Domain Name Registration Tips

When you’re looking to set up a website, one of the first things you need to do is settle on a website name. This is what is known as your domain name. So, step one: finding a name that matches your business theme. If you’re a plumber, you don’t want a site called: woodworking-R-us.com! Next, try to avoid a domain name that’s very long; you don’t want people having to type in a huge long name to get to your website. Remember that the more complex something is, the more opportunities there are for them to get screwed up. So, the more letters in your domain name, the more chances there are for someone to misspell it when they are trying to type it in.

The whole prospect of misspelling brings up another point: similar sounding names. When you finally settle on a domain name, you might want to consider buying some of the names that are close to it. So, if you run an online jewelry company called “Jay Jewelry”, you might want to get: JayJewelry.com, JJewelry.com, and maybe even: JayJewels.com. As a little side note, a lot of big corporations own domain names that could be insulting to their firms; things like: BankofAmericaSucks.com.

Now, while the .com domain is one of the most popular domains, if not the most popular, there are plenty of other domains that you may find to be cheaper. A number of them are tied to various countries, and they’re a bit obvious. The .uk is the United Kingdom, .ca is Canada, .au is Australia, and then there are the .net, the .cc, and so on domains. Some domains are off limits to private individuals. The .gov is (rather obviously) US government websites, and .edu is for educational institutions.

Another thing to consider in selecting a domain name is shooting for something unique. If you pick a name too similar to another company’s – especially a rival company’s – people may accidentally type in their name instead of yours. So, an easy way to check on that is to just try typing the name into a search engine like Yahoo or Google. Once you find a domain name that you like, even if you don’t have your website ready, you should go ahead and grab it; get that name registered! It’s estimated that fully 97% of all words in the English dictionary have already been used. Now, when you consider that, if you use all English letters, numbers and symbols there are over thirty-one decillion domain names available. But, a name that’s a string of gibberish isn’t going to be very popular. So, find a name, find it fast, and grab it! The fee for a new name can be very reasonable, a .com will run you only $30 a year. Plus, if you elect to not use the name later on, you can always sell it. Popular domain names can pull in some substantial sums. As an example, the website business.com recently sold for seven million dollars!