The Joy of Domain Names; How to
Choose
Effective Domain Names
Many entrepreneurs buy domain
names that are a hinderance to their business and getting people to their site.
Heck, even I made one of these mistakes in our first years in
business. Learn from my mistakes, read on and you'll get it right.
If this is your first website, I recommend
you pick one to three names to start off with. If you already have a website you might
want to expand your domain name collection. I know of one Infoguru
who boosts she has 50 domain names.
First, what NOT to do when you pick a domain name:
- Don't pick names that are too long.
- Don't pick names that are hard to spell.
- Don’t bother with .net and .org. Most everyone defaults
to ".com". If you go with the .net or .org and someone
types it as a .com, they will get a Web site and they won't know
it's not yours.
- Do not add a hyphen in the middle of your .url as this is a
big impediment to people remembering your name. Explaining to
people your domain name has a dash in it really complicates things.
Read on for a better solution to this dilemma
WHAT TO DO:
Buy your business name. If it's not available, work on creative
variations, like adding short words before or after. Words like "your", "the" and "team" work
well. We decided to add "Web" to our new address. www.AlmostEverythingWeb.com
Buy your name if it is available. It helps people who have heard
of you find you later. It helps your friends and colleagues get
to your site easily. And if you are a public speaker or publicizing
your personality, definitely buy your name.
Consider buying variations and common misspellings of your name,
especially if you can't buy your name.
Buy keywords related to your site. To reinforce particular keywords,
buy those as domain names as well.
Possible names for us:
almosteverythingwebmarketing.com
almosteverythingprogramming.com
In summary: Buy at least three and perhaps many more
domain names. Your business name, your name and your keywords.
A good place to buy domain names is www.godaddy.com. Good service,
cost is low at less than $10 and the whole godaddy.com feel is fun
as well.
Point of Clarification: You aren't setting
up separate sites for all these domains. They all point to your principal domain name.
Happy hunting. Oh. If you have trouble finding
names that are available, write a
long list and then sleep on it. You will find
the perfect domain names.
Almost Everything Communications
510-527-9920 karen@almost-everything.com
627 Evelyn Avenue, Albany, CA 94706 |
