Here’s the latest in my series of articles giving you guys a few of the tricks and tools we use to run our little online publishing empire. Unfortunately, no “hot tip” will ever allow for immediate and easy success with no hard work…but every little bit helps.
So today, I’ll run you through my process for domain selection. I basically do all the domain name research for any new projects we launch. I’ll usually come up with several available names, bounce them of Jay and if he doesn’t like any of them (usually he’ll indicate this by yelling “IT SUCKS, DO IT OVER”, but that’s sometimes his answer for everything, so it’s hard to tell) I’ll move on from there. The time it takes me to find a good domain name has, unfortunately, been growing and growing lately…but that’s a topic for another post.
What’s in a name? Is not a domain still a domain by any other TLD?
In short, no. Ideally you want to use a .com domain name, the reasons for this are numerous but the main reason is this: People remember .com’s first, over any other TLD. If they remember your domain name, but not the extension, they will try.com first. If you absolutely cannot find a good .com, then try for a .net. Country-specific TLDs can be acceptable if most of your branding will be in that particular country, but even then it should be a last resort.
Case in point, we recently launched EasyByDesign.ca, and the only reason we went with a .ca domain was because after hours of searching and searching we could not find a good, catchy .com domain, and most of our marketing will be done here in Canada.
Size does matter, so does branding.
The other two key factors in your domain are the length (aim for about 7 - 8 characters or less) and how marketable it is. The domain should roll off the tongue and sound catchy when you say it out loud. Don’t take your own opinion in this regard…ask other people, as your perspective may be skewed by the fact that you just thought up the name and think it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
That’s all great, but how do you actually FIND candidates for your domain?
This is actually not all that complicated and perhaps a little old fashioned. I use three main tools: a dictionary, a thesaurus, and Enom.com (it also helps to have time and patience). My Enom reseller account has this handy little tool that will suggest other domains that are available based on the one you’ve currently looked up, and you can set it to return up to 80 other suggestions. Most of their suggestions are crap, but every now and then you’ll find a little nugget of gold buried in the manure. That my friends, is what makes it all worthwhile.
