Tips for Buying Domains

Choose a Great Domain Name

Your Own Little Piece of the Action...

I have to admit something to you. I am a "recovering" domain junkie. I’ve purchased over 200 domains in my time….most were purchased before I really knew what I was doing. (I’m not alone in this problem though. I have one client who has purchased over 1000!!) I guess there is just something special about owning your very own piece of virtual real estate.

Here is my advice for you now:

Buy only what you need and can work with at the moment. What that means for you, as a beginner, is buying only one right now. Your plate will be full enough with just that one for the time being…trust me.

Also, don’t fret and stew (one of my Mother's sayings) about having to get just the “right” one. Study my tutorials below and always remember that CactusCanyon.com is a very successful site although we don’t sell cactus or canyons. Pick a .com as short, sweet and easy to spell as you can find…get a host for it, and then get to work marketing it!

Why Pay More?

Click The Image and Save Over $2.00 On Your Domain!

Choosing your domain name is extremely important no matter what you decide to sell or promote online. When you think you have found the perfect domain name, sleep on it before you commit yourself. And then think about it more. This is an extremely important decision you are about to make.

How Important is Your Domain's Age (audio tutorial download)
Please note I meant to say "domain" instead of hosting in the first sentence...hehe)

What Makes a Great Domain Name?

It is not a necessity, but it is best to connect the URL with your theme somehow. For example, www.SleepyBed.com would be a great domain name for a Bed and Breakfast. www.GreenGarden.com would be perfect for a gardening site. Try and find a suitable name such as these for your domain name. It does help with SEO a bit to have a keyword in the domain name, but it is just one small part of ranking well in the search engines.

Note:
Our retail site, www.CactusCanyon.com, has nothing to do with Cactus or Canyons. However, it is a cool sounding and easy to spell name which as served us very well. Also, the site ranks great for the keywords I have optimized for even though none of them are in the domain name.

It is very important that the name of your Internet business can be spelled easily by almost anyone. If your last name is Coure and you raise gourmet honey to sell on the web, www.CoureHoney.com is not a good choice. How exactly is Coure pronounced and or spelled? How will people know how to spell it after just hearing it? The best domain name is one which someone can hear once and then type it into a browser
with no problems and even tell their friends about.

CactusCanyon.com can be spelled and understood by almost everyone. I didn’t really know what I was doing when I purchased the domain. But I now think it is a great name for our business even if the name doesn’t describe our products.

Short Names are Sweetest

Make the domain name as short as possible. www.BestGourmetHoney.com may be a little long. Be aware though that the short domain names are hard to come by. But if the domain is easy to pronounce, easy to spell, and relates to your theme, it could be a winner. The .com domains are still preferred. It’s easier to find a good .net, but don’t be too tempted. Keep thinking and looking until you find a great .com domain. It is great if you can find a domain which contains one of your keywords you will be optimizing for. It can boost your SEO efforts somewhat.

www.HoneyLane.com is a great example. All things being equal, having honey in the URL can boost the site’s rankings in search engines somewhat. If you want HoneyLane for your URL but it is already taken, don’t be tempted to register www.Honey-Lane.com. Although hyphens are acceptable in domain names, don’t register your main domain like this. You simply don’t want to tell people your domain is “ Honey Dash Lane”. If your favorite choices are taken, keep brainstorming. There are still plenty of great possibilities out there.

Note: A hyphen is OK to use if the site is purely for search engine purposes (such as adsense sites) since humans won’t be repeating the name that often.

Again, once you have this all in place, you can begin marketing your site to the search engines. And remember that marketing will be specific to that URL. Even if you went from www.MyBirdHouse.com to www.MyBirdHouses.com, you would have to start the whole marketing process over from scratch. Therefore, make sure it is a name you can live with forever!

Click Here To Watch The Domain Tutorial Video