Today I’m going to cover what is a really fundamental element to your online success and unfortunately for many just starting out its one that’s often overlooked in the initial enthusiasm of getting online in a hurry.
Do Research First
And believe me we all make the same mistakes, I when I first started out rushed over to GoDaddy and bought what we believed to be great domains for various niches, no research, no looking at how people were searching just what we thought sounded good. What a mistake that was, so read on and learn some key tips to getting a great domain …..
A good domain name is like a great piece of real estate property. It’s your site’s home on the web. It has a major influence on your traffic and sales. A good, clean, keyword-rich domain name is worth a lot more than most people realize. This is why it’s important to find good ones and sometimes to pay a pretty price for them.
Think Outside The Box
If the one you want is unavailable, don’t despair. It’s well worth searching for the right one. There are a number of different places where you can find domain names that are old and expired. These are auction sites where you can bid on names that you like. Some of the best auction sites are Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com), and BustAName (www.bustaname.com).
You can also find great domain names by simply searching for sites on Google and then contacting webmasters. Search for the keywords, location and any other information you’re looking for, or just type in the domain name you want. If you find one that’s expired, do a WhoIs search and contact the Webmaster. They may sell it to you.
What Are The Best Domain Names?
The best domain names are simple. They’re things like www.dogs.com or www.golf.com. Believe it or not, there are lots of people looking for golf information online who will type in ‘www.golf.com’ instead of using Google search. But don’t expect to see either of these for sale, or at least not for under a gazillion dollars; these are just examples!
If you’re working in micro-niches, take your most-targeted keywords and give them a try. There are lots of ‘how to’ and ‘tips’ domain names up for sale that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Try to find something that’s either an exact match, or your targeted keyword phrase with one or two additional words.
When you’re looking at expired domain names, you should always research them well. Look at their age. Older domain names are better because Google has known them for a while. Even if they’ve been parked for years, you’ll still get major traffic benefits. Also, check their PR and Alexa ranking just in case they might have some love from Google already.
Domain names that end in .com are always better. There’s absolutely no doubting this. But they can also be priced astronomically high. Although .net, .org, .info., .biz and all the others aren’t quite as good, they’re still worth it if it’s a good name.
Domain Name Resources
Coming up with your own domain name (rather than buying an expired one) is always the cheapest option. You just have to pay to register it. But what if you’re out of ideas? A great resource that can help you is NameStation (www.namestation.com). This is a site that helps you think of random domain names and also shows if they’re available. It also has a bulk domain name search function that’s really fast.
Other sites for coming up with names include:
Dislexicon – www.robobunny.com/cgi-bin/dislexicon
– www.puzzledepot.com/wordfinder2/crossword.html
If you want to look for expired domain names, here are some other resources:
Go Daddy Auctions – auctions.godaddy.com
BustAName – www.bustaname.com
JustDropped – justdropped.com
Sedo – www.sedo.com
Bido – www.bido.com
AfterNic – www.afternic.com
And the list goes on and on just Google them you’ll see.
To your success
Tony
