Choosing a Domain Name:

No matter what they say all the best names aren't gone. You have two choices. You can choose the name of your company (e.g. Surf22.com). Depending on the name, chances are it will be available. Or you can elect for a domain name which is representative of your company. (e.g. marketing.com)

Before we get started people will say: The good .coms are all gone, how about www.ishop.org or www.ishop.net. I want www.makemoney.ws or www.getrich.fr or www.shopping.tv. Yes new Top Level Domains are becoming available along with the .org and .net extensions we already see. There are also different extensions for sites bases in different countries. The only problem is that .com is so well branded and engrained in people right now that people almost automatically add the .com to an address. Imagine building a huge site at www.shoppingmall.tv and having a large percentage of people who liked your site and wanting to return ending up at www.shoppingmall.com out of habit? As people grow accustomed to the new domains they will become viable. If you have the extra money (with nothing else to do) you can certainly grab some good names for the future. Right now .com is where business sites need to be at.

No matter what you choose make sure it is short and easily recognizable. This is the name people will find you and come to know you by. Preferably you want a one word name or a description name that will stick in peoples memory. Think of all the great sites you know. Yahoo.com. Amazon.com. MSN.com. Short, catchy names that are easy to remember.

Now that longer domains are available people have been reserving long names full of keywords. www.I Want-To-Fool-Search-Engines.com. While this May help you score higher on Some search engines you certainly don't want this for your main site as most people will forget a dash or make a typo somewhere. What a foolish reason to lose visitors. Who is going to remember www.bobspopisiclessticks.com? Let alone spell it correctly. Long names may have a marketing advantage as a secondary site but that is for another article.

Do a little research, the right domain name will make your marketing so much easier. Your goal is to "Brand" your site, make your name a household name like "Amazon.com". Not everyone may like them but anyone who has been on-line more than a month has probably heard of them.

As a side note if you plan on making money with your site don't have it hosted on a free site. www.freeservers.com/~yoursite.htm just doesn't inspire confidence. Bring it into the brick and mortar world. If you had to buy from somewhere would you buy from the retail store with a sign saying "Swords.com" or "www.freewebsite/ispname/~myswordsite.htm?".

Once you have some ideas use the box below to check if your desired domain name is available.

Remember, take your time. Ask other people their opinion. Get feedback from people who spend time on the web. Choosing the right name can make all the difference in marketing your site.

Avoid using hyphens or dashes, don't count on surfers memories. Chances are they will remember the name without the dash or hyphen and you'll end up sending traffic to your competition.

Get a .com. With all the new top level domains coming there is a lot of speculation but for now everyone knows and remembers .com. Always start there although if you have the extra money it is a good idea to tie up the .net and .org extension of your name before a competitor does.

Mining Domain Names:

Many people are hoarding domain names in hopes of re-selling them down the road. There is still potential in this although the names are going fast. I just want to add a note on something I get asked about occasionally. Registering a domain name of large companies that haven't done so already will likely cause you to end up in court, not the bank. They can and will sue you for the name, stick to catchy names you can auction later (That is if you decide to proceed with this, I'd personally just recommend building your business to generate revenue)

Happy Marketing!

Mike Beriault,
Editor, Surf22

Questions?
Send me an email: mike@surf22.com

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