How did you decide on your blog title?

34 Replies

Today’s assignment for the blogging 101 course is to “take control of your title andcropped-seal_v2-04 tagline.” A tagline is a few words that appear underneath the title of your blog.

When I set up this blog almost two years ago, I didn’t go trawling through blog-land first. Like most other things in life, I jumped in with two feet and the entire process, including the title, was born after a surprisingly easy two-hour labour.

My About page at that time was titled, “A Tale too Tragic to Tell” and this became my tagline. My initial concern was that my life story might sound too tragic. When I found other mental health blogs, I quickly realised there are many who have been through a lot worse than I ever experienced. Of course, we cannot grade people’s experiences, definitely not. What may be a relatively frightening experience to one person could transpire as life changing for someone else.

Writing and interacting with other bloggers prepared the way for my own therapy. It was only through reading other people’s journey and sensing their courage, that I was able to find my own.

Now, almost two-years on, I am in therapy and sharing my journey. Not only does writing help to process what can be very difficult sessions, but I hope it reaches out to others and imparts some of the knowledge and maybe even a little of the courage that I found on other blogs.

I love my title; in just four simple words, it says everything about my blog, but I have added a tagline, “A journey through Therapy.” It’s nothing fancy and probably doesn’t grab attention with sparkling lights, but I do hope it encapsulates the consistent theme that runs through my posts.

How did you choose your blog title?

34 thoughts on “How did you decide on your blog title?”

  1. Priceless Joy

    Great post! Informative and interesting! My blog title evolved, I think as I evolved on WP, so did my blog title. LOL! My first title was, “Trying to Get This Write.” LOL! (Play on words). Like you, I jumped right in with two feet and blindfolded. My title was saying, “I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.”

    Like

    Reply ↓
    1. Cat Post author

      I quite like that first title, Joy. I imagine I will probably change my blog name in the future to reflect the end of therapy.

      Thank you for commenting

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
      1. Priceless Joy

        I liked it too at the time but I got tired of it. I got tired of all my titles. (Bleeding my Emotions; Inspiring my Emotions). With the title, Bleeding my Emotions, I felt tied to only blogging about my emotions and mental illness/health. I realized that it was keeping me from growing – mentally, and keeping my blog from growing. I guess the best way to put it is that I felt restricted.

        Like

        Reply ↓
  3. mandy smith

    I suspect everyone either changes their blog title at some point or wishes they could. My first title was Writing Through the Monsters of My Childhood. At a certain point, I had to stop focusing on the monsters–it made a huge difference in my journey and the healing progressed rapidly.

    Like

    Reply ↓
    2. Ziya Tamesis

      This is an interesting point. I’ve considered changing my blog title to be a bit less diagnosis-specific, maybe something to do with “madness.” It’s important to me that it’s a mental health blog, but I don’t feel limited in the topics I can write about. I like the idea of having something that can be interpreted more positively than “depression.” The main reason I haven’t changed it yet is because I want the title to match the URL and am concerned that people might have trouble finding the blog or links might be broken, etc. if I change the URL.

      Like

      Reply ↓
      1. Cat Post author

        I feel the same way. My title is depression, but there are other MH issue that I only briefly mention on my about page (which is under construction!) Like yu, I don’t feel any restrictions of what topics I can write about and the URL I prefer to match my blog title, but I may need to review that in the future

        Like

        Reply ↓
  5. Ziya Tamesis

    I titled my blog “a day with depression” because I wanted to write honestly about my experiences and considered depression to be 1) my primary mental health issue and 2) the secret I couldn’t have associated with my legal name.

    The “a day with” part of the title is very important because the severity of my symptoms used to fluctuate wildly from day to day; I learned that I could never know what to expect, so I just had to take things one day at a time. Even now that my symptoms are more stable and I’m doing a lot better, I like the reminder to respect that each day is going to have its own ups and downs, and that recovery is not linear. It takes the pressure off to show that I’m making “progress” in dealing with my mental health issues; each day (when I write, my posting schedule varies) I just write about what’s going on at that time. You could say it’s a snapshot of my current thoughts and experiences.

    While the title has stayed the same, the tag line has evolved over time to more accurately reflect what I’m dealing with. It’s currently “living with depression, anxiety, & occasional hypomanic symptoms one day at a time.”

    Like

    Reply ↓
    1. Cat Post author

      ‘One day at a time’ seems so clichéd but so very true. I used to feel like you, unable to tell how you’ll be from one day to the next and while that still is true to a degree, my depression seems a lot more stable of late. Sure, I still get the down days, particularly after therapy, but nothing like the darkness I experienced before.

