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What's in a name?

I have been thinking about blog names a bit lately... I am not good at naming blogs... I named my Active Rain Blog Columbus Ohio. Columbus Ohio was my Active Rain Blog's second name*.

I love these Active Rainers choice for a blog title:

All the Moo's that's fit to print

Reese's Pieces Of Real Estate

CT Scan

"Singing in the Rain" (Rich Jacobson)

Holy Toledo: Toledo, Ohio Real Estate Blog

I am stuck in a rut. I have historically, officially named three blog Columbus Best Blog.... I abandonded two of them both almost a year ago. Both blogs were started after the original Columbus Best Blog and only lasted a couple of weeks. I was thinking of switching blog platforms from RealTown Blogs a year ago. Very few people were using the platform and I was frustrated. The second Columbus Best Blog was on Blogster. I thought I was on Blogger... I found that blog yesterday. A week later I started the third Columbus Best Blog on Blogger. I went looking but I could not find that blog yesterday.

My first name for my Active Rain Blog was Columbus Second Best Blog*....dumb.

I noticed Don Fabrizio-Garcia's "CT Scan" yesterday. Clever. I have always admired Rich Jacobson's "Singing in the Rain" for it's cleverness. Of course Angus and Elaine are both marketing geniuses... I just noticed Nancy's today, "Holy Toledo" .... some of you are so clever!

I prefer geographic names to people's names when it comes to real estate blogs for some reason. I envy Carole Cohen in Cleveland for her name ... The three C's in Ohio are Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus or Carole Cohen and Cleveland. We have a highway named in honor of Carol, 3 C Highway....

Not all of the blog names I like are geographic, Elaines, Angus and Rich's have nothing to do with geography.. Angus and Elaine's are all about them but they are subtle, clever... not that there is anything wrong with it being all about YOU.

What other great blog names have you seen on Active Rain? Out in the blogoshpere? I hate to be a name dropper but did you see Sellsius° Blog (great name...) has a new years resolution to stop using the word "blogosphere" ????

Happy New Year! This is my first Active Rain Blog of 2007.

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Posted by Maureen McCabe Central OH Homes on 01/04/2007 08:24 AM

Comments (44)

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44 Comments on What's in a name?

JAN

2007

I am challenged by this too. I do think that Rich's singing in the rain has its geographical implications. Isn't Seattle the rainy city?

I am still curious about the destiny of CBB on RTblogs. This might not be the place to ask. Feel free to edit this comment or ignore.

Thanks for the notice! Now I just need a good logo for CT SCAN!

Maureen - I really enjoy those really clever names people come up with. I wish I was half as clever.

Ann

Maureen: I think all of WA State gets lotsa rain doesn't it? Although somewhere deep inside CBB there is a blog entry that says someplace in Ohio gets more rain than Seattle? Not sure if it is Columbus because I got it from BloggingOhio.com they had Ohio places with higher temps than Florida, Ohio place with more rain than Seattle. Important stuff. The original CBB will live on and on. And I am probably stuck in a rut.

Don: If you had a picture of a CT scan... would people says CT scan! ?? The name made me laugh yesterday.

Ann: I order the same thing on the menu all the time... I name all my blogs Columbus Best Blog... I love Nancy's Holy Toledo... I don't even know that that means but it sure catches your eye. I envy these clever people.

MM ~ I'm not very clever either. I always figure it's better to be more specific, so people kinda sorta know what you are talking about. If you aren't they pass you by. Besides there must be some SEO benefit to an ordinary name. The clever ones are memorable though.

BTW I figured Rich was "singin' in The Active Rain". Moo just has to moo too.

You are so right!!! I would pay someone to come up with something catchy for me! Especially when we're dealing with multiple cities here... Maybe we could come up with a brain trust to help some of the more challenged souls out there. I can't seem to help with Columbus either though. I've thought of all the "C" words I can and today must be one of those days because I'm coming up with things totally inappropriate and not related to your style... Catatonic in Columbus, Cold in Columbus, Chillin' in Columbus,

I'm going to give this some thought. Maybe we can help each other out.

