How important is your blog name? help please!

[bloggingvirgin]

Totally new to this-ANY help gratefully received.

-how vital is it to have a name thaat reflects what your blog is about, rather than just Jane Smith's blog?

• how do you decide on a name ( and buy the domain) if it's already taken (assume you just can't)
  

-if your blog covers several topics how do you decide which one to pick to hang your domain name on?

I want my blog to reflect my specialisms - education and parenting (I'm a published author) but I also teach writing courses and want to use the blog to promote these, as well as raise my profile as an established author/ freelance writer.

On this info- which would you say was the best one to hang a blog on?

[TheFallenNinja]

It is and it isn't really. This post explains it pretty well

savvypanda.com/blog/is-the-domain-name-important-for-seo.html

[zanuda]

2bloggingvirgin
Think about what message do you want to give. Maybe you'll be better with two blogs - one about who you are, another - about your writing business.

2TheFallenNinja
Somehow I doubt she's thinking about SEO. And yes, name is important for SEO. Again, solution is having 2 blogs.

[MmeLindor]

What do you want your blog to do for you? Is it a marketing vehicle for your work or a personal blog about parenting? I suspect more the former, so I would 'hang' the blog onto that.

I don't see why that isn't possible on one blog - with separate tabs for each speciality.

I have two blogs, and I have to say that it does require a bit more work. The 'work' one is frequently neglected in favour of the personal blog.

My blog is called Salt&Caramel, and I chose this name as it does not pin me down to writing about one topic.

[Tee2072]

My personal blog is called Tee's blog because it's about, well, me! And it's my blog!

My business blog is named after my business!.

[zanuda]

...I don't see why that isn't possible on one blog...

It's not about possibility (to do it in 1 blog) but about Search Engine Optimization. If you want to get more readers you will end up trying to get into 1st page of Google on some keywords. And eventually you will do some sort of optimization. And as soon as you come there one of the first things you will learn is that domain name is important keyword. Besides you don't have to write very often to be on the 1st page. Just write very useful information.

Anyway, if it is important how people will find your blog - then name it with keywords in the domain name and think about having 2 blogs. If it is just about expressing yourself - then it doesn't matter.