I’d like to ask you for help, to answer a basic question. Some of you might have read a few times that I am in a real identity crisis with my blog. I am absolutely sure that I want to rebrand my blog, and it will definitely happen. Right now, I have a notepad file, and I wrote down ideas every month, so that I have a big list now. But then I remembered that I still have my other domain “techfeeling.com”, and here comes the basic question:
If you are a native English speaker, how does “techfeeling” sound like? Does the name make sense to you? I ask because I do wonder if the wordplay makes sense to you. Also I wonder what you think, and if the name is memorable or too long? I’d like to hear your opinion. If you don’t have much time to read further, that’s everything I’d like to know. Everything below is just my explanation why I want to do apply a change to my blog.
The reason why I ask you is, because I own this domain already since a year, and it would be handy to redirect my current blog to this domain. In other words, I could use it to rebrand my current blog. The “techfeeling” domain sounds much more brand-able to me, but as a native German speaker I am not completely sure if the wordplay makes sense.
My logic is, the words “tech” and “feeling” do perfectly connect what I am up to. Ok, a lot of my posts are related to the photos I take with my camera, but even then, cameras are tech related, and I would call creativity “a feeling”. I can say that I wrote 468 technology articles, and 483 photo related posts, every other post fits into one of the both categories (gaming is technology, flowers photos are about photography, to name examples).
Now there is a reason why I would rather give my blog a “tech” related name, rather than a “photo” or “photography” related name. My technology articles do probably make 90% if not even 95% of my traffic. To give you some examples, the tag technology gives me around 18k traffic per month, the tag tutorials around 17k, gaming around 14k and so on.
I found a premium theme where I could design the front-page on a way that it separates my categories. To me it would make a lot of sense to feature technology related articles on top of the front-page, and other subjects below it. I say this, because the majority of my visitors come here with tech related questions like “How can I do this?” and “How can I do that?”. With the theme I found, everyone could find their favorite content a lot easier.
What would that mean for my friends at WordPress? It wouldn’t change a lot, because as you might have noticed, I wrote about both, photography and technology in rotation, depending on my mood. If you skipped my technology posts, you could do that in the future too. Apart from the WordPress reader and email notification, you could still find your favorite posts via category or tag links on my front-page, that wouldn’t be different.
With the theme I talk about, I can nicely blend all subjects on the front-page. I can show the latest posts of each category, it would be much more clear what my blog is about. If you come here because of my photo stories, it would then even be easier to find exactly those posts. If I would write 10 technology posts in a row, you would see only technology posts for a while with my current theme, but the front-page of the other theme has a clear separation, and every new post of each category would be visible on the front-page:
All the screenshots were taken on the front-page, I like how the theme does separate every category so well. You might see on the screenshots how easy it would be for you to find your favorite post category on my blog. The theme fits very well to a multi-interest blog. I am not sure, but I think it could improve the click-through rate and the engagement.
The theme has some nice features, I can not only use the menu you see in one of the screenshots, I can also add social media icon on top of the site. Then as said, it shows the latest content of each category on the first page, and there is a button to show the most discussed content, and I can enable a “trending topics” features post element on top.
I think I would still want to apply some CSS changes, but that would happen much later. The only problem is that the theme doesn’t support the triple-ad-units of WordAds, but who knows, maybe I could ask the WordAds team if there would be a chance that they add it to the theme. If not, it would result in 3 times less earnings, but the theme looks so good that I maybe could live with it, but that is something I still have to think about for a while.
My post here is mainly about the domain change, I just mentioned the theme change as a side note. Talking about search engines, it wouldn’t be wise anyway to do both changes at the same time, because that could be really dangerous for the site ranking. If I am sure to do it, I would start with the domain redirection, and I would apply the theme change two or three months later. For now I’d just like to know your opinion about my other domain. I’d be happy if you can tell me your opinion, if you can answer the question I asked.
Diary of Dennis 
Dear Dennis, my English language is not enough to answer this, especially theoretically! But I would have used like that “tech&feelings” or “tech & creavity”…. just an idea… By the way you are doing right to move your other blog in here (or opposite of this) it’s been really difficult to have more blogs and to control them… Good Luck dear Dennis, Love, nia
I had words like “creativity” on my list too, or words like “inspired” and so. But adding a second word to it would make the domain quite long. Currently I try to aim for something short, but it’s really difficult. Even “techfeeling” is still a little long, but short names are often taken. Yes, I had trouble with two blogs, I don’t like to manage two blogs, even if it makes sense to split topics up, but I prefer one blog. 🙂
my blog name is long too 🙂
I was ok with it for a while, but I think my next domain will be a bit shorter, something with a maximum of three syllables or so. I think it’s possible to find something, I have many ideas, it’s just a lot of planning… I don’t want to do another change after that 😀
I would say that as a native English speaker, and one who is not particularly technology-oriented, ‘tech feeling’ does not really say anything to me. When I read your explanation of what is behind it, though, I get what you are trying to do and agree you should probably consolidate your efforts. It is always wise to bring a key focus to a blog, a lens through which you see the world. As a writer, however, my gut feeling is that you should perhaps reconsider the name. Not that you can’t make that domain work, but simply that you may have more success with a name that captures your concept more intuitively. For what it’s worth!
That is great input. I am still unsure about the other domain too, that’s why I asked. The real difficulty is to put my interest into one name… the main categories are really technology (with big focus on pc gaming and software) and photography and design, but it’s hard to combine it in a name.
