In this post I will explain why beyond nothing .com is a terrible domain name for a blog and what to keep in mind when your choose a domain name for yours. By the end of this article, a new blogger would at least be warned about what mistakes to avoid with domains. In the process we will also address some common curiosities relating to domain names.
The first and probably biggest mistake I made with beyond nothing .com was choosing its domain name.
Read this article to learn about registering a new website and different hosting services out there.
How do I choose a domain name for my blog?
Some aspects will be explained as answers to frequently asked questions. Some will be narrations of the mistakes I made summarized as their respective headings.
your domain name doubles as your brand, so think twice.
Functionally, a domain is your address (URL) on your the internet for people access your website. However, it is also used as your website’s name. More than 99% of the time, the name of the website will be the same as its domain. A domain name beyond nothing .com displaying a website called ‘CarZone’ is immediately confusing and is therefore seldom done.
It also looks weird on Google search results when the URL does not match the site title. Think about what your audience will see when choosing your domain. Think of what will happen down the line when you will also use this brand for your Youtube Channel, instagram page, twitter account, pinterest, Facebook, and other platforms.
The domain name you choose should reflect the subject of the blog
Many bloggers say it doesn’t matter what the domain name is as long as your content is great. It is the content that attracts traffic, not the domain name.
Although this is true, I really struggled with beyond nothing .com being a website about tennis rackets.
The problem was that the name ‘beyond nothing .com’ was inserted for branding purposes wherever possible, while my visitors were searching for terms like ‘tennis’ and ‘rackets’. No one ever searched for beyond nothing .com. A more successful blog about tennis rackets and strings is called “stringerszone” , which is also commonly searched for on google by it’s users. It is also naturally more memorable than some random words that dont mean anything.
From a content writing perspective, I thought a domain like beyond nothing .com would give me flexibility in terms of theme and topics to write about. In reality, this approach was the beginning of the mess I was going to make instead of focusing on my niche. Read more about single niche v.s. Multi niche blogs.
Now I have no niche left at all. I was pretty much doomed to fail the very moment I registered my domain.
Your domain name must be perfect. Take your time and don’t compromise.
Registering a domain is the first step in a commitment that can last for a minimum 1-3 years depending on your hosting plan. You really dont want to get stuck with a dumb name and pay for it. I even had beyond nothing .com renewed for another three years after the first three lapsed.
Sometimes we have a rush of stupidity and become delusional about how great a philosophically intriguing a name like beyond nothing .com is going to be. Piece of advice: run it by someone with an honest opinion.
If you keep adding content to a domain thats not ideal, you could just be adding to your sunken cost instead. So take your time thinking of the domain name, keep it relevant, and be 200% sure that you will be happy with it. Otherwise, don’t register.
Have your content before registering a domain
A better approach is having the content for your blog written and ready to be published. Read this guide on planning your blog.
This approach would help deciding a more appropriate name for you website rather than coming up with a name first and thinking about writing new material to suit it later.
Domain name availability
It can be really annoying when you try to register a well thought out domain name only to learn that its already taken.
Your best back up plan would be to try variants of your desired domain name with .com, .net, .xyz, .online, .io or whatever becomes available to you. If you still cannot find a domain, its okay to start from scratch (refer to the previous section).
Once you register though, stick to it.
There is also no need to buy all the domains (.xyz, .net, .org, .biz, .online, .etc) for your brand unless you are a trademark conscious corporation.
Can Sub-Domains work with Adsense?
Blogging with Sub domains for example “optometry .beyondnothing .com” are fine for blogging as long as your monetization service such as Google AdSense is willing to work with it. It is recommended to use permalinks instead e.g “beyond nothing .com / optometry /” as monetization normally works only with main domains.
For my case, since I relied totally on AdSense, subdomains were no good for me. I was stuck with beyond nothing .com for everything.
