Finalizing and Registering your Domain Name is your next step. Yeah! this will be fun.
Qualities of a good domain name.
- Make it short. With domain registration on the rise it is becoming a little more difficult to find short names. A one word domain would be perfect but almost impossible. So go for next best, two or three word names. Mom.com would be ideal. Simplemom.com excellent and Simplemomsays.com is still good.
- Must be easy to spell. Avoid using weird spellings or combination of letters. The domain would be hard to remember and the chances of your traffic going off some where else is pretty darn good. Not everybody can get away with a name like del.icio.us.com.
- Make it easy to remember. This one is pretty obvious. Making your name easy to remember makes it “remarkable”. You are easy to find and to tell others about.
- Eye catching. If your domain name catches attention when people are searching they will drop by. Give a good description of what you are about. Iphonesales.com would be much better that Ronsiphonesales.com. Ronssales.com does not work because you don’t know what it is.
- Avoid symbols. Using a hyphen, numbers can be confusing and send your people in the wrong direction. It is easy to forget a hyphen and hard to remember to use a 4 instead of four.
- The right extension. A .com extension is best. When people are trying to find a website they will type in .com first. Most people do not pay attention to an extension when they are looking for a website so they will just enter in .com.
Do your best to meet all of these qualities and you will do well.
Some final tips on choosing a name.
Eric Holmlund has a really great site. His site teaches you how to build an online business. He teaches about domain names in lessons 22 and lesson 23 .
How to do a Keyword Search and register your domain with GoDaddy.
This is not the clearest video so check it out closely you’ll get the idea. Google Keyword Tool is very easy to use.
I highly recommend GoDaddy. They are great for cheap domain name registration. Remember to only register your domain name. You will be learning about hosting next.
To your success!
Sheila
P.S. Do you know of some unusual domain names?….share them with us.
P.P.S. While you are at it register you own name and the names of your children or grandchildren before your names are gone. I would also suggest that once you come up with a name you like register it now. It is said that name scrappers will take the name and it will be gone when you go back. Good luck with your domain name registration.
P.P.P.S. Update! Feeling adventurous try 12 excellent tools for picking a domain name.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Sheila,
Excellent post! I have one domain name for one of my businesses that started out as a funny commentary in a conversation with my son. I told him “Sometimes I get tired of hearing HOLLY HELP ME”
LOL and I’ve owned the domain name http://www.hollyhelpme.com for some time for my support business.
[Reply]
sheila Reply:
March 16th, 2009 at 6:18 am
@Holly… that is a good one! About once a month I get an email from godaddy that gives me extra discounts. I will be registering some new domain names today..I will have to use that idea for me. I’d like having a direct help line. Thanks Holly.
[Reply]
Great post Sheila. When I first registered my domain name… I fell prey to all of the “upsell” Go Daddy tried to sell me. I even fell for purchasing their hosting. Big mistake. To begin with… you don’t need the .net .org etc. Avoid the sales pitch. Just click through and register one domain name… You can always go back and get more.
As for hosting… Don’t host with Go Daddy. Wait until Sheila gives you other options… then you can choose…. after you have solid information under your belt.
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I’ve always found it interesting that everyone has registered all of the domain names like google.com, gooogle.com, goooogle.com, etc. all the way up to 59 o’s which is the longest a domain name can be…
@Insightful
I have to agree with you. Unless your domain gets really popular, then there’s no reason to get the .net, .org, and .info.
@sheila
According to your blog post, even Delicious didn’t get away with their domain name. You pointed to del.icio.us.com, which is just a domain squatter with a parking page. I think you meant del.icio.us, unless you were trying to prove a point…
Thanks for the post!
[Reply]
sheila Reply:
March 17th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I didn’t know that about the goooooogle.coms pretty funny really.
Your right Tom I did miss Delicious. Thanks for pointing that out!
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