Choosing a domain name

Welcome to the digital age. Choosing an appropriate domain name is not going to be the easiest thing in the world, but if you follow the advice in this lens, I promise it will be easier.

They key is to have an "appropriate" domain. Just because X-C-4-1.com is short and may be available, does not mean it is a good domain.

The first thing you want to do is think about your future site. What is its purpose? Is it something where you want to brand yourself? For example, perhaps you are an artist or public speaker. In that case, you want to brand your name. Or will you be selling necklaces or shoes? If that's the case, you want the domain to reflect the items or their brand instead of yours.

Building an online presence isn't as easy as building a baseball field in a corn field...Just because you build it doesn't mean they will come. Remember this statistic. Between January and April of 2009, over 46 million new websites were added to the internet. There are now over 231 million websites competing for a surfer's attention. (Citation) Reading and following the rules below will give you a leg up on some of your competition.

1. Always get a .com. We have been trained to think in terms of dot com. We had the dot com bubble, dot com bust, etc. If you choose a dot net or worse dot US or something else obscure, people will hear it, but by the time they get home and put it in their web browser, the only thing they will remember is the stem. For example, if you have SallyKrinkle.US, most people will only remember SallyKrinkle. With their fingers on auto-type, they'll put in sallykrinkle.com...if you sell children's shirts and SallyKrinkle.com happens to be the website for a famous stripper, you will probably have some people mad at you...even though it is their fault.

2. Do not use words that are also numbers and vice verse. For example, justFORthis dot com. Some people may hear it and put in just4this or it may go the other way. Some of your word of mouth advertising will inevitably go to someone else. Other examples: 1, won; 2, to, too; 4, four, fore; 8, ate

3. Stay simple. Let's say you want to name your shop "A Little Bit Of Everything Under The Sun." Do not take the domain ALBOEUTS.com just because it is available. Remember that we speak in words, not letters. Now, if it was "Just Under The Sun" and you could get Juts.com that would work because it is a simple word.

4. This goes with #3. Try to limit your domain to two words...three at the most. Someone will remember SallyKrinkle.com much easier than shirtsandstuffbysally.com. And when you get into domains like longsleeveshirtsbysallykrinkle.com, you are basically putting yourself in the abyss of anonymity.

5. Avoid hyphens. They may be fine for links, but people will not remember them when they hear them or have to go from print media to a computer. sally-krinkle.com becomes sally-dash-krinkle...and if you have to say "dash" some people may type the word out.

6. Avoid 99% of numbers. This kind of goes with #2 above, but a little more in-depth. Numbers are usually a bad idea because they can be spelled out. Sally1 might become sallyone. John21 might become johntwentyone or johntwenty-one. However, numbers can be appropriate. Let's say you are running for city council in 2010. Then sally2010.com might be a good domain name because it brands you and the year of your election. But a number for the sake of a shorter domain--unless you have that number branded already--is a mistake.

7. Stay away from "cute" spellings unless it is your business name. For example, if your business sells kids' clothing, don't take kidZKlothes.com just because it is available...unless that is the actual name of your business. Even then, if you don't have a powerful brand, I would suggest taking that AND something else more memorable. Again, this goes back to the idea that we think in words not letters. If you must spell it out for people, a good number will forget by the time they get around to looking it up. The exception, of course, is if you have a national brand and your clothes are in major department stores, etc. People everywhere will see the tags and may look you up.

8. There are no apostrophes in a domain name. For this example, let's say your name is Sky. You might think Sky's Art is a great domain name. So you register skysart.com. The problem is, when people hear sky's and go to put it into their browser, it may end up skIESart.com. Likewise, if you have skySStuff, it might end up skyStuff or skieSStuff...either of which means you may lose a sale or traffic.

Now you're ready to begin looking for a domain name.

When I am about to build a new website, after I go through the brainstorming to decide what the site will be about, I open my text editor and begin typing out names I might want. (Don't bother to place .com on them. As you know, you will only take a .com)

Place each name on a separate line.

I use GoDaddy. The domains are inexpensive, the customer service is excellent, and the interface is simple.




Once you go there, you can check all the domain names one at at time by using the copy & paste features of your computer, or you can put your cursor over the word "Domains" in the green bar near the top and wait for the pop-up. Then go down to "Bulk Register." Click on that. When the new window opens, copy & paste your entire list into the box. Check off the .com box just to the right, and then hit search. It will check every name you have listed and let you know which are available.

The down side to doing the bulk register is that if more than one name is available, it will auto-load all of them into your shopping cart and you will have to remove all but the one you want.

My advice is to go at them one at a time and in the order you prefer them. This way, you know you are getting your top pick. By doing it this way, I often think of other things I hadn't thought about. Sometimes, even better names!

If you decide not to use GoDaddy, at least use someone respectable. Back in 96, I used a site online and started to notice a very curious pattern. Because I was in school and domains were more expensive, I couldn't always afford them as I thought about them. I would find domain names I liked and then wait until Friday or some payday when I had money. Every time I found something and didn't buy it, it was always registered within 24-48 hours by some other company... And of course, it was immediately placed for sale at a premium. A little research also let me know the company that registered the name happened to be in the same city as the company I used to search. Basically, (I believe) they kept a record of all searches and waited a day then registered that domain in another company's name hoping to charge me more for it. Yes, it was unscrupulous and that's why I advise you to use someone reputable.

Once you find the name, registering it is very simple. You add it to your cart and pay for it. Et voila! Next, you need to find a web host. For information on that, check out my other lens, Choosing a Web Hosting Provider.