Should You Use Your Own Name for Your Blog Name?

In my opinion, using your own name as your blog name is not a good idea.

But lots of successful bloggers do it – so it is a matter of personal opinion.

Let me tell you a little story.

Last week I received an email from a private equity company.

They have a client that was interested in buying my blog.

What!?

After I determined that they were, indeed, legit – I reached out to them, more out of curiosity than anything else.

Basically, they were looking for lifestyle blogs that had a certain revenue threshold per month – and they were willing to pay 3 to 5 times that for the blog.

Well, sadly, my blog did not meet that threshold – but it was a motivating exchange.

It was a great affirmation that the work that I am putting into my blog has the potential to pay out and pay out big!

So, it got me thinking.

What if my blog used my own name as it’s domain?

Would it be as marketable down the road?

Would somebody actually want to buy a blog that was branded with my name?

And would I even consider selling a blog that was branded with my name?

That train of thought is what brought me to the conclusion that I would personally not use my name as my blog domain.

Why Using Your Own Name As a Blog Domain Is Not A Good Idea

Your Blog is a Business Asset

It may not seem like it at first – but the time and energy that you put into your blog is worth something.

You are building a foundation for your business.

As this foundation grows – you start to make money – and before you know it, people take notice.

This itty bitty blog of yours is now your business’ biggest asset.

Related: What You Should Blog About To Make Money

One Day You Might Want to Sell Your Blog

You may have heard that blogging is a great business to get into because you make a “passive” income.

But that is not really true.

To keep the money coming, you need to continuously create new content.

Whether you create it yourself or hire it out – you still need to keep your blog chugging along.

That might work for you – until it doesn’t.

Life can get in the way of blogging. You might:

• get a great job offer that you can’t say no to
• want to spend more time focusing on your family
• have health issues that keep you away from your blog
• want to retire
• need a cash infusion

At some point – either now or 10 or 20 years down the road, you might want to sell this blogging business that worked so hard to build.

Take the blog ScaryMommy for example. Jill Smokler started it in 2008 as a small parenting blog and it grew like crazy. The demands of running such a large blog became more than what she could handle solo.

So, in 2015 she sold it to the digital content company Some Spider LLC run by Vinit Bharara.

Now I ask you this – what if she had used her name instead of ScaryMommy as the domain for her blog?

• Would the blog have become as popular as it was?
• Would it have been as attractive to a buyer?
• Would Jill have been able to step away from a website that had her name plastered all over it?

Honestly, I don’t know the answers – but I think it would have been harder to do.

Why You Should Still Buy Your Own Name’s Domain

That being said, you should still buy your own name’s domain and either:

• park it
• redirect it to your blog, or
• create an online resume

If your personal name is available as a domain – I say grab it.

I use GoDaddy (get 30% off of new products) to buy domains and they have a tool where you can search to see what is available.

Do You Use Your Personal Name As Your Blog’s Domain?

If you use your own name as the domain for your blog – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Clearly my opinion is to not use your name, primarily because you might want to sell your blog one day, but that is only one side of the coin.

Tell me why you like or don’t like using your name for your blog in the comments below.