past but I simply could not post them here because they were not really blogging orientated. The blog will be written as a journal and I hope that some webmasters will enjoy reading it (It will also be a place for me to ask readers for help or advice on subjects).
For example, in the last week I have spent most of my time looking at domain names and testing out scripts for some new websites. I think some people would be interested in reading about what I would do, not because my work is exciting, far from it, but because it might help point them in the right direction with their projects and give them new ideas too. I’m sure it will give me an opportunity to make more contacts too.
So what domain name am I going to use? Well, I haven’t decided as yet. I will register one soon but the hard part is deciding which domain name to get, getting the domain takes two seconds. I am a fan of names which can be branded but are still related to the authors name (For example Shoe Money).
If anyone has any suggestions for a good domain for my blog please let me know. I’ll register a free domain name for anyone who suggests a name I register (be it 1 domain or 10). Also, thanks to John Chow for writing this post days before I was thinking about launching this blog at my own domain name!!
And if anyone thinks I should use my own name for the site please say so and explain why 
Thanks guys,
Kevin
Sara | October 17th, 2007 at 6:08 pm #
Kevin,
What’s your middle name? I’m playing with words and letters, of course. =)
Sara
Kevin | October 17th, 2007 at 6:14 pm #
Don’t have one…both my brothers do but I don’t!!! haha
I’ve been looking at a lot of web development related names but it’s very difficult to get a good .com, maybe i’ll have no choice but to use my own name
Michael Martine | October 17th, 2007 at 6:48 pm #
I’m changing my domain name to remarkablogger.com and moving away from michaelmartine.com. I’ve been so busy I hadn’t John Chow’s post or your other one, but it seems I’ve independently come to the same conclusion. So, I’m with you on not using your personal name domain for a blog. It can work if your name is big enough, but most people will never see any real traffic unless they are highly original and unique.
If you want a personal blog, then just do what you want with it, because the point of a blog like that is not to have scads of traffic or make a bunch of money. Eventually, I’m going to have only remarkablogger.com be my blogging domain, and michaelmartine.com will become something else — maybe personal, I don’t know.
Email me a list of domains you’re considering to give me an idea what you’re looking for. I can suss out decent domain names sometimes.
Monika @ The Writers Manifesto | October 17th, 2007 at 8:18 pm #
Hi Kevin,
That’s a good question you are asking. I use my personal domain name as an online CV to showcase my work to prospective clients. I don’t blog on it as such. What I did is link to all my other blogs from there and provided a personal story kind of blurb to let people know a bit more about myself.
This is important I believe if somebody is a freelancer like me. So when I bid for a job, or somebody asks me for some samples I normally point them to this domain.
To me personal domain names are there to tell the world of what we are about, but to write a personal blog on it is again a different story. It would be a bit like reality TV.
You really have two options there Kevin. You can either try to get a domain name that combines all your interests, for example something like SocialHotspot, BlogRamblings, ABitOfThisAndThat, BlogColors, etc. I haven’t checked whether these domains are available but this is only to help your brainstorming along.
Monika
Wayne Liew | October 18th, 2007 at 1:39 am #
I stated a blog using my own name, thinking of it will just be the site of my own, my rants and so on. Weeks passes by and I found out that my visitors are more interested in the tips on blogging and Internet news that I shared and I went on writing more and more on these.
I haven’t thought of having a new blog but I guess the blog with my name will continue to grow as it is now.
If you are going to blog about something which is related to online stuffs, sharing tips and how you tweaks through the Internet, I would suggest you go for another domain other than your name.
The domain that bears your name can be used as an aggregator for all your blogs though.
Good luck!
Mandy | October 18th, 2007 at 5:46 am #
You do need to be careful if using your own name as a domain. I am going to be starting a new blog soon about my first love photography. I thought it may be a good idea to use my own name and use it to build a brand.
The only thing was when I checked availability for my name as a .com it had already been taken, which wasn’t necessarily the problem. It redirected to an adult site!
And I don’t want to use another version of it because if people type it in wrong they could end up at the adult site, and that would be no good for my brand!!!
Kevin | October 18th, 2007 at 7:44 am #
Thanks for the feedback guys. I’m gonna search for a suitable domain name and keep my personal name. Appreciate the support :):)