Feature Article: Choosing A Domain Name

With the proliferation of Pink Spoons of late, there’ve been a number of questions about choosing a domain name. Today’s article is a highlight of some of the (slightly more unorthodox) things to bear in mind as you go about doing so.

And hey, is it just me, or did you ever think you’d see the day when this sentence (overheard at a networking event) actually makes sense: "I ran out of business cards but you can just google my blog, the domain is kinda long…?!"

Now here are the domain name tips:

Buy the most common spelling mistakes for your domain.

Even if you follow the advice in (2)above, it may be inevitable that some of your visitors will misspell your domain. It’s human error.

So although these may not be obvious to you at first, it’s worthwhile putting your antennae up in order to figure it out. The first hint? If you misspell your own domain name, chances are others will. Be sure to grab the most common ones.

Example: www.Google.com,www.Gogle.com and www.Gooogle.com all go to the same page. Why? Google "gets" that lots of people type in too few or too many "Os" and has set it up so everyone gets to the right place.

Example: www.VictoriasSecret.com and www.VictoriasEcret.com both go to the same page. Same thing. Because of the double "S" in the domain name, it’s easy to misspell. Buying both domain names means you catch all the traffic, whether they are good spellers or not.

As a nice pass it forward gesture, if you misspell someone else’s domain name, you may want to pass along the tip. I did just that when I found myself lost at www.GreatEleseminars.com and wrote to dan@GreatTeleseminars.com to let him know. (I skipped a letter "T" by mistake.)

Once you’ve identified the most common spelling mistakes people make when they try to visit you, simply purchase that domain as well, then have your hosting service redirect the visitor to the correct site.

Double check your domain names for odd or unintentional meanings.

This one is a bit mixed, because if your domain name turns out to be something quite funny, it might be just that much more memorable and bring you free traffic. But you may not want to be remembered in that way, and the traffic that results could be a detriment to you. (The wrong target market just clogs up your system, uses bandwidth, and creates customer service inquiries you don’t want.)

So do a double check to see if your domain says something you didn’t expect.

What do I mean?

www.newsextracts.com is actually a clipping service, but could be interpreted to be something rather more racy.

www.whorepresents.com is actually a site where you can find a given actor’s agent or manager, but can be interpreted to be something else

Buy your own personal name.

What better way to make it easy for your customers to find you? As you become better known online, and as you build your customer database, it will become increasingly important for your customers to be able to find you based on your personal name.

Buying your personal name allows you to build credibility for your brand identity and makes it easy to "Google" you. Ever tried typing in just your first and last names at Google? Try it and see what happens.

If you aren’t showing up in the results, you will want to work on this. And buying your own personal name as a domain name is a simple and very effective way to get going.

Consult DeletedDomains.com.

DeletedDomains.com is a terrific resource of domains previously owned by others, but newly available for purchase. Go to DeletedDomains.com with a clear product or project and search for a few keywords in the search feature.

Following the other rules in this list, see whether you can pick up a great domain here. Two things: (1) If the site has had a following built up by the previous owner, you may be the beneficiary of some great established traffic. And (2) Sometimes dynamite domain names get dropped by accident by their owners and this means you get a domain that would be very hard to secure otherwise.

Even if you’re not naming something in particular, you may want to make DeletedDomains.com a semi-regular visit. Domain names are the "real estate" of the Internet, and if you own some great ones, it could pay off for you as you build a family of sites in your niche. Not to mention if you’re the owner of some very strong single word domain names in a high demand area, you can also sell the domain when it comes into demand down the road.

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