Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I'm inching up to starting my blog, and I'm having a terrible time picking a name. It's sort of driving me nuts!!! I've thought of alot of names, but I can't quite settle on anything.

How did you pick the name of your blog? I'm curious about other people's process...maybe I can copy what you did!

Tell Great Stories was my email first and I don't know when exactly or how exactly I came up with it. It was just the first thing that came to me?

But over the last year, Tell Great Stories has started to kind of fall away. It's not my domain name, that's www.sommerleigh.com so Tell Great Stories is just sort of secondary to my domain. And this is just my personal taste, but I'm starting to lean more to liking blogs that are straight forward with the name of the blogger and a little tag line to explain the blog rather than clever, witty, or whimsical blog names. I think it's because I've gotten to know so many bloggers that I don't think of their blog as their blog name, I think of it as the blogger's name. Like, I read Claudie's blog, not "A Novel Experiment." I read Matthew MacNish's blog, not "The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment." I read Margo's blog, not "Unsafe Haven." That's just me though, and I am not so sure everyone is like that.

I suspect that eventually I'll drop "Tell Great Stories" to just a tag line and "Sommer Leigh" will just be the name of the blog.

Sommer, I appreciate the input. You may be right. Simple may be best. And really, when I think of a blog, I usually think of "so and so's" blog, not the name of the blog. But...naming something after myself.....I'm just alittle shy for that....I sort of want to hide behind a name.

But maybe I won't.......

What about "wicked and tricksy?" See, I think that name is pretty cool. There is a part of me that somehow wants to capture the essense of the blog in a name...but it's hard to know what the essense is until I have the blog!

Maybe I'll name it: "I can't think of a good name for this blog".

That has a ring to it...

I think the best name should be short, bright, interesting and catchy. I am currently preparing to start my own so I haven't made up my mind completely on what the name of it should be.

"short, bright, interesting and catchy"

Good thoughts, Kinky - thanks! Let me know what your name is when you come up with it! I'm curious.

Back when I first started my blog, it was 'Musings of a burned-out college student,' because that's what I was.

Now it's just my name, because branding is important.

CV

"Musings of a burnt-out college student" has a ring to it.

But Branding! I forgot about that. That's good way to look at it. Thanks Charlee!

I think I'm heading that direction. I was reluctant...but with all the different names I've come up with, the one that's growing on me is the one with mira in it. That's a pretty good sign that it feels right...

Who knew that finding a name would be such a trial and tribulation???

It's funny, because I went the other way from Sommer's evolution. I used to have only my name as a blog name. It really works. You don't need more than that if you want to keep it simple, easy to remember, and if you want google searches for you leading straight there.

When I changed names to The Novel Experiment, it's because a) I was moving to another blog, b) I wanted to put more science in my posts (I'd need to post more for that, though XD Darn you, NaNoWriMo + Insane Semester), and c) develop a mad science theme for the background, header and widgets (something Sommer did wonder for!)

It took quite a while before I found something, too. I wanted to add writing and science together, so I played with the associated vocab until I found something satisfying (I'm not in complete love with it yet, but it's growing on me). The subtitle "Mixing Character and Plot into Chemical Stories" is more or less an explanation/play with the ongoing concept.

Claudie, thanks! I appreciate what you are saying and it made me think more about branding. Some people want to brand their name, while others prefer to brand their book, or their topic, or their approach. Of both.

That's cool, and I also like the idea of a sub-title. I get good ideas from you folks!

Btw, I love the "mixing character and plot into chemical stories" concept. That is very cool.

True. You definitely need to think about WHAT you're branding.

It effects the set-up of your blog a lot, because of the graphics.

CV

True story: in college, my friend and I were thinking up fake band names for fun. "Maybe Genius" was one of my made-up band names.

Years later, it's what I named my blog. It just seemed to fit the idea I was trying to convey at the time -- that I was an aspiring author who might have something to offer, but it wasn't verified yet. It also matches my fairly sarcastic sense of humor It's like the tongue-in-cheek implication that I might be SUPER AWESOME, but I don't come right out and say it. Because that would be big-headed and stuff.

Mira wrote:Btw, I love the "mixing character and plot into chemical stories" concept. That is very cool.

Thank you! I have to admit I rather love it.

My blog is called Passive Income Author, because I write content that I hope will help authors earn passive income from their books. Not very creative, but I think it works OK .

My favorite blog name in that vein is DailyBlogTips. It's a blog that posts daily tips about blogging. Go figure!

I'd definitely go with your name. It's about branding, remember. You can always have something catchy after your name in the title, which you can change on a whim, but YOUR NAME is what they should remember.

Good luck, and welcome to the crazy world of blogging!

Thanks, Wordranger.