When creating a website one of the first obstacles you’ll run into is finding the right domain name. In this day and time there are literally millions and millions of domains that are already registered. If you’re looking for a ".com" domain it might be tough to find the perfect domain name for your site, especially if your site name (product) is very simple.
Back in the early/mid 90s you could buy just about any domain name you could think of. Now, for the most part, they’re all taken. Sure, there are people out there who saw a good thing and scarfed up all of the real catchy ones and then flipped them for huge profits.
Sometimes, even today, if you’re lucky, you might run across a good catchy combination that hasn’t been taken yet. Rare, but still possible.
A good domain name does a few things:
1. It paints an accurate picture of what the website is all about.
2. It is easy to remember and therefore creates a "branding" for the website. (Think "google" - what does that word really mean?)
3. It is easy to type - people don’t want to type 700 forward slashes and underscores when typing in your website address, do they? I sure don’t.
4. It reflects a certain level of professionalism represented upon the site - if your website address is 362 characters long, and is hosted on a "free" server with a load of forward slashes, underscores, or hyphens it just screams low budget, low quality.
A good domain name isn’t too hard to find if you just put your mind to it. There are plenty of sites out there where you can do searches to see if a domain name is available. Yahoo Domains (Domains.yahoo.com) has a really easy to use and quick search feature. If your domain name is available, it will give you the option to purchase it and several package options.
www.Godaddy.com and www.Register.com are also examples of other sites in which you can register domain names for your web sites.
The thing to remember when registering a domain name is to find the right fit for YOU and YOUR CUSTOMERS. People that visit your site will remember a short, catchy domain name, but will be turned off by a long, hard to remember URL. Your domain should represent the essence of your product line/information/content or whatever. And it should represent YOU and your passions and vision.
Domain name auctions are also a good place to look. You can go to any major search enging and do a query for domain auctions. Sometimes you can find a great domain name, but you’ll need to be ready to shell out a little more dough for it if someone else already owns it. Some people "broker" domain names. It’s not as popular as it was in the "dot com" boom of the 90s, but there are still people who make millions selling domain names.
One example, is Global Domains International. I like GDI because they have an innovative alternative to the crowded ".com" market. They partnered with the Western Samoan governement back in the 90s to make the ".ws" domain available to a worldwide consumer base as an alternative to the ".com" domain. WS literally represents the Western Samoan’s International Internet Authority’s top-level domain registered specifically for Western Samoan websites, but by partnering with GDI they’ve made their websites available internationally and in the first month had over 100,000 registrations. WS today stands for "website and the GDI domain registration service is a neat opportunity in itself. They’ve built a nice multi-tier affiliate program for people interested in earning income and promoting the .ws domain. If you’re interested visit, www.website.ws/blindeyesopen for more information.
Registering a domain name can cost anywhere from a few dollars up to hundreds of dollars depending on the length of time you register it for (usually it’s a year minimum) and the service you use to register the domain through.
The easiest I’ve found are Yahoo, GoDaddy, and GDI.
Just remember that a domain name reflects you and could make or break the success of your website/blog. So put a little thinking in it or else you're domain name will have a lot of stinking in it!
Russ is a freelance musician/artist and specializes in creating creative creations. He spends his spare time blogging at FIRE INSIDE and increasing his google adsense income, as well as writing, composing, and napping.
Author: Russ is a freelance musician/artist and specializes in creating creative creations. He spends his spare time blogging and increasing his google adsense income, as well as writing, composing, and napping.