I have a list of domain ideas, some are funny or sound ok, but none would perfectly nail my subjects. What drives me nuts too is that you sometimes think you have found a nice name, but of course the name is already taken 😀
I don’t stress myself with a decision, it must be considered this time. If I would have known that I go so far with blogging, I never would have called my blog a “diary”. 😀
Hi Dennis. I’m not particularly techy as you know but I am a native English speaker and I think that “tech feeling” does describe what you are trying to do and would be a better name for the blog than the current one. You may think of something along those lines that sounds a bit better but as you say it’s also a matter of what is available. I do like the idea of the new theme which will make each different type of post easier to access.
Good to know that it sounds ok for a native speaker, I was really curious about it. When I purchased the domain back then, I was inspired by slogans like “summer feeling”, and thought I could swap one word to express the same about technology.
I have a lot of other ideas too, domain names with the term “pixel” for example could be a good fit as well… reason: pixel is a common term in graphics, photography, gaming, technology, and the term simply fits to almost all my major subjects… and the fact that I basicaly see pixels everyday, unless I am not at the computer (laugh), but then I do probably hunt pixels outside with my camera. In some way, many of my interests have something to do with the pixels on the screen, even the blogging or writing, I like to see pixels 😀
With the pixel term I could also create some two word domain ideas, I did already write some down… even here “pixelfeeling” might work, or things like “pixelfeed”, “pixelfocus”, “pixelpath” or things like that. I maybe wrote 50 ideas down for that term alone 😀
I did also write down other alternative terms that I like, so, I have quite a lot of ideas.
Using the “tech feeling” domain would be practical, since I own the domain already, I didn’t check my other ideas for availability yet.
The real problem is that I must be careful with the decision, because I don’t want to do a change a third time, because that could be expensive. With each redirect I will pay a few more dollars, directing from diaryofdennis to another one is still ok, but I really don’t want to do that again in the future. 😀
Managing two blogs is still an option, but a fresh start is difficult with another blog, it’ll take years to build up, but niche blogs come with benefits too, you might know that from your doll blog, you get a target group of readers with a niche blog, that’s an advantage.
I quite like pixelfeeling &pixelfocus. I guess you are a pixel hunter. 🙂
Yeah, they do sound interesting anyhow, and I think they would nail it 🙂 I have them on top of the list 🙂 I had pixelhunter on my list too, and I liked it so much, but there are already very similar domains taken like “pixelhunters”, and that would be bad to name the blog the same. Pixelfocus seems to be taken, but the other one not. Maybe I could even do it shorter, “pixelfeel”…. would probably mean the same, and if so, it would still fit… also I like very short domain names 😀
It seems the shorter word “feel” is also connected to terms like “feeling”, “atmosphere”, “emotion”, “sensions”, “sense”, “ambience”, if I take a look at a German/English translator…. Do I see this right? It would basically state the same as “feeling” or?
This is such a personal thing that is is difficult to give advice – techfeeling is okay as an English word, but it would appear to exclude all non-tech stuff and will attract fewer people who might not be interested in ‘tech’. Sometimes people open new blogs due to their interest in the subject, introduced by its title. Your photography may be done with a tech gadget – the camera – but the images you post are artistic indeed and would not fall under the techfeeling title at all. Different subjects areas under that heading is not a good idea in my opinion. I myself, (and I am sure many others) do not investigate a blog which indicates that the subject is ‘tech’ something. I never read your technological posts because they do not interest me. I am sure that many of your followers do love them. I like your blog, just not the tech stuff. I would say run two separate blogs/web sites and cross reference them.
As I told Taswegian in the other comments, I could even nail it down better with domain names that include terms like “pixel”, since pixels are a common term in photography, gaming, software and so on, it would combine a lot.
But I get your point, and I am in this dilemma since a while. If I would have known that I start to enjoy blogging so much, and for so long, I would have set up two niche blogs right at the beginning. Now it feels as if it’s too late… I tried it with my other blog, and the result is I compete with myself. I would need to re-write a lot of content, but even then I wouldn’t be able to outrank the tech tutorials on my personal blog, since they got several backlinks over the years. Publishing articles here and ranking them became easier over the years, it’s more difficult with a new domain. Exporting the content might work in a few cases, but there are articles with links from major news sites and so, I would need to ask them to change the link, and I bet they wouldn’t even answer (laugh). I can be lucky enough that I got some cool links. It might work with some major sites if I ask friendly, but I think it’s more difficult than it sounds, it would be dangerous for the ranking. A 301 domain redirect instead would work very well, maybe with a loss of just 15% trafic, but that would recover in a few months.
It’s a bad dilemma. I know, all experts say it, niche blogs are superior anyway, because even from the other side I noticed that those who come here because of the PC gaming articles, they will unsubscribe right away when I upload a photo of my cat. I am glad that some of you are ok with it that I sometimes might write about games or tech, but the majority of people dislike multiple subjects, which mean you are right, that is my experience. I’d like to have a niche technology blog, but it would be a long way, a fresh start. The option is there, but it’s difficult, also the decision.
Take your time and show your photos – that is what I look forward to.
I would say that every blogger needs a domain name bearing their name. Its not just great for personal branding purposes, but also great if you want a blog that grows with your interests. That way your blog can evolve in time. For example, if you ever do grow tired of blogging about tech you dont have to start another blog or get another domain. You can allow your blog to evolve. After all, a blog bearing your name should reflect your evolution.
That is also possible if you find a timeless domain name. I dislike to write under my real name in the web, but I see this is a matter of taste and I understand why some people are doing it and you made a very good point. For me it is just not an option due to several reason, I will try to find a timeless branding instead, it’s not easy but I believe it is possible. Thanks for your input 🙂