Purchase A Domain Name...the Effective Way!

There's no doubt that when you purchase a domain name these days, you're in for a frustrating, time consuming, tiring process. After some 15+ years after the rise of the commercial Internet, things have become pretty difficult in regard to finding a worthy domain name to use. Virtually every combination of every major word has been registered as a .com, .net and .org, as well as many of the lesser popular extensions...most domain name owners have purchased names, only to have them sit idle, in the hopes that someone will offer a big payout for them. So, you'll have to work extra hard at trying combinations, playing with words or being a little (or very) creative!

These days, it's not uncommon to see businesses built around a great domain name, rather than a domain name registered for a business. This is the ever expanding power and influence of the internet on any business - no matter what it is.

...who would have known that good old marketing would be involved in selecting a good domain name?

Here are a few pointers:

If they can't remember it, they won't come back. Before you purchase a domain name, make sure that it relates to your site's theme, market or message! If you've "invented" a word for your domain name, do your best to help others remember it. Associate it with a funny, strange or otherwise memorable logo and color scheme, or an equally thoughtful and unique slogan for a tagline.

Newgrounds.com: the domain name means nothing to me, but the logo looks cool and it has a trendy tagline that I'll remember. Therefore, I've just associated all three things together: domain name, logo, tagline. This is the secret sauce when it comes to web branding.

It's easier said than done, in the present day. Unless you have tens of thousands of dollars, forget about the possibility of owning a 3-letter domain, or even a worthy 4-letter one (or for that matter, most likely, a 5-letter one!) A good two-word domain name is ideal - see what you can come up with! Write a list of names you've thought of, then search for available domain names and take a look at what's available.

Remember, the longer your domain name is, the more typing your visitors will have to endure before visit your site...and, the larger the "margin of error" will be, that they will incorrectly type your domain. People bookmark sites these days. However, there are others who simply would rather type in an address instead of hunting for a bookmark. Both audiences must be catered to!

They're bad for type-in traffic (people will usually forget the dash when directly typing in a domain name, and visit someone else's site by accident). Just imagine if someone wanted to visit your site, best-widgets.com, and accidentally typed in bestwidgets.com. Consequentially, bestwidgets.com exists, and is a competitor of yours...there goes yet another potential sale!

Search engines are smart. Don't worry - they'll know how to split a compound word domain up. So, Google will know that bestwidgets.com has the two-word keyword "best widgets" within it, without the need of a dash between it.

There's no shame in actually owning a domain name with a dash in it - especially if you're just looking to get generic traffic. Only a small number of dash-laden domain names have achieved success through branding, though (i-am-bored.com comes to mind).

Using a trademarked word or company name in your domain is a great way to get contacted by their lawyer! Some of the most ruthless companies in the world that crack down on domain trademark offenders include eBay and Disney.

When in doubt, search the USPTO's trademark database before making a final decision on the word you're using before your domain extension. This is the poor man's method of doing research - for best results, get your research done by a trademark lawyer, if you're starting an online business and want the peace of mind.

Remember the 'better safe than sorry' rule. When in doubt, if something might feel risky, then avoid it at all costs. Remember, if you use a trademarked word in your domain name, a company can force you to take it down with a cease and desist at any time, even if they've been holding a blind eye to it for years! This is not a requirement - some companies might take it a step further without warning, and bully you directly. Losing your valuable search engine position, traffic, visitors and everything else just isn't worth it. Be sure to educate yourself all about trademark law and the internet, and all of the many specific little questions that may arise.

.com is simply the best, and it always will be - followed by .net, and lastly, .org - the "big three" or "original three."

• .com (Great!) They're typically used by everyone: small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, bloggers, you name it. Why is .com the best? It gets the most type-in traffic compared to any other domain.
• .net (Great!) These are traditionally used by online service providers and hosting companies, but is quickly becoming the new ".com" due to the rarity of available domain names.
• .org (Good!) Org's used by organizations and non-profits, and is typically a poor choice for a money-making website, as it simply doesn't match up. The existence of .org as a publicly-available domain name is actually a mistake in itself, as it was originally slated to be reserved for organizations only.