      I like your blog title and tagline. Thank you for commenting, it’s really nice to get to know a little more about a fellow-blogger 😉

      Like

      Reply ↓
    1. Cat Post author

      Awe, that’s really good that you feel that way and I do hope it does encourage others to travel along. Thank you for your feedback, it’s appreciated 😉

      Like

      Reply ↓
  7. Deirdra Storm Hepler

    I love your title! Open, honest and quite frankly…makes me want to follow you. So many people live alone in their depression and need just what you bring, open dialog. I know in many of my darkest moments it was the connection to someone who rose above that helped me heal. Thank you for sharing.

    Like

    Reply ↓
    1. Cat Post author

      Blogging is amazing for sharing honestly and meeting people who help us along in our journey. Thank you for commenting 😉

      Like

      Reply ↓
  8. Anxious Mom

    I wanted a space to get some stuff off my chest and hated therapy…so “Blogging for Therapy” was born 🙂

    Like

    Reply ↓
  9. ziggy40

    Dear Cat,
    I love your honesty and title. Sending healing..lol
    Love Ziggy
    p.s thanks for letting me journey with you. I did blog for sometime, however since I lost my dog last year, I just have not been abler to. I hope to return to writing, it’s a great community support for the most.

    Like

    Reply ↓
    1. Cat Post author

      Losing our pets can be devastating, Ziggy. I know your blog and have tried to connect a number of times. You will start as soon as you feel ready and I’ll be looking forward to it. Thank you for following my blog, I always do value your input 😉

      Like

      Reply ↓
  10. penshift

    For any of us who have wrestled with depression we can immediately see how succinct and evocative your title is. I think it’s really important to know what theme holds the blog together – those who struggle with titles and taglines really haven’t concreted what their blogs about to themselves. My blog title will probably never change; it was relevant when I named it, it will be relevant when I’ve finished novels. There will always be another story with an end. 🙂 My tagline changed but only because I’ve taken on a different attitude to writing because I’m constantly writing.

    Like

    Reply ↓
    1. Cat Post author

      Thank you, that’s very encouraging. I must admit, I was surprised yesterday in the commons to see so many struggle with theirs, but it was lovely how everyone was so supportive towards each other, lots of ideas were thrown around….lots of changes…,. great fun 😉
      Thank you for your feedback

      Like

      Reply ↓
      1. penshift

        I can imagine. I can’t seem to follow the commons without getting bloody confused. But it’s important to remember that those who are having the most trouble are those who are just starting. We have been at it longer. If we don’t have some concrete idea of our respective blogs by now there is a problem. 🙂

        Like

        Reply ↓
  11. kat

    well, i wanted my title to refer to my major mental health problems, and how (generally speaking) they have shaped and influenced my life. kind of an informative but fun title. and i too just jumped into it with the ‘missing me’ and ‘picking up pieces’ as it refers to DID and bipolar and dissociation and i often felt (still do) that i am like humpty dumpty, missing pieces and not knowing how or if i can put them together again (as the trauma has left us this way).

    Like

    Reply ↓
  12. Glynis Jolly

    I like the title of your blog, Cat. It tells me what your blog is about and the general mood you’ve chosen to talk about your subject. Your tagline further explains that your blog is not a dumping ground for negative ideas, that you’re taking a critical look at your own journey to try to heal. This is why you usually have 20 comments or more before I even get up in the morning 5 hours from you.

    This is something I’ve thought about revising on my blog. I come up against 2 obstacles though. First, I’ve had the title for a while now. How in the world could I changing and still have the few followers stick with me? Second, what would I choose to call this blog? It doesn’t have a clear direction like yours does despite what I’ve written for a tagline. Maybe at some point I’ll figure it all out.

    Cat, you’ve put your heart and soul into this blog, and it shows.

    Like

    Reply ↓
    1. Cat Post author

      Thank you, Glynis, it makes me feel good to know I must be doing something right. I’ve often doubted the content but I’m glad I stuck with it. I think focus goes a long way.

      I like your blog and the title, but not so sure on the tagline, especially the “and whatnot”. I know you’re trying to convey the variety of things you write about, but the primary focus of your blog, I feel, is the writing and its improvement, so something like, “writing with pearls” or “The pearls of writing”…. hope you don’t mind the suggestions.

      Thank you for all your support, Glynis

      Like

      Reply ↓
  13. manyofus1980

    Our blog name is boring. Its just….many of us. It reflects that we live with did. I just added a tagline just now as I didnt have one on the blog. XX

    Like

    Reply ↓
    1. Cat Post author

      I think your blog title is very catchy and says exactly what your blog is all about. Thank you for commenting on mine

      Like

      Reply ↓

Your feedback counts