Factotum5leaf

So, here I am starting my brand-new blog.  Little did I know I would spend my entire first day trying to figure out the details to the surprisingly tough task of STARTING A BLOG.

The first thing I tackled was the most obvious part, the name.

I first took a few words I knew I wanted to incorporate due to their meaning to ME.  “5leaf” is a screen name I use in forums online and in chat rooms.  “Johannes Factotum” is a concept that means a lot to me.  (I crossed out “Puer Aeternus” because of its complex spelling, though it is another phrase I connect closely with)

Next, I went searching around the internet reading articles about this matter and hashed out some basic guidelines:

• Unique — The MOST important factor to me, I want my name to stand out!
• Randomness/Invented words — I picked a name that combines a few words important to me
• Don’t be too similar to others’ names — It was stressed in a lot of articles that while you want your name to be recall-able, if it is too similar to blogs like yours, you might seem like a “copycat”
• NO KEYWORDS — Google and other search engines DO NOT work the way most people think; having “keywords” in your blog’s title and URL will NOT help draw traffic, nor will it bring you to a higher position in search results
• NO brand names/people’s names that aren’t YOU — There are exceptions depending on content, but honestly it seemed like this was just a good way to expose yourself to lawsuits of various kinds
• Niche/Target Audience — If your blog will have a specific subject-matter or be aimed at a particular set of people, your blog’s name should reflect that
• Match to existing name — If you already have a company/product/domain/any internet presence, use something related to, or matching that.  Being able to be found by your existing community will help bring people to your new blog.
• Make sure it doesn’t already exist! — This may seem obvious, but it can be the tedious last step that cripples your delicate attempt at building a name.  “WHAT?!? SOMEONE’S ALREADY USING THIS?!!?”  can be a very common sentiment.  Google searches and other websites can help you find unique internet names.

Using all of this information, I created my blog’s name “factotum5leaf”.

My next step was to figure out what blogging site to use.  I asked some friends their opinions, and read an article discussing the best blogging sites, and how to decide which to use.  This being my first time blogging, I was not interested in a lot of the more complicated features offered by some of the more extravagant sites, but apparently there is a blog site for just about any type of blog you want to create.  Ultimately I decided on WordPress (clearly), and bought the domain name and features I could afford at the time.

Formatting and setting up my profile and appearance was fairly straight forward and for my experience I feel like WordPress has made things rather convenient.

And then here we are, the first blog post.  The dashboard is fairly easy to understand and use, the blog-writing feature is very user-friendly, allowing me to easily add text, pictures and hyperlinks to my text.  Look out Blogosphere, here I come!

[EDIT] OH YEA!!! Keywords!  WordPress was so kind as to remind me to add keywords to my post.  Not gonna lie, this is still fairly bewildering to me, but after reading this article, I think I’ve matched a few appropriate ones

Resources I found helpful:

• “How To Name Your Blog“
• “How to Choose Your Blog Name“
• “Brainstorming a Name for Your Blog“
• “Good Blog Names: Four Rules You Must Follow to Find the Perfect Name for Your Blog“
• “SpinXO” — A blog-name generator!
• “Wordoid” — A creative naming service, actually generates unused domain names
• “The 15 best blogging and publishing platforms on the Internet today. Which one is for you?“
• “How to Optimize Your Blog Posts“