Naming Your Vlog

When you set up a vlog, you need to decide two things: the name or title of your vlog, which will appear at the top of the vlog page, and its URL. Before you make any decisions, though, keep in mind two things:

• Your vlog's title and its Web address don't have to be the same.

• It's easy to change the title of a vlog, but it's hard to change its URL.

Picking one is harder than it sounds. You might easily come up with half a dozen URLs but the question is whether they're available. You might be surprised by how many names are already takenincluding weird ones. So it's best to make a list of several alternatives and have them ready if you need them. That way, if bestvideoblogever is unavailable, you can try bestvlog or thebestvideoblog.

We happen to use Blogger, so if we succeeded in choosing bestvideoblogever before others got it, the URL would be this: http://bestvideoblogever.blogspot.com.

Different blogging apps handle names differently, but you get the concept.

It's easy to change the title whenever you feel like it. Changing the URL, however, won't be nearly as easy. You'll have to establish another blog at a new address and then notify all your friends and fans about the move. In the process, you may lose some visitors because search engines will be linking to your old URL, not your new one, at least for a while. And if you care about your old archives, you'll need to copy them from the old site to add them to the new site. For all these reasons, choose a URL carefully.