- So how do you come up with a cool name
for your YouTube channel?
In this video, I'm going to be sharing
some of my favorite tools,
tips and some of the biggest mistakes
that I see people making
so that you can come
up with an awesome name
for your channel.
Coming up!
(upbeat)
Hey what's up guys.
Sean here with ThinkMedia.
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There's a lot of cool resources
for coming up with a
name for your channel.
So check those out at any time.
Let's
jump into
the video.
So coming up with a cool and
memorable name for your brand
is super important.
And I actually wished I had
a lot of the information
I'm gonna be sharing in this video
years ago when I started on YouTube,
and I also wished that I
thought a little bit bigger.
Because I know this video
is about coming up with a YouTube name
but I really encourage you
to be thinking about your brand name.
Thinking about a website,
your social media
the overall brand that
you want to build online
and not just your YouTube channel.
So this video is going to
be broken in to three steps.
The first one is how to
kind of come up with a name,
the second one is some
of my favorite tools,
and then the third step
is gonna be all about
some of the mistakes that I hope
I think everybody should avoid
when trying to come up with a solid name
or even rebrand their channel.
So let's jump into it.
So how do you actually come up with a name
for your YouTube channel?
Well, probably one of the easiest ways
is actually to just use
your first and last name.
If you're stuck,
there's actually a really good way to go
especially if you're
building a personal brand.
I do a lot of work in
the entrepreneur space
and when I think about that space,
I think about people like Tony Robbins,
Chalene Johnson, Gary Veynerchuk,
Marie Forleo, or whoever right?
Those brand names
Lewis Howes, their YouTube channels
are just their first and last name.
And what's nice about that
is that as you grow and progress,
you're really just building
real estate around your name
and not necessarily around a brand name
that can change when you change
maybe even what your niche
or what your topic is
or as you evolve.
So that's probably one of the easiest
ways to pick out a name
is just your first and last name.
The second option of course
is coming up with an actual
brand or creative name
of some sort.
And so here's a few tips
if this is the direction
that you're going.
One, I think it's very powerful
if you include the topic
of your YouTube channel
in the name.
Meaning,
is the name actually
relevant to your content?
So some of my favorite
brand names out there.
One of them is Nerd Fitness.
And what I love about that name
is it's a brand name.
And it's a fitness brand that's helping
not just learning fitness tips
but specifically for a
specific group of people.
So you have the topic and you
also have really the niche.
Gamers, nerds,
cosplay, whatever.
Nerd Fitness, super solid name.
Another one
is Epic Meal Time.
And that's a very popular
channel on YouTube.
It's a normal cooking channel
and you add the Epic on top of it.
And if you ever seen the channel,
it's a lot of outrageous
10,000 calorie meals.
A lot of just epicness
to what they're doing.
So again, a solid name.
And so, if you were thinking about this.
Let's say you had a real estate brand.
You're doing a YouTube
channel with real estate tips,
you can do something
like Rocking Real Estate.
Or whatever it is.
And you've got
the actual topic including
in a creative, sticky
and memorable name.
Another variation of this
would be to do a hybrid name.
And so, that's where you do the topic
and then your name.
So for instance,
let's say you were doing
After Effects With Austin.
And the channel was all
about After Effects tips.
Or maybe Beauty With Brittney.
And you're also seeing
that kind of rhyming
and the same first letter.
But you can try some things like that.
What is your topic and then
what is your first name
or a nickname of some sort?
And so that's another option.
And then one of the things
that you would wanna
think about here is again,
make it memorable and make it sticky.
So ways to do that would be
Fierce Fitness.
And that rhyming as well as
the first few letters there
kind of makes it memorable.
One of my favorite YouTube channels
is called Charisma on Command.
And I think that's a great name.
It's very sticky, the channel is all about
how to build your charisma,
be more effective in social situations.
Even be more better on camera.
A lot those types of things.
But a really solid name that is memorable
and that is also sticky.
And then the last tip
on picking out your name
is model the masters.
And that's actually a good name but
what I mean by that is actually
look at some of the
channels you look up to.
Look at some of your
favorite online brands
and look at how they name their stuff
and maybe just use it as
a framework or a formula.
So if you like that
Charisma on Command vibe,
what words could you plug
in there for your name
that's your topic, as
well as maybe an adjective
or something that has some energy to it
for the name?
