Mood:
celebratoryTopic: Domain Names
There are several different schools of thought on picking domain names, just as there are several schools of thought about how to do Internet Marketing. This also helps to keep things interesting !
In sticking with my strategies strategy, I will just give one generalized strategy that should work for most people. Of course when you do your research you will find more formats that you can combine this strategy with and come up with your own custom strategy. This is what it's all about.
First, if your domain name is to be targeted, you need to have your main keyword in the domain name. Google looks at this as being very relevant and it may get your site indexed faster.
You will have to decide whether you want a dot com or a dot net or info etc. website. Dot com and dot net tend to get more attention from the prospect , it seems, if you are trying to sell a product.
Try not to spend a lot on a domain name. There are a lot of companies out there that are fairly inexpensive , such as namecheap and godaddy.
Remember this though, the domain name is the foundation of your website. You will probably go through several domain names and sites before you find one that works for you. The fact is, you will have to create your own online piece of reality so you will be able to add and build on to it.
Free sites have their place, but don't use them too much. You really want to be able to own a piece of the virtual real estate, not rent it. The sites you build will become your properties and as such have value that you will continue to build on for years to come.
You might want to use a relevant keyword phrase in your domain name, just remember to make it as close as you can to your site's topic. Some IM'ers use hyphens and choose a name that is short and can be easily remembered and typed directly into a browser.
Layout and site design is wide open of course. One simple solution I have used in the past is a program called Joomla. Its open source and once you have your domain name you can set up a site using templates that are customizable. Then there is the blog format using a program such as Wordpress. You host it on your own domain and start posting. These are two very effective ways of creating a full-powered content site without having to worry about learning HTML code or programming. Once you find a host you can have a website up and running within minutes. Wealthy Affiliates is now offering free hosting with their Internet University package at the present time. Just click on the Internet University link on the right for more info.
One other little factoid. You will be testing out niches later on in your carreer and you can use a relevantly named dot info site as these are still pretty cheap suffixes. You might even latch on to a short, generic domain name that you can add a sub domain to. This means that the shorter the domain name , the more relevance and explanation about your niche you can have in the sub-domain. I hope this makes sense. Then , when you have a niche that's profitable, get a relevant dot com as a lot of vistors look at the domain name after the title, and this makes it at leasr as important as the rest of the wesite's text.