Back again, what about Columbus Chit Chat??? Not perfect (and totally not my idea...I was reading a blog that had chit chat in the title), but not bad...

Maureen McC: The thing with Seattle & Columbus that I have heard is that Columbus receives less a percentage of available sunshine than Seattle. We only get about 52-53% of available sun. Meaning we have lots of cloudy or partially cloudy days.

I agree that a location related title would work better with search engines - as your Columbus title probably does. But hey, with my last name (or my ex's last name), I'd be foolish to not play it up. I give out a lot of the peanut butter cups - matches my name & my hair color. I figure if anyone searches for Hershey's and wants to buy a home - there I am. ;-) Otherwise, the name is useless for location specific searches. Just means I have to do other things to capture that.

For Ann: "Cummings & Goings"

For Chris Tesch: "A&M Tesch"

For Maureen: "The Nina, The Pinta & the McCabe" (sorry, Maureen. I'll have to work on that one some more)

Chris: Don't worry about me... I am stuck in a rut... I admire the clever names but I am the George Forman of real estate blogging... didn't he name all of his son's George? I will probably name all my blogs Columbus Best Blog.... CBBI, CBBII, CBBIV

I don't like blogs that have long geographic titles...if you have to string something long together no one is going to be able to remember it, the order etc. IMHO.

Elaine: You, Moo and Rich have great blog names...and they get your names remembered. And it is not all SEO... those who get a geographic name known may be good old what's her face from whereever

Kristal: I think Rich is singing in the Active Rain... and that's why I said it does not have anything to do with geography but it may be both.. to a certain extent. but it is not like he named his blog Washington Wailings. Outside WA State some may or may not get a reference to the area. I have invited people who have no idea why Active Rain is named Active Rain...and need an explaination about the name and what it is, and what a blog is.... and why Rain City Guide is about Seattle of course.

Names are a lot less important inside Active Rain, I don't think about Elaine's blogs name, or Angus...much ...and it is not like you own the domain... like you can on other blogs or have a pointer... that stuff gets so complex! I just noticed how clever Don's blogs name was yesterday and Nancy's today...

Hey Mr. Green Bench you better watch your comments. One of the first great real estate websites in Columbus had a wonderful theme... Elaine SLG's Sue knows Columbus? Loved that whole thing, print, web...

Hey Maureen - I've got the best name for your blog: "The Green Bench Speaks"

Gotta love it...

Tales from the Green Bench

The Green Bench Mile

Green with Bench Envy

Shall I go on?

No please

Just one more: "1492"

Short, to the point, and it will make people think of Columbus, at least subconsciously.

I'll stop now.

Not those who don't know history.

I don't think of Christopher that much with the name of the city....

There is a blog I like on RT blogs that is Somerset 088?? the zip code... I can never remember what it is but I like it... I would think people in Somerset 08873 or whatever it is would remember it.

Maureen: Personally, I think that RealTown Blogs is a good place to be right now for real estate bloggers ... they have made incredible progress in a short time and the sense of community is unmatched in the real estate industry. Hang tight. I don't think you'll be sorry 8-)

I have some new bloggy stuff planned ... and it's ALL on RealTown. I think the guys at IC are gonna make the rest of this stuff look like kids' stuff IMHO ;-)

Now you are making me self concious. I must be more inventive when naming blogs, nuts.

Frances: I'm not sure what the RT Blog plug has to do with blog names?? but thanks for the info. Although this was my first entry on Active Rain this year, I put 3 on my RT Blog since the first...

It will be interesting to see what RT Blogs does.... waiting, waiting... We have a great RT Blogs group here on Active Rain for the biblogular souls among us who have an RT Blog. Or people who want to be biblogular. The description is "A group for those on AR who also have RealTown Blogs - a place to share ideas, learn new things, etc. about RTBlogs. "

Recently we've learned about adding faces to our RT blogs (via MyBlogLog.com) and doing polls on your RT Blogs.

