Getting hung up on small insignificant details can stop any project in its tracks. Things can always be changed at a later date, in editing and second drafts. What’s important is to get the bulk of the work done, the actual words put down on paper! The rest can be sorted out later.

That being said… when starting a website or blog, there is one big elephant in the room, and although it feels like it should be a small unnecessary detail, it can be gridlock trying to move past it.

The issue: The Name

The Dilemma

To name or not to name, that is the question!

That’s enough Shakespeare for one day, but the question remains: Is it best to use your name for the title of your website, or come up with something witty and catchy that’s easier to remember?

Unfortunately, there is no right or wrong answer. There are strong arguments for both. Elna Cain (a writer who focuses on advice for people getting into the world of freelance) talks about the benefits of using your name in her website creation course, whilst Kate Arends on Skillshare, speaks about creating a ‘brand’ for yourself and the positives behind that.

If you do a quick google of other freelancers’ websites, you will see a rough 60/40 split in favour of using your name vs a brand identity, but both options are professional and commonplace in the industry.

Now I know this is NOT a thing you want to be spending so much time on right now; there is a long list of other work that needs your attention. But unfortunately, before you can get to the fun task of setting up your website, choosing colours, layouts and fonts, and populating your blog with interesting content, you need a name. So a decision must be made.

But don’t fret. As I mentioned above, anything you choose now can be changed if/when you decide on something different.

What you need to do right now, is make a decision, stick with it, and move on.

So lets do just that.

Using your Own name

The first option is to use your name as the title. For me, that’s: FrankySeymour.com

On one hand, using your name is an easy solution. It’s unique, easy to remember, and most likely not already being used by someone else, meaning the domain name will be available for you to purchase. The best domain to look for is one ending in .com. If your name is not available as a .com, don’t worry, there are a few other options. You can try a shorter or longer version of your name: FSeymour.com or FrankyESeymour.com as examples, or you you can use a nickname, provided its relatively professional sounding.

On the other hand, when you are starting out as a freelancer, unfortunately, no one yet knows your name or associates it with freelance work, so no one is going to stumble across your page by accident. If your site was called ILoveTacos.com you would probably get quite a lot of traffic just from people interested in tacos, but by using your name, unless you already have a substantial online presence, you are not going to get anyone searching for your site that you haven’t initially sent there yourself.

This isn’t a major problem, you are going to do a lot of work to generate leads and get your name out to the right places and right people, but your name is not yet a selling point on its own, so its something to be aware of when making your choice.

Another thing to consider when using your own name, is if you want to connect the personal and professional.

What I mean by that, is that most of us already have an online presence of some kind, be it Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc. If you are planning to use your name as your writer brand, are you ok with connecting these other online outlets with your professional name?

There are of course pros and cons to both. Social media is a great tool for promoting your freelance work and for finding jobs online, but be aware that if you use your name as your brand, anything you post, comment, or say online is now linked to your professional persona. As is anything you once said online. It’s always a good idea to be cognizant of what you say on any online outlet, with the knowledge that prospective employers can easily look anyone up these days and read your ‘private’ musings, but this is especially true when it comes to writers. By using your name as your brand, you are saying “this is who I am and this is what I write”, so a prospective client will look at everything you have written as evidence of that. That includes your drunken late-night Twitter posts and your college Facebook updates.

A simple way around this is to make your ‘personal’ social media separate from your professional. Have a work account, where you post well written, well researched posts, and a private account, where you can say what you like, post pictures of the new year’s party and remind your partner to pick up milk on their way home. That being said, you need to be conscious about everything you post, both from the perspective of potential clients and current employers. If it’s out there then people can read it, and you have to write everything under the assumption that people not only can read it but will read it. If you’re not comfortable saying it to someone then you shouldn’t post it. The internet is, after all, for life, not just for x-mas.

The Alternative

The alternative to using your name would be creating a ‘Brand Name‘ for your blog: like Nerd Forge, Wit and Delight, Sly Flourish, or Rowan, Rook and Decard.

This allows you to make your blog one degree separate from your personal name. You can still have your name on the blog somewhere, but it gives you that separation between what content you want to be associated with your writing brand, and what is personal. The difference between how you talk at home with friends, and how you talk in a job interview. Professional vs private. Both honest, but with different tones and likely different content.

A great way to come up with Brand Name ideas is to grab an A4 sheet of paper and a thesaurus (or the Word Hippo app if, like me, you’re not a dictionary owning household) and start brainstorming. Think of the things you want to write about, your hobbies and interests, perhaps what work you have already produced, and come up with a list of keywords. For me, those words were: Write, story, create, journey and adventure. Then grab your thesaurus, and start filling up your page with similar words you like the sounds of. Go down rabbit holes; turning create into build, into forge, into capture. Adventure into mission, into project, into atlas. See where your search can take you.

Once you have a page full of interesting words, have a read and try to make some connections. You don’t want a name that is too long, so try to stick to 3 words max, unless you find something epic you just can’t cut.

When I was doing this same exercise, I came up with: The Escape Project, Write Way Home, Write and Reset, Take A Little Time, and Reset The Board. My themes were focused mainly on writing, gaming, adventure and creative career growth. Though I liked these names, and still enjoy the idea of “The Escape Project” as a writing prompt, I felt they fell short in explaining who I was or what I wanted to be writing about. They sounded catchier than just my name, but they put my work into a box I wasn’t yet ready to decide on.

Another idea is to try using your name in addition to the type of work you are hoping to offer: Such as WordsByFranky, FrankyTheWriter, or ContentByFranky, maintaining a little of the personal connection, and a little of the separation. For many writers this is the best of both worlds, giving them a brand name to separate from other online endeavours, but still maintaining that professional sound, and personal touch.

One downside is that when you first start freelancing, you might not know exactly what type of content you will be producing, or what services you want to offer, so choosing a name like FrankyTheEditor or CopyByFranky might be too specific, and unnecessarily niche you into a certain service or area before you are ready to make that choice.

You can always change it later

I am aware I haven’t given you a straight answer here. You asked what to name your blog, and I’ve given you a whole lot of options, but no definitive answer to which one is best. Why is that? In truth, because I don’t know which is best, and what works for one person might not work for another.

But there is an upside.

You can always change it later!

If you decide on a name, and 3 months down the line find out it’s not working out for you, you can easily change it to something better suited. You can migrate your entire site to a whole new domain if you want, there are even companies that specialize in just that.

A name is important, a brand identity is key, but nothing you decide on now is forever. You are at the start of this journey, and it’s more important to just get started than to pick the perfect name first time. Mark Wahlberg started his career as Marky Mark, Subway used to be Pete’s Super Submarines, Nike started out life as Blue Ribbon Sports! A name can be something you grow into, find along the way, once you have some experience in your field and have a clearer picture of what your business will be about.

Now. Today. You just need to pick one!

So pick one of your options. Any one.

And move on.