Looking for a Blog Name? Ask your Brain Trust

In Chris Garrett’s article, “How to choose a perfect blog name”, he talks about the difficulties of selecting domain names (especially since the good ones seem to be all taken) and suggests strategies on how to pick a good blog name.

One of the things Chris mentions is the different characteristics of a good domain name:

1. Readable
2. Pronounceable
3. Spellable
4. Memorable
5. Concise
6. Unique

Now while it’s easy to recognise a good domain name and then identify why it’s good, it’s much harder to generate such a name (I’ll deal with the options of buying domain names in a future article). Let’s face it – some people are not great at thinking up of cool / memorable domain names, while others can do it naturally.

Personally, I’m average or slightly above-average when it comes to picking names (I can recognise winners but find it much harder to think of them). I have a friend though, a fellow blogger, who’s quite good at brainstorming for domain names and there have several occassions in the last year or so when we have chatted simply picked excellent domain names out of thin air.

What I’m getting at is that you will have, in your circle of friends or acquaintances, someone who is naturally creative and clever and as a result is good at picking names, taglines, ideas for logos, etc. Just like you would think of your SEO friend or your PHP expert as being part of your brain trust, the guy who helps you brainstorm is and should be a key part of your brain trust.

We spend so much time and energy after finding domain names, that sometimes we forget that it’s much easier to ask for help from the right person.

Do you have a ‘brain trust’ that you bounce ideas off or have success brainstorming with? If you don’t, maybe it’s time you started.