Friday, December 15, 2006

Useful tips for choosing a domain name.

Your domain name is the internet address of your website, it looks something like this:
www.yourname.com

Once the domain name has been selected and registered, no one else can register the same domain name just as there can never be two houses with the same address. Your domain name can also be your Internet Business name.

You will want to take out a piece of paper to write down ALL the keywords related to your Internet Business. You see, you want your domain name to:

• be short and easy to remember (and catchy, too!),
• be relevant to the product or service you’re selling,
• include keywords of your product or service to improve search engine rankings.

For example, if you want to sell a product teaching people how to break-dance, then you will want to start writing down all the keywords related to break-dance.

For starters, write 100 keywords. What next, you ask? Write some more! Write 200 or 300 if you have to. The more keywords, the better. That is because this is a one-off activity. And remember that you will be using this domain name for a very long time, if not forever. Now, don’t even get lazy.

Okay, I’ll offer you some food for thought.

Are you parent to any child? If you are not, then imagine you are one right now. You and your spouse have a child for the first time. You and your spouse would want to give the best name to your child, right? Of course you both would! You and your spouse would brainstorm on giving your child the best name. “How about John?” “Aw, John is too common a name!” “Then how about …?” “I think the name…” and finally, your child has a name to be addressed by.

When brainstorming on your child’s name, you and your spouse consciously or unconsciously know that giving your child the best and meaningful name is VERY important because your child will be living with that name from cradle to the grave.

So, on the same token, why would you not think the same when brainstorming on a good domain name? This is your Internet Business. You need to nurture and grow it during its infancy stages before it rewards you. Are you not going to give it your best attention, too?

I hope that woke you up. Now, back to the keyword activity…

With the help of the list of keywords you have written down, you will find it easy to get a domain name that fulfils the 3 guidelines stated above.

In the same example, you would probably come up with a domain name like www.howtobreakdance101.com.

Next, check whether the domain name has been registered or not. If the domain name has been registered by someone else, you will have to use another domain name. So, maybe you’ll think of using www.lordofthefloor.com for a domain name.

When brainstorming on a good domain name, be sure to come up with at least a few names in case the domain name you wish to use is already taken. Remember - there can never be two houses bearing the same address?

Another thing you have to consider is the various kinds of domain names on the Internet. So you will have to choose carefully.

Below are some of the common ones:

• .com - stands for commercial / community. The most overused domain entity on the Internet. Recommended for your Internet Business.
• .net - stands for network.
• .org - stands for organization. A lot of online communities use this domain entity.
• .gov - stands for government. All government web sites use this domain entity.
• .biz - stands for business. Recommended for your Internet Business.

Good luck!



About the Author:
Mary Gallivan is an eBay powerseller of ebooks and software with resell rights at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Wise-Owl-eBooks-Bazaar. She is also the webmaster of http://www.ebonybooks.org.uk/