What is a domain name? A domain name is the location of your website o­n the Internet. Your domain name will be what you become known by o­nline so it’s important to get it right.

Each website o­n the Internet is labelled with something called an IP address which is the actual address of the website o­nline. A typical IP address looks like this: 159.134.27.64. Remembering a string of numbers like that is difficult so a domain name translates all those numbers into something like www.amazon.com. This is far easier to remember.

#1 Dot what?
Each domain has what’s called an extension. The most well known of these extensions is .com. This, however, is not the o­nly type of domain extension available. There is also:

.net
If you can’t find your preferred .com domain name you could always choose the same domain with a .net extension. It might not have the same ring as a .com but is still as just useful as a .com.

.org
These domain extensions were orginally designed for educational and more formal websites. Anybody can register a .org however so you have more options for domain selection.

.info
A more recent introduction to the domain name game are .info domains. Many of the valuable .info domains were bought up overnight but there’s still a huge range of good .info domains available. With a little creativity you could really make a .info work for you e.g. www.moviereview.info.

Bear in mind that most web surfers tend to remember .com more easily than anything else.

#2 Branding vs Business Name
There is an age old debate o­n the whether or not you should establish a brand name o­nline or use a domain that more actually reflects your real business. Let’s look at Amazon as an example. Amazon sells books o­nline. Most people setting up a business would have chosen say www.booksonline.com instead of www.amazon.com. Amazon has since established itself as a brand name of global recognition – proving the value of building a brand name.

You’ll need to choose between the two. Brand name or your own business name. Consider how your domain sounds, how it might look o­n a business card and how well it relates to your business.

There’s no o­ne right answer to this question. You need to choose what makes most sense for you, your website and your business in general.

#3 Hyphenated or Not?
This is another area of debate. Should your domain be o­ne single word or should the words be separated by hyphens? There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Single word domain names can be easier to explain, use o­n header paper and lend themselves to brand names very well.
Single word domains are in very, very short supply.

Hyphenated domains names can be slighltly more difficult to explain, may not look as well o­n headed paper and possibly harder to establish as a brand name. There’s no shortage of multiple word domains.

The single biggest advantage a hyphenated domain has is that searche engines can “read” the domain more easily. For example in a domain like www.foreignholidaysonline.com the search engine can o­nly read the first word “foreign” and that’s it. It can’t tell anything else about the website domain name.

If you hyphenated that to www.foreign-holidays-online.com the search engine can read “foreign”, “holidays” and “online” as separate words and therefore knows that this website is about foreign holidays.

A well chosen hyphenated domain name can be just as effective as a single word domain name.

#4 Your Domain Registrar
These are the people you pay to register the domain for you. There are dozens if not hundreds of these companies out there so which o­ne do you choose? This takes some research but things worth checking are:

* Do you retain sole ownership of the domain or do the registrar keep some level of control over it?

* Search Google for any horror stories relating to the registrar

* Does the registrar allow you to transfer the domain to another registrar?

* Is there an o­nline control panel for domain administration?

* How easy is it to change the domain Name Servers?

Shop around for domain registrars. What you really want to find is a previously satisfied customer to ask questions before you buy.

#5 Cheap Domain Names
You can save a lot of money o­n the domain names you purchase. A typical .com domain costs about $15 to register from most registrars. However you can get the same domain for as little as $7.95 from other, very reliable, companies.

Oddly enough some of the cheaper domain registrars are more reliable, have fewer horror stories and offer equally good customer service as their more expensive competitors.

Are there any disadvantages in using a discount domain registrar? Will it affect your website in any way? The answer to both is a definite No.

If you’d like more information o­n choosing and setting up your domain name then visit http://www.affiliate-advocate.com for our Domain Guide.

“What was the name of that website? It was good. It has something to do with…”

Is your web site like many others?

Domain names always o­n the tip of a visitor’s tongue, but not quite memorable enough?

Your choice of domain name needs to be easy to remember, as well as focused enough that your visitor will know right away what your site is about.

A Few Rules

Some rules do apply when deciding o­n a domain name:

Domain names must be at least two characters long but no more than 63 characters, not counting the TLD.

You can use any combination of letters, numbers, or hyphens, but you can’t use a hyphen as the first or last character.

Domain names are not case-sensitive, so my-home-based-business-advisor.com is the same as My-Home-Based-Business-Advisor.com.

Choosing A Domain Name

Choosing good domain names is almost as important as choosing your actual business (see our Startup Ideas page).

There are many different schools of thought when it comes to picking good domain names.

Some say to choose a short, concise name.

Some like numbers in the name, some don’t.

Hyphens and underscores — as opposed to words all running together — are another debated topic. It’s mostly a matter of easier reading for your human visitors. Which do you find easier to read?

myhomebasedbusinessadvisor

my_home_based_business_advisor

my-home-based-business-advisor

Generally, the hyphens between words make domain names easier to read for most people.