So we talked about in step one
is kind of how to pick out your name
in different name formats.
Step two is adding some tools to the mix.
And so,
some of my favorite tools are one,
simply thesaurus.com.
When you're looking for an adjective,
if you're going that brand name direction,
that is a great way to think
about what you want to convey.
Maybe it's motivational,
or maybe it's Fierce Fitness
but you're like somebody has that.
So you're trying to type in fierce
and see other variations of that.
I think a thesaurus is a great tool.
And then another set of tools
I'll link up in the description below
but are some websites like Bust a Name
or Name Boy or Name Mesh.
These are actually sites
that help you pick out
a domain name.
It actually lets you know it's available,
but they also give you
some creative combos.
And so it says enter two words
and it gives you some variations.
It will even mix up some of the adjectives
and it will also let you know,
which we'll talk about in a second,
if the actual .com or
any domain is available
which I think is important.
I think that if you're
watching this channel,
you're part of the
ThinkMedia.tv community,
that I really want you
to be thinking bigger
than just YouTube.
Be thinking about
building an actual brand.
Building even a business.
Like you're an entrepreneur.
Be thinking outside of the box
and be thinking about your brand overall.
Not just on YouTube.
So definitely check out
that list of resources
and go through those websites
and I'll bet that if you spend
10 or 30 minutes
entering some different
words into those websites,
you're going to discover
a lot of cool ideas
for coming up with a cool name.
And then the final step here,
number three, I want to talk about
is some of the biggest mistakes
that I see people making
when it comes to picking out a name.
And I think you should run
your name through these
this framework first,
to really avoid
pitfalls later on.
And so the first one is,
not checking to see who online
is maybe already using that name.
And I don't just mean
because of copyright.
I just mean that
if you for instance thought
maybe you're not watching this channel,
and obviously you are
watching this channel.
But if you never knew about
this channel and you're like,
"ThinkMedia would be a cool name"
type it in the Google,
type it into YouTube,
you're gonna see that
a lot of market share,
a lot of ranked videos are
taken around that name.
So might want to keep looking.
Same thing
on maybe a personal brand.
You can't help if you
have the exact same name
as somebody else and they're
really established online.
But you could think about
a way to position yourself
by maybe adding another word
like After Effects with Austin
as opposed to some person named Austin
that is ranking everywhere.
By niching things down.
So the first mistake is
just not doing the research
to see if anybody else has the name.
And then secondly, the
big mistake that I see
is not checking to see
if your name is available
on social media.
So, for instance, when we were
starting Video Influencers
Benji and I a few years ago,
one of the things that we did was
we researched to see if the
name was used by anybody else.
Then we actually went around to see is
are the social media accounts taken?
And what we mean is the actual URL.
So instagram.com/videoinfluencers.
We got Facebook, we got
YouTube, we got Instagram,
we got Twitter with no S
because we maxed out the characters
with just Video Influencer.
So this is I think
a great thing to do when
you're just starting out
and even if you want to expand
onto other social media
platforms to look to see
if maybe a brand name
or rebrand is available.
Now, don't get stuck here.
Because there's plenty of
people that are crushing it
at world class levels
that have a different Instagram name
than their YouTube channel
than their Facebook page.
But, it is really nice
if you can have unity across those brands.
And so just put it on your to-do list
to run through your process
of coming up with a name.
And a cool resource that
I wrote down here is
namechk.com
that's name C-H-K.com
which is actually a place
where you can type in
all the characters of your name
and it will tell you what
platforms it's taken on.
So when I type VideoInfluencers,
you start seeing the platforms
it's taken here, here, here
and here and it lets you
rather from going from
platform to platform to check,
it lets you do it all in one place.
So that's a great resource
and I'll link that up in
the description as well.
Mistake number three I see people making
is not seeing if the domain is available.
The URL
because even if you don't
want to start a website now,
it's really great to get the domain.
And you can also always
just redirect that domain
to your YouTube channel
between now and whenever
you might want to start
a YouTube channel.
So the other thing about this
is I really still believe that there's all
even though there's all
these other URLs out there
.net,
dot whatever, not it's .life, .vegas
there's all these URLs.
I still think that .com
is the most powerful
especially if you want to build
a world class brand.
Now the disclaimer is again,
don't get stuck here.
For Video Influencers,
we can't even find the .com person.
