How to Name Your Blog

Issue #895 Feb. 28, 2015
Publisher: Joan Stewart

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

In This Issue

How to Name Your Blog
Publicity for Restaurants
Cruise with Me Next January
Hound Video of the Week

This Weekend in the Hound House:

Wisconsin is famous for its Friday night fish fries. We have ’em 52 weeks a year in dive bars and five-star restaurants. My favorites are the ones in the basements of Catholic churches during this season of Lent. St. Mary’s Catholic Church in my neighborhood features table after table of pies, cakes, kuchens and bars, homemade by parishioners. It’s the only place to be on Friday night.

1. How to Name Your Blog

If you’re starting a blog, and it’s time to choose a name, which way do you go?

Do you christen your blog with a name that explains what the blog is about? Or do you create a name that’s so clever or “out there” that it makes people curious enough to investigate?

That was one of the most frequently asked questions when Joel Friedlander and I hosted a webinar on “7 Fast, Easy Ways to Pull Traffic to Your Author Blog” on Thursday.

Our answer: Choose clear over clever.

My blog is “The Publicity Hound’s Blog” and Joel’s is “The Book Designer.”

This isn’t a hard and fast rule. But ideally, your blog’s name will be part of your brand or help solidify it.

Authors can include their first and last names, or their company name, or a phrase that ties into their genre.

The domain name (www.blabblahblah…) can include keywords, but that isn’t as important as it used to be a decade ago. Today, compelling content rules. And that’s what we stressed during our free training.

We showed authors seven types of evergreen blog posts our readers love and encouraged them to steal our ideas. We explained how to write them, and how to access or create free images for posts without spending a bloody fortune on cliche stock photos. We discussed best practices for blogging, and we answered dozens of questions.

If you missed it, you can watch the replay, but only until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday night. That’s when the video replay and our killer offer for a very helpful product for bloggers goes away.

You’ll even be able to type questions into the Q&A box. But it is NOT a live chat box. We’ll email your answer as soon as we can.

Watch the replay.

2. Publicity for Restaurants

Restaurants need every morsel of creativity to generate publicity in such a cut-throat industry.

Last month, I shared tips on how restaurants, chefs and foodies can tie their story ideas to food trends.

Here’s another idea. Tie your story to tech trends.

For example, restaurants are offering alternative payment methods that go far beyond cash, charge or debit cards. Some let you pay at your table using PayPal and Bluetooth technology.

Read more about the Top 5 Restaurant Tech Trends for 2015 and start pitching!

Food can be the magic gateway to publicity, whether you’re offering bloggers free samples of your new high-energy bar or providing cold drinks and snacks for the media during an outdoor festival you’re hosting during the summer. My “Special Report #43: The Do’s and Don’ts of Offering Food to the Media” explains things like who picks up the check if you’re taking a reporter to lunch, rules regulating food gifts for reporters, and how to respond to lousy restaurant reviews. Only $15. Order it today.

3. Cruise with Me Next January

Join me for the third annual “Publishing at Sea” cruise Jan. 24 to 31 aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Allure of the Seas,” the biggest ship in the world.

I’m thrilled that Joel Friedlander (see Item #1 above), will be joining the faculty and presenting several sessions during our days at sea.

Start saving your money now so you can come. Ports of call include Cozumel, Haiti and Jamaica. Joel and I will be joined by book shepherd Judith Briles and book distributor Amy Collins. Stay tuned for details.

Authors who are serious about selling books, not just writing them, can see Judith, Amy and me at the Author U Extravaganza May 7-9 in Denver. It’s a deep dive into the world of book publishing. We even have our version of the Shark Tank! And Country Western star Jimmy Wayne entertains after the gourmet dinner on Friday night.

I love presenting at this event because I return home so much smarter than when I arrived.

4. Hound Video of the Week

You’ll die when you see how many Basset Hounds fit inside this little clown car.

[Tweet “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week–How to Name Your Blog”]