Then, there's "everything else":

• .info (Use at your own risk) 'Info' is for purely informational or reference-based sites. Rumors exist that Google has cracked down on .info domains, and stereotypes them as spam from day one. This is due to the fact that .info domains cost some 90% less than other domain extensions, and have been favored by spammers looking to spend as little as possible while mass-producing spam sites. As a result, upstanding and sinister webmasters alike may experience a severe penalty (i.e., an abnormally long amount of time to appear in Google search results, also known as "being sandboxed") after launching a .info site.
• .biz BIZ is for businesses - an arguably bad extension that is rarely used or seen anywhere near the first few pages of a search result.
• .tv (Not bad!) TV domains were marketed to be for television-related, online video or similar sites - but are actually the country code for Tuvalu. A .tv is an expensive domain name to register, but is gaining popularity in the social video sharing community, and amongst broadcasting studios and television stations. Just note that it will be location tracked to Tuvalu, and your search engine rankings will suffer due to this fact. Thankfully it is one of the few ccTLD's that Google will allow a change of location tracking for.
• .mobi (Too early to judge) Intended to be for sites catering to mobile devices. In the current day, surfing the net on mobile devices is not popular, but will most likely be all the rage in the future.
• .ws (Terrible) WS is actually the extension for 'Western Samoa' - stay away from it, as it has low reputation amongst the webmaster/entrepreneur community. Although .ws is a country specific domain, it was put on the global free market for anyone to purchase, no matter what country they're in. The original .ws marketing campaign attempted to persuade that the extension was short for "web site," which was not true.
• .name (Terrible) These are intended to be for personal websites - but wound up being yet another gimmick that never really took off.

If you're looking to target your home country - use its extension...for instance:

• .us in the United States
• .co.uk in the UK
• Hundreds of country-based domain extensions

Note that these will primarily be visible to their targeted country, due to a setting called "location preference." It's usually a bad idea to make a global-targeted website with a country specific domain extension.

Ever hear of a domain hack? No, it has nothing to do with computer hacking. Domain hacks are domain names that are created while using their actual extension as the "end of the word." For instance: del.icio.us uses the subdomain "del", and was originally registered as "icio.us"...when all three parts are put together, it makes one word: "delicious."

This trend has blossomed thanks to del.icio.us ever since the mid 2000s. You'll find that most "domain hack" possibilities have already been registered, and they'll keep increasing in popularity (until their novelty dies down, that is!)

This idea can be mimicked with subdomains (those are names like one.two.com, where "one" is a subdomain of "two.com"). Use your imagination!

Plan to keep your domain name and website tied together for the long run. One of the worst things that some webmasters do is to grow tired of their domain name...or choose to go with something else. While this is fine for a relatively new site that is unheard of, it can cause immediate and residual damage to a well established site.

An example includes the popular social bookmarking site, BlueDot.us. It wound up becoming Faves.com - therefore, changing its branding, name, and URL (which was used hundreds of thousands of times across the internet). If they hadn't snagged such a great and valuable name like "Faves.com," this would have been a poor business move. The tens of thousands of lingering BlueDot backlinks will continue to linger, albeit, forward over to the new address. When you make these kinds of moves, you hope that people will stop typing in your old address and start using your new address as soon as possible. This, however, takes time and repetitive advertising.

Remember, your domain name is part of your brand, your site's identifier, and what people remember about your site and your business. If you change it, all of these things change, too - whether you like it or not... even if you 301 redirect your old domain to the new one!

Many people ponder this when looking to create their new site. If the .com is taken, but the .net is available -- is it worth going for? Think about the following points before making your decision:

• Is the .com (of your desired .net) being used? If not, you could potentially begin building your site before the .com owner gets a chance. Once your site is established, it will have been too late for them to bother competing. However, they will leech off of the type-in traffic, since .net is more forgettable than .com when typing a name in.


• The .com owner will *always* be your checkmate. No matter what, whoever owns the .com version of your .net will always be a thorn in your side, because of the fact mentioned before: he/she will be getting type-in traffic from your past visitors, who have forgotten that your domain is a .net and not a .com.


• I think that .net domains are amongst the toughest to develop. Why? They don't really stand for anything. Originally, they were supposed to represent the computer services business category, but they have strayed into being the "dot com alternative." The only successful .net sites you'll find ARE mostly in the computer services field, though. Also, it's a difficult URL for the average person to remember, especially if your domain is not a one-word keyword.

Heed the ICANN law:
ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is a corporation that oversees and manages the assigning of domain names, amongst other internet-related activities. They've released various guidelines for domain names, the most important guideline states that you must truthfully use your real name, real street address and real phone number when you register a domain name. Otherwise, you pose a severe risk of losing that domain name. Domain registrars may attempt to contact you periodically. If you do not respond because you've used incorrect contact information, you may be reported and ultimately lose your domain name(s).