Pre-Planning Stage 2 - Whats in a name?

The next step in pre-planning the strategy of your blog, after picking a subject area that you can blog about confidently and you believe the market is right for it (as in, no good competition - or atleast competition you can beat), the next step is to figure out the name.

There are several schools of thought on this subject as well. I'll go over the two that I know.

The SEO point-of-view:
- I'm not going to dive into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) here; but basically it is how a web designer goes about optimizing their site for the search engines - so that the engines have a much easier time finding the website and rank it higher due to it's proclivity to keywords.
- The SEO P.O.V. is that you should name your blog using keywords. Cut-n-dry. For example this blog is named "Beginner-Bloggers", I did this because I believe these 2 keywords will help my blog get noticed by search engines and ranked higher than if I named it "Nort's Blogging Tips". There is also a belief that putting a dash in your name will better allow search engines to differentiate between the keywords; hence "Beginner-Bloggers".

The Brand-Name Point of View:
- Their is also the conept of brand name. Some web designers will say that, although important to use keywords and to be seach engine optimized, do not underestimate the power of developing a brand name. Some sites have random names that - over time - have become synonymous with types of material. A good example would be BoingBoing.com . By the name of it; one has no idea what they discuss on it. However; because it has spent time developing its brand and cultivating an audience.

This concludes Pre-Planning Stage 2 - Whats in a name?, Keep an eye out for Stage 3 - Domain or not to domain (Coming soon)