While search engines don’t rank domain names, a keyword-rich name will let your visitors know what your web site is about before they get there. This makes them more comfortable because they know what they’re getting in advance.

Also, when you get other sites to link to yours, that link is usually based o­n your domain name. This means that your main keyphrase (which you used as your domain name) will be the actual anchor text and search engines do give additional ranking for that.

Domain names play a major role in making your dream memorable to the world.

Take the time to do it right and your dream of a home-based business will be seen all over the world!

For a more detailed explanation of domain names and domain registration, and more great advice for your home-based business, please visit My Home-Based Business Advisor.

Terry Nicholls
My Home-Based Business Advisor
my-home-based-business-advisor.com

Copyright © by Terry Nicholls. All Rights Reserved.

If you provide great content o­nline users will make sure that they can find your website. You can create a domain with hyphens, longer phrases and words. You don’t want to use the 67 character maximum allowed for domain names, but 15 plus characters is totally acceptable.

To make your domain name memorable, it should be a short phrase that describes your website, your products or your particular area of expertise. If you provide reliable, accurate information, web users can use bookmarks or type the phrase directly into a search engine to get back to your site. This means that you will have to really focus o­n getting your domain name listed o­n as many search engines and directories as possible.

The other advantage to creating a domain name for an informational site is that most surfers search by typing in phrases and entire sentences into the search engines. A domain name that uses all of the words of a small phrase or sentence will easily filter to the top of the listing and keep your customers coming back.

Hot tip: If you don’t trust the engines to help your customers find you o­n a regular basis, make it easy for anyone to bookmark your site with a reminder button o­n your home page.

How would you react to this letter in your post? “Dear Sir, We are sorry to advise you that we are no longer trading as your ISP and your web site name…

1. What is a Domain Name?

How would you react to this letter in your post?

“Dear Sir,

We are sorry to advise you that we are no longer trading as your ISP and your web site name “www.localisp/~business/retail/videorecorderland.com” is no longer active”.

Consider the effect this would have o­n your business.

Think of all the locations where your Url is recorded, both

Online – with customers, adverts, search engines and all the web sites that link to yours, and

Offline – your company stationery, business cards, letterheads, envelopes, newspaper ads, brochures, shipping labels, catalogs, etc.

All these contacts are now LOST to you – they will visit your site o­nly to be met by the ‘Url not recognised’ message.

So can this be avoided ?

Yes, simply. You can have a name which NEVER changes.

This is a ‘Domain’ name – a unique name which will always be yours, independent of an ISP.

If this alone was the o­nly benefit of a domain name it would still be a MUST for any business. But there are many more advantages and this article will review them, explain how to choose and obtain a domain name and how to move from an ISP based web site name to a domain web site.

In our example above the domain name could be simplified to the very impressive www.VCRworld.com , gaining all the advantages which will be explained below.

2. What makes a good Domain Name ?

The key elements of a good domain name are

2.1 It should convey effectively the nature of your business

A name such as golfnews.com will immediately give the reader an idea of what the site contains, with no further description. It will also be easy to recall from memory at a later time.

But, a warning, you must also plan ahead for any future diversity.

Suppose you then decide to provide news about other sporting activities. It would make no sense to set up new names such as

golfnews.com/boxing golfnews.com/tennis
The name of your site should be generic in order to allow for future variation.

If you had chosen the more general “sportsnews.com” this gives you the flexibility to add

sportsnews.com/golf sportsnews.com/boxing sportsnews.com/tennis
2.2 It should be easy to remember and to spell.

Can you recall the web address at the start of the article ?

I doubt it.

(It was www.localisp/~business/videorecorderland.com)

Can you remember the new name ?

Probably yes.

(It was www.VCRworld.com)

Think of the situations when you need to convey the spelling of your Url. It could be in spoken format (during a conversation, a phone call, in your voice mail) or printed format (on all your stationery). You want to make it as easy as possible for your customer to record it and to recall it later and, hopefully, to communicate it to others.

You need to avoid a name that is too long or o­ne with confusing characters such as ‘~’ or ‘-’ or mixing ‘I’ with ‘1’ (And just how do you explain the tilde sign ‘~’ over the phone ?)

3. What are the benefits of a Domain Name ?

3.1. Portability

A domain name means that you are free to move to a different web host or ISP and leave the name unchanged.

Why would you want to move ?

Some of the reasons could be

A better standard of support (quick response and competent replies to technical questions)

Lower prices

Faster connectivity to your site

Better tools and features

Whatever the reason you are no longer tied to your old ISP.

3.2. A professional image for your company

Would you feel comfortable about ordering goods offline from a company based at

Flat 4a, Dodgy Street, Cheaptown

or about sending an order o­nline to an Email address of perkins23@localisp.com , where there is no way of finding any information about the company such as the postal address.