We offered him money,
he's just not responding.
Somebody bought the .com
and just sits on it and
they're not using it.
But we got .net.
So again, run your names
through these filters
but don't necessarily let
it make or break the name.
So we just said, "fine,
we'll go with .net."
And it's not a huge problem.
But ideally, if you can get the .com,
if you can get the social media,
if nobody else has it,
you're on a great trajectory
for finding an awesome name.
Mistake number four is
using numbers in your name.
And so,
I like to say avoid this,
rather than just using Sean Cannell
will be Sean Cannell 65 or
Sean Cannell 11 or whatever.
And usually why this is
a problem is number one,
if you say it verbally on a live
or on a podcast or with somebody,
they might not know if it's typed out,
they might not know if it's
actually spelled out.
The numbers versus the actual word.
And it also can just not
potentially be very professional.
And a lot of times, back in the day
I remember when emails started,
that's how old school I am,
I remember it would be like,
oh shoot my email address
is not available on hotmail
so instead of doing
SeanCannell@hotmail.com
it would be like SeanCannell21564
or your favorite lucky number
or the year of your first car
and all that's cool,
but again, it has that vibe right?
It's not necessarily super professional.
So if possible,
unless there's a very strategic
and intentional reason
maybe it actually is on brand
and there is a reason for doing it
well then absolutely do it.
But typically, I recommend
avoiding numbers in your name.
Mistake number five is if
the name is hard to spell
because think about this.
We live in a world
where you really want to
think of the practicality
of sharing that name
and someone trying to remember it
and then maybe type it
in on social media later
or figure out what it is later.
And so, I think that sometimes
you can't avoid this.
For instance, my name is Sean Cannell.
And nobody knows how to spell Cannell.
And nobody knows how to say Cannell.
And so, it is kind of hard to communicate.
So even if I'm on a podcast
and I'm being interviewed,
I will actually say
you can follow me on
Twitter at SeanCannell
that's S-E-A-N C-A-N-N-E-L-L
I'll actually spell it out
because I'm thinking about that.
So that's kind of a strategy as well.
You can ultimately change
your name if it is confusing.
But never forget that
you can't just assume people
know how to spell your name.
And sometimes, even when you're
typing it in in Instagram,
you're like, "what was it again?
"What were the first two letters?"
So always be thinking about
how can you make things as simple?
As clear?
As memorable?
As easily communicatable.
If you're gonna be on
Facebook Live or YouTube Live
and you say something verbally,
can it be remembered?
And is it going to be complex to spell?
Especially when picking out YouTube names,
domains, URLs,
keep it simple and make it
very very easy to spell.
And one way around this,
and this is kind of cool
is Gary Veynerchuk
try to spell Veynerchuck right?
He on social media actually is Gary V-E-E.
He shortened his name, Gary V
and he then will say that.
"So you can follow me
everywhere Gary V-E-E"
and he spells it out.
So that's a hack to be
thinking from the beginning.
How can I make this very sharable
and memorable and simple
for years to come?
And then lastly, one of the big mistakes
that I see people making online
is having an inconsistent
name across the internet.
And so, what I mean is
maybe their YouTube
channel's named one thing
and then their Twitter is different
and their Facebook is different
I don't even just mean the URL,
I just mean their actual branding.
So be thinking about not just
coming out with a solid name
that hopefully includes your topic
and has a strong message to it.
It's memorable and simple.
But then also be thinking
about making sure that
messaging is consistent
across all of your channels.
So even if you already have a name,
that might be some good
spring cleaning if you will
to really think is my name,
my brand messaging consistent
across all platforms online?
Question of the day.
What are your tips
for coming up with a
cool and memorable name
for YouTube or just for your brand online?
Post those in the comment sections below
and remember that some of
the best tips and feedback
come from you.
The ThinkMedia.tv community.
So definitely connect with everybody
in the comments section.
So thanks so much for
checking out this video.
Hit the like button if you
thought it was valuable.
And once you pick out your YouTube name,
the next step is to figure
out how to get views,
subscribers and how to really
build your influence online.
So if you actually want to
check out a free training I did,
I'll link it up on the screen here
as well as in the description below.
Until next time,
ThinkMedia.tv is bringing
you the best tips and tools
for building your influence
with online video.
Keep crushing it, and we will
talk soon.
