At a recent event, one of the speakers suggested that it would be wise to register for "How to" domain names – eg "howtomakebetterphotos.com" and just as he spoke, I'm online and secure 20 or so for myself.
I want your site to talk a bit about domain names in case you're thinking of setting up a website or get a new name.
I'm a bit of a collector when it comes to domain names. For most of the childrenI registered, I have not spent the time / money to develop the sites … They are simply "parked" for now. All in all, I have 408 names on this count. It's a lot according to some, but not a lot when by serious online marketers.
All the same, here are some of my best tips on getting domain names, from the top of my head:
1. Get a "com." For sure. Everyone thinks in terms of "com." And it's hard for people to remember to type in '. Nett "or another suffix. Better yet, get a pair. I also get "just." And ". Org" when I really love the name. But when "com." If not available, I get creative and find a unique and memorable name with "com." At the end.
2. Keep it as short as possible and easy to play (it's a joke). In truth, short domain names are hard to come by, as long as you adhere to Tip # 1 and just look for "com." Signing. You can go with more names as long as it is easy toremember.
3. Get the plural of your name too. I paid a few thousand dollars to buy "BetterPhotos.com" of someone. Get it now and spare yourself the bill. Ideally, though, I get just the plural when I can get the singular version and get. People will often forget the "s". (Or add the "s" as I found many people who have several years in the construction of BetterPhoto.com.
4. On that note, if you have a domain name with "de" or "me" in front of it, people will often forgetwell. This is a rare case, in my opinion, a "me" or "the" domain works. I only use it when I really, really wanted to name a domain and "me" or "the" in front of the name was the only way I could think of to get it.
5. If your preferred name is unavailable, get out the thesaurus and start brainstorming. Or I think of subtopics or subtitle ideas. For example, when creativeconfidence.com was taken, I registered saygoodbyetosecondguessing.com
6. Say itloud and bounce your best ideas around with friends and family. See if they are not easily "get" – and can easily remember it and type it into a Web browser.
7. Avoid hyphens if you can. But I'm not 100% on this one … I use them sometimes. The idea here is that it's hard to verbally relay to someone a domain name with a lot of hyphens in. But Google likes a bit of the flavor of domain names with dashes. If possible, get both.
8. Do you see a themehere? Get multiple versions of your business or preferred name. More is merrier. I do not want to tell you how many different versions of BetterPhoto I (and I still regret missing out on a few).
9. Get it now. Even if you think you're done, your desired name right now. When it comes to registering too many names, mistakes are cheap. The only mistake that can cost you big time is not the name now and want / need it later.

