Ina’s Dollars From Home Blog

Trading in domain names has grown into a big market online since everyone with a website needs to choose a domain name. Great domain names can be bought on auction sites for very little money or it can be very expensive. The price will be determined by the keyword value or branding of the name. Choosing domain names for legitimate online businesses can be quite a headache.

However, if you can choose a domain name for your website that has never been used before you will be able to register it for less than $20 per year without having to purchase it at all.

How To Choose A Domain Name

There are two approaches to choosing suitable domain names for your websites: (1) Branding, and (2) keywords.

1. Branding - Use your own name or company name as the domain name of your website.

If you want to raise the profile of your company and turn it into brand in its own right, using it as your domain name is a great idea.

Take a company like Amazon.com for example. There is nothing in the domain name amazon.com to suggest that Amazon sells books, yet when you hear the name Amazon you will probably think either of a big river in South America, or a big bookstore on the Internet, and in many cases it will be the latter that is thought of first!

This proves how powerful branding has become.

Certain people prefer to turn their own name into a brand name. Entrepreneurs, politicians and artists will often ensure their own name as their brand name. The most celebrated new example of this is now living in the White House. You can check out his website at barackobama.com.

So, branding yourself via your domain name can be a very brilliant strike.

Nonetheless, if you are just starting out, you might want to consider utilizing applicable keywords in your domain name to raise the visibility of your website. This is an outstanding idea if you are promoting a popular niche market.

2. Keywords - Choose a domain name that reflects the type of business you are in.

There are a couple of rewards to be had with a keyword rich domain. Firstly, it broadcasts a distinct message to anybody searching for the products you are selling that your website is the place to find them. Secondly, the keywords in your domain will help your website’s search engine ranking for those particular words.

Choosing Keyword Rich Domain Names

Produce a list of keywords that are connected to the main theme or chief content of your website. Aim to get a domain name with one or two of your keywords in it; a short domain name is better but you will probably need to use more than one keyword to find a domain name that is available.

The easiest way to choose a great domain name is to use a free domain search website such as http://instantdomainsearch.com/ and type your thoughts straight into the search browser to instantly discover whether or not they are available. If your first search is not productive, play around with the keywords and try to find a good combination that (a) makes some kind of sense, (b) is a fair reflection of what your business is about and (c) is available.

Also, if you are planning on beginning a business site, make sure that you get the.com extension. Generally speaking, domains that end in .com are easier to remember and look more professional. However, if your business is concentrated on a single country then you might want to use .co.uk, co.jp, etc.

If your chosen domain name is not available and is one that you have set your heart upon, you may be able to purchase it from the owner. As I mentioned, many people buy and sell domain names as a business. Be warned, though. A domain name with a couple of high ranking keywords in it is likely to be expensive.

Whereas you can choose and register an available domain name for a few dollars, choosing a domain name for your legitimate online business may mean that you’ll have to spend several thousand dollars to secure a great domain name on the open market.