Our thanks to Michael Keshen, Content Marketer at Hover for this guest post.

When you’re trying to establish your online presence as a writer, your name is everything. There are many basic components your website needs, but perhaps most important is having a great domain name.

This can be tricky for an author because your name is your brand. So when you search for yourname.com and it isn’t available, what do you do? A new business can change its name based on what’s available. Unfortunately for you, your name is your name.

Not to worry, though — there are solutions! Here are some methods to make sure you get the perfect author domain name every time:

Add Extra Words

One common option is to tack on extra words, and many of us do. This is an easy way to incorporate your name into your domain and usually it only takes one or two tries to find something available, since it’s unlikely that someone has already purchased your name and the same description word.

If you have a short name then by all means add a descriptive word to your domain name. The problem you may run into if you have a long name. JoeSmithAuthor.com isn’t too bad, but in my case, MichaelKeshenAuthor.com is a bit too long because, let’s face it, people are lazy and don’t want to type too much.

Don’t Use Your Full Name

This might seem counterintuitive, but you can skip your name altogether and come up with something else that describes what you do. It’s a good idea to incorporate at least part of your name, but this option frees you from having to get a domain name with your full name in it.

This can also make your domain name more fun and give your website its own unique feel. You could go for something like mikewrites.com or pennedbyjane.com or whatever else you can think of. You’re writers, after all — get creative!

Use Another Top-Level Domain

A top-level domain (TLD) is the string of letters that comes after the final dot in a domain name. Usually this is .com, which is why most people try to find a domain name using that particular TLD.

What many of us don’t realize is that there are many other TLDs to choose from. If YourName.com is already taken, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to find it by replacing .com with something else. In fact, some of these TLDs can actually do a better job of describing your website.

Here are some great TLDs that would work great for any writer’s website:

• .bio
• .buzz
• .club
• .guru
• .info
• .ink
• .me
• .net
• .pub
• .website
• .xyz
• .zone

If you want to see all of your options, check out this list of available top-level domains.

What do you think is the best option for when your #1 .com choice is taken? Please share in the comments!

 

Michael Keshen is the content marketer for Hover, the simple and hassle-free way to buy and manage domain names. Check out his writing on the Hover blog or tweet him at @michaelkeshen.