Contrast this to ordering from sales@VCRworld.com where you have the option of obtaining company details through their registered domain name (via http://www.internic.net/whois.html).

Think of the credibility it lends to your company to have a name based o­n the business: contrast this to a cheap sounding name possibly hosted o­n a free site.

3.3. Ease of use for your customer

A well chosen domain name will be shorter to enter into a browser and easier to say over the phone or appear o­n a business card. In addition a customer may guess that your site name is www.[yourcompany].com and reach it successfully.

3.4. Submission to search engines

Some search engines may not accept submissions from free (non-domain) sites

4. How to register a Domain Name

Domain names can be registered through many different companies (known as “registrars”) – a listing of these companies is available at ICANN: http://www.icann.org

You can register for 1 to 10 years – prices can vary anywhere between $10 to $20 per year.

Most Web Hosting companies will handle the registration process for you, but make sure that you are properly listed as the owner of the domain when it is registered.

5. How to choose a Web Host

If you have a business site o­n the web then you should aim for nothing less than a professional hosting site providing 24 hours support, who will give you a domain name – not o­ne which incorporates their own name.

Although a domain name will simplify your move to another provider if you are not happy, it is best to choose right the first time. Technical features apart here is a useful rule for choosing any company which provides a service: ensure that their level of support is first rate.

Do not tolerate automated messages with false promises to respond in 24 hours. Ignore what they claim to achieve and prove it for yourself. Send in questions and observe the quality and speed of response.

6. How to transfer to a domain site

If you are moving from a non-domain site to a domain site, typically with a new provider, you will not want to lose all the traffic currently visiting your old site.

Such traffic is coming from, for example

Other sites linking to yours

Existing articles or sales letters submitted to newsgroups or forums

Existing ads at other web sites

First, you change the individual pages o­n your old site to point to the new site.

For example,

“We have now moved to another site. Click here to visit new site”.

You can find which sites are linking to you, if they are registered in a given search engine, by searching for “link:old address”. You will then need to make contact with these sites and inform them of the new name.

However it is likely that there will still be unidentified sources conveying visitors to your site. What you can do is to ask the visitor where he heard about your site prior to redirecting him. A free gift may provide the incentive which provides this information.

Ideally you should have counters to tell you how many times your old pages are being accessed. o­nce you feel that no more traffic is reaching your old site or that it does not justify the cost of maintaining it you can cancel the original site. A final tip – depending o­n your relationship with your old provider there is no need to announce your intention to move until you are ready.

About the author:

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I see so many people that register domains that are basically worthless. Maybe these should be called fools gold. Everything from three word combos with hyphens to bizarre misspellings that no surfer would ever type in let alone remember.

There is no question, the domain game has gone mainstream. Everyone from the hardcore experienced developer to the fresh newbie, is in search of valuable nuggets.

Just like when searching for real gold you might get lucky and a very good domain falls into your lap with little effort. But for the most part it takes a great amount of knowledge and hard work to find domains that are truly worthwhile.

When looking at a domain and trying to decide if it has value ask yourself two important questions.

1) Does this domain have a good chance of getting type ins.

2) Is this domain brandable. Somewhat short, easy to remember, and meaningful.

If either of the answers to these questions is yes, register it. If you don’t its o­nly a matter of time before someone else does. If the answer to both is no, is there any reason to register it?

Now that you know the criteria, how do you go about finding them. What it really comes down to is having a solid knowledge of keyword analysis. Which can be summed up as understanding what keywords and phrases have value and are meaningful. Here is an exercise you can try.

Pick a subject matter. Then think of every keyword and phrase you can that relates to it. Go through them and come up with as many meaningful combos as you can. Then to see how sought after these combos.

Here is an example of the whole process. Lets say the broad subject is dating. Some keywords would be relationships, advice, date, personals, and of course dating. I can then think of combinations such as relationship,help, cyber,dating, california,personals. Then using Alta Vista and the Goto tool I can plug in these combos and get an idea of how popular they are. Using all the data at hand and common sense and logic, a decision can be made if the domain is worth registering.

Then repeat this process over and over and over again using as many subjects as you can and keep drilling down deeper until you find some good o­nes. Every time I have used these techniques I have always come away with some worthwhile domains.

Another technique is what I call “futuristic domains”. This involves using foresight and looking at current trends to try and predict what keywords will be really hot in a year or two but aren’t right now. If you can register domains in an untapped area that eventually becomes popular, you could have an enormous return o­n your investment. Some of these may never pan out, but at less than 20 dollars it is certainly worth the risk.

There is gold in them hills and its just a matter of finding it. Those who proclaim loudly that there is no good .Com’s available just don’t get it and probably never will.