Have you been thinking about starting a lifestyle blog but are unsure about what to call it? This post is full of tips for naming a lifestyle blog, including what to avoid and how to ensure the name you want to use isn’t trademarked.
Tips For Naming A Lifestyle Blog
Coming up with a name for your lifestyle blog can be tricky. You want something catchy and interesting but you’ll also need to make sure no one else is already using it.
Should you use your own name?
Should you use numbers?
In this post, I take an in-depth look at all the factors you need to consider when naming a lifestyle blog.
Why Start A Lifestyle Blog
There are lots of reasons you might want to start a lifestyle blog. While it is true that niche blogs often do better in Google search, there are plenty of positives to creating a blog with a more general theme.
Sticking to one niche can be tough, whereas with a lifestyle blog you can write about whatever you like. General interest blogs often do well on social media because people will follow you for your personality rather than because they are interested in just one topic, which they might get bored of.
Having a lifestyle blog can mean a wider range of brands and affiliates to work with if you choose to go down the monetization route later on.
How To Choose A Name For Your Lifestyle Blog
One of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make is what you’re going to name your blog. While you can change the name of it in the future, it can mean losing some of the authority and traffic you’ve built, so it’s best to try and come up with something that you love from the start.
Before you get started, here are some initial tips for naming a lifestyle blog or any other type of blog.
- Try to avoid using hyphens or numbers. With hyphens, you may find people forget to add them in. For numbers, when saying your blog out loud you’ll always need to specify whether it’s the character or whether it’s spelt out with letters.
- When brainstorming blog names, always write them down on a piece of paper, to make sure you’d don’t end up with any unfortunate letter combos in the middle of the name. This post gives examples of hashtags but the same could easily happen with a blog name, see numbers six and seven on the list: The Worst Hashtag Fails of All Time
- Avoid words that have difficult spelling or could have an ambiguous meaning. Say the name out loud a few times. Would you need to spell any of the words to a stranger?
- If the name you want to use is taken, it can be tempting to add a ‘the’ or ‘my’ eg. ‘Beauty Queen’ is taken so you decide to go with ‘The Beauty Queen’ or ‘My Beauty Queen Life’ but this could make it hard for your blog to compete with an already established brand or blogger. This also applies to adding hyphens between words.
- Using your own name is fine provided the spelling isn’t too tricky. You may also want to check you don’t share your name with a celebrity or adult movie star.
- Alliterative names, where words start with the same letter, are great for blogs as they are easy to remember and almost all of my own websites have alliteration in their names.
- While lifestyle blogs can cover a range of topics, what you write about may change. For example, as the year’s pass, you might write less about parenting (as the kids grow up) and more about your hobbies. For this reason, I would avoid using your children’s names. I think Mum (eg ‘Mummy and the kids’) is fine but I’d avoid using baby or toddler if you plan to do this long-term.
If you’re still struggling to come up with something, you could try using a blog name generator, ask friends and family or simply use your own name with something added on eg ‘ Sarah’s Reviews’ Makeup with Sarah’ ‘Sarah and Family’ etc.
Lifestyle Blog Name Ideas
Here are some lifestyle blog name ideas. I checked them on namecheckr at the time of publishing but they may have since been taken and you’ll need to check if they’ve been trademarked if you do decide to use one of them.
How To Check If A Blog Name Is Taken
Once you’ve come up with a blog name you like, the first thing to do is check it’s not already been taken. It can be really hard finding one that’s not in use so my advice would be to pick a few favourites and go from there.
Namecheckr is my go-to when it comes to checking whether a blog name is already taken. It covers most social media channels and the most common blog extensions.
While there are hundreds of blog extensions, if the .com is taken I’d move on to something else.
It’s also worth noting that Twitter only allows 15 characters in its @ handles so if your name is longer than that it’ll show on Namecheckr as taken and you’ll need to find a suitable abbreviation.
How To Check If A Blog Name Is Trademarked
The next step is to check whether the blog name is trademarked. Just because the domain name and social media handles are free, it doesn’t mean it’s not already been trademarked.
You can check the U.K trademark database here. If the name you want to use, or any part of it is trademarked then legally the trademark owner can ask you to stop using it. To be honest, I just don’t think it’s worth the risk and hassle of having to change your blog name at a later date.
More on trademarks in this post: Should You Trademark Your Blog Name?
How To Choose Domain Extension – Com. Vs. Co.uk Vs .Net
A domain extension is the bit you see at the of a domain name – the .co.uk, .com, .net, .org etc.
How do you know which one is right for you?
If the .com version of the domain you wanted is taken and being used, then personally I would suggest going back to the drawing board.
Most bloggers opt for .com for their blog. My advice would be to buy both the .com and .co.uk version of the domain name you’ve chosen and then set it up so one redirects to the other.
While there are plenty of others to choose from, I think .com and co.uk remain the most widely used.
The only time I would use .co.uk over .com is for local interest or U.K centric travel blog.
Where To Buy Your Blog Name (Purchasing your domain)
There are lots of places you can buy your blog name once you’ve found one you love and completed all the above checks.
I buy all of my domain names through Lyrical Host. Usually a .com costs around £12.99 and a co.uk is around £7.99. These are annual costs that need to be renewed each year.
You may find domains cheaper elsewhere or that you can get a domain name and hosting together cheaply as a package.
Personally, I like to have everything in one place and as Lyrical are my blog hosts, I keep everything with them but you might like to use one of the more well-known platforms such as GoDaddy or Siteground.
You can read my full review of Lyrical Host here.
Where To Buy Blog Hosting
Once you have a domain name, you’ll need to purchase hosting before your blog can go live.
As mentioned above, my choice for hosting is Lyrical Host but I know they can seem expensive if you’re just starting out. If you do choose to go with them, you can get 10% off using my code BLOGGINGBEAUTIFUL
Other places to purchase blog hosting include GoDaddy, Siteground, Bluehost and Stablpoint. It’s worth noting that often these sites will give you a fantastic deal on the first year and then double or triple the cost the following year.
This is one of the reasons I switched to Lyrical Host as they don’t increase their prices on renewal and they have a pay monthly option.
Free Vs. Paid Blog Hosting
You may be wondering why you even need to pay for a blog, as free blogs are advertised all the time. And it’s true, there are some free blog options out there.
Most people choose either WordPress.com or Blogger for a free blog. With a free blog you can choose your own name but it will have .blogger or .Wordpress after it, for example, https://beautyworkers.wordpress.com/
These free blogs can be a great starting point if you’re new to blogging and don’t want to spend any money but can be difficult to monetise further along the road. PRs and ad companies will be looking for a self-hosted blog although there is the option to upgrade later should you want to.
My advice would be to go with a self-hosted WordPress blog from the start.
Can You Change Your Blog Name?
Yes, you can change your blog name. It’s something you can do yourself although if you’re not very techy your website host should be able to do it for you.
Changing your blog name, even with the correct redirects in place, can affect both your traffic and any domain authority you have built. Some brands use these metrics to decide whether or not they will work with you and it can take a while to recover those stats.
I change one of the names of my blogs almost two years ago – traffic has just about recovered but my domain authority is still seven points lower, two years on.
So, if you can find a name you love from the start that’s definitely the way to go.
Is there anything else you’d like to know about choosing a lifestyle blog name? Please do get in touch I’m always happy to help.
