For many webmasters, domain names (.com, .net, .org, etc) are an afterthought. This is unfortunate; however, as a good domain name (or the lack of one) can make a huge difference to your online success. First of all, I want to stress the importance of actually buying a domain name. You can register a domain for less than $10 per year and they add immediate value to your website, even if it's just a simple blog.
Why spend $10 per year on your own domain name? First of all, it makes you look really intelligent and technologically savvy. Furthermore, and most importantly, it gives your visitors an easy way to remember where your website is located. This leads to my first crucial tip: choose a domain name that is easy to remember and hard to misspell. I almost always use .com names (unless I have a very good reason not to, like the website is geographically centered, in that case one might use .us or .ca or whatever) because most internet users remember .com far better than .net or .org. Even myself, as an experienced webmaster, often mistype .net websites, replacing the domain extension with .com.
Whenever possible, try to include keywords related to your sites content in the domain, but don't be overly worried if this isn't a viable option and you can't find any decent domains that meet this criteria. In addition, try not to use hyphens (dashes) in your domains as they also make them harder to remember. Numbers and misspelled words (kewl, linkz, etc) are also obvious problems to avoid. Remember, names like Google.com and Yahoo.com meant little or nothing when they were first registered. It was the content of those sites which made them popular and the simplicity of the domain names made them easy to brand and remember. I don't think Google would be where it's at today if it was called Kewl-Search273.org.
When you finally choose the best available domain name(s) to use, I recommend using either Moniker.com or GoDaddy.com to register your name(s). They are both reliable, easy to use, offer fair pricing and services and have decent technical support. Keep your domain names short, simple and to the point. It might take a dozen hours of thinking and searching to find the right one, but a good domain name is worth its weight in gold. In my next domaining article I'll discuss other, more advanced, methods of valuing and acquiring domain names. Until then, remember my simple tips in this article and you wont go wrong.
Daniel Sitar is the owner of iNetwk.com, a website which provides free articles and advice for people looking to profit from the internet. Daniel is an experienced internet entrepreneur and website developer.
For more website development and monetization articles, information, tips and advice, please visit: http://www.inetwk.com
