Picking your design and domain is so important when starting out. I think we can all agree that first impressions are super important and you should keep that in mind when you’re picking out your design and domain!
Picking your name and domain
Word of advice here, when you’re choosing the name of your blog check out the availability of the domain before you fall in love with the name. You want to pick a name for your blog that is easy to remember, easy to spell and easily identifiable!
I spent a couple of weeks before starting bree west brainstorming names, I came up with a ridiculously long list and it turns out I was way overthinking it. I had it narrowed down to three super cutesy, super niche names that looking back on I would have probably ended up hating now, 2 years later. When I shared the list with a good friend the names I had picked she suggested I just use my own name. And so bree west was born, it was simple, it was me and it allowed me to cover the wide range of topics I so desperately wanted to talk about!
The next step was grabbing my domain, I figured out relatively early that I needed to be self hosted and bought my domain through Bluehost and couldn’t be happier! Some people suggest picking up more than one variation of your domain, maybe .net, .org or a different spelling and setting up redirects. This is something I didn’t feel I needed to do right at the beginning but I’m starting to investigate now. It helps your followers get to you even if they can’t remember exactly what your website is!
Designing your page
The fun part about picking your design and domain is definitely designing your page! The first impression someone has of your site is so important, I will leave a blog almost immediately if the page is cluttered or dark, granted that’s just my taste, but if I go to a website that is distracting or clunky, chances are I’m not staying!
For me when I was designing bree west it was so important to stick to the 3 c’s: clean, crisp, and classic! When you’re first getting started, you don’t need to have the logo, fonts and colors all figured out right away but try and choose something that’s easy to read and that will stick with your readers.
Make a mood board on Pinterest, pick colors you love, fonts, logos, draw inspiration from other places around the web and then put your own twist on it! It doesn’t have to be perfect, like I was saying yesterday, it’s okay for your blog to evolve and your logo and design shouldn’t be an exception to that evolution!
