Choosing a Domain Name
Posted on March 15, 2008
Filed Under buying domains, domain names |
Choosing a domain name is a very critical part of starting an online business. My personal belief is that naming a company should go hand in hand with selecting a domain name because the ideal scenario is to have both be the same. As online buisnesses have continued to develop over the past decade, many of the much desired “dot-com” domains have been acquired, leaving newcomers with other top level domains such as dot-net, dot-info, dot-biz, and dot-ws. My strong advice is to do whatever you can within your power to secure a dot-com domain; if not, you will surely help build whatever dot-com domain is related to the domain that you choose. For example, if you secured companyx.net and another company owned companyx.com, there is a high likelihood that many of your customers would mistakenly find the other company. If you offered a similar product or service, you’d likely lose that business.
A word to The Wise
There are also a few things to be cautious of when selecting domain names.
- Hyphens. Although they are technically allowed, they are not intuitive so it may lead to confused customers or lost web traffic.
- Similar Letters Running Together. An example would be billsstore.com where if heard and not seen, a prospective customer would not know if the s was being used once by both words or twice. If you can secure both versions, I guess that would make it better, but I prefer to stay away from these altogether.
- Words with silent consonants. Until you are a recognized brand (and even then), it will be hard to know whether your site is normal.com or gnormal.com.
Are All The Good Names Taken?
It may seem that it is difficult to secure a dot-com domain. The good news is that due to business failures and domain squatters giving up the dream of a big payoff, every day domains expire and go back into the public domain where they can be registered. Take your time and be creative; it will pay off in the end.
Looking for a domain name? I recommend checking out Dotster or GoDaddy.
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