It is not true that all of the good domain names are taken. You may still be able to register your name, your business name, or another catchy URL.

Here are some tips for choosing a domain name:

  • Keep it short and simple. Long URLs are hard to remember, and people are more likely to make errors when keying them in.
  • Include keywords in your domain name. Search engines may reward you with better placement in search results when the keywords are in your URL.
  • Whenever possible, go for the .com. Many people automatically assume that Web site URLs end in .com, and they do not correctly remember other extensions, such as .net or .info.
  • Try to avoid abbreviations and special characters in your domain name. gdbizcents.com would be very hard to give out without spelling it, and people won’t intuitively remember or guess it.
  • Don’t choose a name that will be easily confused with other domains. For example, if you want to register domainname.com and find it’s taken, domain-name.com is probably not a good choice. People will confuse the two sites.
  • Your own name could be a good domain name, if it doesn’t lend itself to lots of odd spellings. Between Cathy and Kathy, and all the ways people find to misspell Stucker, I figured no one would ever find me. That’s why I came up with IdeaLady.com.
  • And when putting your domain name in writing: If it is multiple words, especially if it’s long, consider capitalizing, such as I did here with IdeaLady.com. Make it easy to read and understand.


Whether it is for business, pleasure or just something to do, everyone seems to be building themselves web sites these days. It’s getting ever easier to do and there is a growing list of practical purposes for all of them. To make things better there are hundreds of places to buy cheap domain names these days so your site can look that much more professional.

While it was once more cost effective to build a site off of another domain name something like www.freehosting.com/yourname –it never looked that good. For a personal site no one cared, but for a business or organization it took a lot away from its credibility and style. From the very beginning of the world wide web a non independent domain has reeked of tackiness. At the present, such things are only really acceptable when used for personal or not for profit web sites.

The fact that cheap domains are now so easily attained there is no excuse left in avoiding it. If you are already doing business online then the sleeker look is a must. Person after person will tell you that they trust a business more when it is set up online by itself. To a potential customer a domain name speaks in the same professional manner as a 1 800 number. Going the other route suggests the same level of professionalism as a cheap storefront sign. This tells us that by taking advantage of a cheap domain name as opposed to a free tacked on name communicates that the business is that much more committed to itself.

Further more, as any marketer will tell you, name recognition is an important key to winning over clients. Once they are able to remember the business’s name they should be able to do nothing more then type it into their browser and add “.com” to find out more about it. Passing on a cheap domain name and using the secondary name alternative means your potential clients have that much more to remember; and marketing experts tell us plainly that they won’t remember.

Personal websites don’t need this. For people looking to share family photos, journals, literature or art there are thousands of web communities that offer to host. In most instances there isn’t a lot of reason to go any other way. Still the temptation is there. Frankly, if you’re having fun doing it and you want a personal site that looks that much cooler then take advantage of all that cheap domain registration out there.

The perk in going that route for a personal site is that advertising and name recognition isn’t a big concern. Most people shopping for cheap domain names for these kind of private sites only want the name to be cute and appealing to friends and family. The “.com” isn’t as important here. This makes cheap domains cost even less money because the “.net,” “.us,” and other extensions aren’t as sought after.

So maybe it’s time to get rid of that extra long web name you picked up for free. Try this out and be a master of your own domain.

Christopher M. Luck has an extensive background in dealing exclusively with cheap domains online and is now offering his free domain tips to the public. If you are at all interested in Christopher’s personal domain advice, tips, or secrets, you can visit his internet blog

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,