Seth Godin, noted oh heck famous author says in his book "small is the new big" (obviously he has not seen localism yet) that for branding purposes made up names work really well like Zillow, Starbucks, and squidoo. You should name your blog something like winkroho, that way it will always come up in Goodle. Or you could name it 72sam, or pelmoo - well you get the picture now start thinking up names.

Teresa: That I had never heard...Zolumbus Zest Zlog?

Maureen... Do you know if changing the name here on AR will effect search engine searching?

Will old blogs created under the old name be effected if you decide to change it? Because I would like to be more creative...

exploring columbus

MoInOH

CoMo -- columbus mo

columbussed

OHCOLUMBUS

ok, you are free to reject em all. I wont cry. Much...

Craig: Lenn or Mary McKnight or some smart might be better to ask that ,,,,I know when I came to my senses that Columbus Second Best Blog was a dumb name for a blog, I was able to find it on Google and it said ColumbusSecondBestBlog at the end of the link... link from today's blog is here and as you can see the end is Columbusoh... I assume it can be changed... but I am no expert

What's in a name?

17 hours ago by Maureen McCabe - Columbus Ohio (HER Real Living)
My first name for my Active Rain Blog was Columbus Second Best Blog*....dumb.
I noticed Don Fabrizio-Garcia's "CT Scan" yesterday. Clever. I have always admired
Rich Jacobson's "Singing in the Rain" for it's cleverness. ...
Columbus Ohio - http://activerain.com/blogs/columbusoh

don't cry MF...

Maureen...I struggle with the name thingy too and feel none of mine are any good at all. LOL...Monika McGillicuddy Presents...Monika McGillicuddy Real Esate Happenings..umm 3rd I can't remember right now ...maybe I should ditch the name

I dunno

We do get some rain here but part of it lands in the mountains as snow :) Names are great and catchy but when the name of a blog is some what SEO competitive then the name should be more targeted, IMO. I love Goingbigger as my name but it is hard to justify naming a blog for it just because I feel it is me, maybe that is why there are more blog platforms out there....hmmm...just a thought.

JAN

2007

How about 'Discover Columbus'? You could even tie it in with your existing 'Best' branding ... Discover Columbus' Best Dining, Discover Columbus' Best Shopping, etc.

Monika: My website is MaureenMcCabe.com I think we all learned to name everything after ourselves in the 90's It makes it easy for people who know you to find it but as far as people who don't know you finding you via the internet, I think geography is our friend when it comes to the internet. Of course, there are names that just work for a whole marketing campaing like Reese.

Lots of people use their names for blogs and websites, nothing wrong with it.

I was tryying to find a Columbus blog using the Google Blog Search. I was happy to see the little group at the top included my Active Rain blog.

Related Blogs:

Columbus Ohio - http://activerain.com/blogs/columbusoh Only Columbus - Free Classifieds for Columbus, Ohio - Get Great Stuff! Columbus Ohio Local Blog - Post your comments about Columbus Ohio Here.

Toby: Goingbigger sounds kind of Seth Godinesqe from what Teresa shared. What do you mean it should be targeted for SEO?

John: Bingo. I thought of it yesterday and looked to see who was using it. Local journalist wrote a book. A book is not a blog....It has been used a lot by tourism....

I'm with you, Maureen. Clever naming is not my forte. But I have tried to use names that convey what my blogs are about, but they sure aren't very catchy (Relocation A to Z, Fans of Coastal San Diego, First Time Buyer Central). BTW I'm pretty happy with RT BLogs. Will be interesting to see what happens going forward. I like the editing/posting functionality. Good to hear what Fran T. had to say.

How about America Discovers Columbus? Then you could have Recent Discoveries....

Nah, nevermind.

Jeff: My RT blog became Discover Columbus overnight thanks to John Novak saying it. I was going to make it The Original Columbus Best Blog but I did not... I did start a new blog on another platform...last weekend. I am struggling with it... I wanted to own the domain Columbus Best Blog and make the most of it. I got a lot of differing opinions about whether it could or could not be done on an RT blog. I am not killing or abandoning my RT Blog. It is the original Columbus Best Blog... but that is not it's name. The name is Discover Columbus. I think it will be more RE oriented and less restaurant, events, going forward but I am not going to move my content or abandon it.

