Choosing a Domain Name

It’s a given fact that if you are a serious internet marketer, you need your own website, which means you need a domain.  The first step is to find the perfect name for it.  Choosing a domain name requires some thought, since it will be representing your business.  So there are some guidelines to follow, hopefully to reduce the confusion in finding the perfect one.

First, decide on which domain extension best suits your business.  .Com is usually the best, especially for the main website.  .Org helps in gaining trust and can benefit businesses that are service oriented.  Country-specific domain extensions, like .CA, .IN, etc. can be an advantage if you are marketing in a niche in a specific country.  Keep in mind that when most people type in a web address off the top of the heads, they usually type .COM as the extension because it is the most used.

Your domain should describe exactly what your web site is about.  Made up words, like Xanga and Bebo may become popular, it’s best to use something more straight forward for informational sites.  Having a made up word for a name becoming highly popular is normally the exception, not the rule.

Don’t use abbreviations unless your brand is already well-known.  Most people will not know how to find you.  Also avoid using numbers (digits) unless you have a very good reason to do so.  Try to match the domain name up with your product name, if possible.  If your product name contains only two or three words, it can be perfect for your domain name.  If you find that your product name is not available to use as a domain name, you might want to be sure it is not already in use and quite possibly change your product name to avoid any conflicts.

Once you decide on your domain name, make sure you register it so that it will be available to you when you find your hosting service.  Let us know the process you went through in finding your domain name, and list it here.