There are lots of things I like about RT blogs. There are things I don't like though too, like any platform there are pluses and minuses. I have a longer history than most on RT Blogs, mine stretches back to August 2005.

How many blogs do you have Jeff?

Thanks John Novak!! I know Seth Godin would not think it is the best but I am stuck in my rut. I always order the same thing at most restaurants too. I used to not be that way.

Now I have a lot of work to sort out my chicklets, get everything sorted out in the blogosphere (sorry Sellsius, it is a dumb word but...) pinging, etc. and all the

i am using blogdom.

This morning my daughter woke up and started moving stuff around her room. I asked her what she was doing. "I am making my Queendom." Oh no, another word creator in the family.

I will discover columbus later today.

Hi Maureen M. I have 4 blogs right now plus AR (one is focussed on CRS members for the San Diego area and just getting going).

For most, I have a name that I use on the blog platform but also purchase URLs that are similar but which I can use for marketing and ads (e.g., my buyers blog is http://firsttimebuyers.wordpress.com, but the URL I use that points to this is FirstTimeBuyerCentral.com.

Naming my blog is one of the hurdles I have in starting my blog. That and my first post. I am still trying to write that.

Debi is the girl with the dog! I guessed it before clicking...

Debi: a blog name on Active Rain is not as important as elsewhere Debi... I don't think (maybe I am wrong) and you can change it...

Debi is in Tacoma, Washington....smart, clever. title people what are some ideas for Debi?

Tacoma Talk

Just jump in with a blog entry Debi. I did mine members only for awhile on Active Rain... because I was self conscious even though I had been blogging nearly a year. Or maybe local content... Rainers don't look at it... I guess that was kind of my early blogging experience on my other blog.. like blogging into a vacuum... but Google picks stuff up quick...

Anyone?

MF: Queendom, that is cute? Three?

Jeff: 4+ AR!!! Wow

Maureen McM: Regarding Discover Columbus, you might want to see if that is trademarked. The C of C used or uses that term a lot, and I think it may also be connected to that Brushstrokes art piece at the airport. What about "Real Living in Columbus" ? That would allow the connection to HER as well as be appropriate for your restaurants, life around Cols, etc.

but if I change it a couple of times in x number of days I will look dumb.... I do kind of like Real Living in Columbus though...or would people think it was just all my brokerage is awesome? I really only say that on Active Rain,,, hey... maybe

You have to read this comment on my other blog... the blog that says it is Discover Columbus now...Other alternatives... The little no name blog? Whatchamacallit? Whoozit? Columbus Best Blog is Dead

JAN

2007

Maureen, I too have very boring names for my blogs and would like to know if changing the names will affect placement. When you find out I would like to know also, please let us all know. Thank you.

One of my blogs has disappeared this AM.... If I find it I will never let it get away again... thanks for the comment Laurie.

Thanks for the mention Maureen! From a business standpoint I think that one has to decide what they want to convey. Obviously I am trying to have some fun on AR, but I stuck my location with my name here on AR. My other blog is a rather mundane: West Suburban Blog

Since you already have a wonderfully successful blog that tells people exactly where you are and what you write about... why mess with that?

Moo

Thanks I think ...why mess with what?

I should never comment when I'm in a hurry. I think "Columbus Best Blog" is great, I also love "Discover Columbus"... you can have a lot of fun with that.

Moo

JAN

2007

Boy did I get lost over the New Year. I keep on going to your RT blog through the URL instead of through the name and never bothered to see the new name. Wow, congratulations and good luck on getting the other blog going.

It is not a drastic change.. I did not change the name until late in the week... although I started my blog on the 1st.

JAN

2007

Oh boy, what a relief to know that so many of you have more than one blog! I thought I was dyslexic, or attention/deficit or something, since I've started two blogs already but wasn't happy with either of them, and have felt really lost on what to say, who to say it to, blah blah blah.

Discover Columbus rocks, in my opinion, Maureen.

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