Choosing a quality domain name depends on the purpose and nature of your website. Is your site for a professional business, personal blog or hobbyist community?

Whichever it is, the main objective for your domain is to allow visitors easy access to your website. Therefore, the general rules in choosing a domain name are as follows: (1) Memorable and unique and (2) Convenient to type.

Memorable Domain Name

A memorable domain is a reflection of your website branding. Visitors will remember your website through a unique brand. This keeps the visitors coming.

Choose any top level domain name that reflects your site. For example, a personal blog might benefit with a .me domain name. Short and unique are the key guidelines here!

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Convenient-to-type Domain Name

A convenient-to-type domain refers to the length of your domain name and the proximity of the keys on the keyboard when your visitor types your domain name. Keep the domain name below 13 letters or characters. And avoid awkward names like 1-halqf-207d.com. Such a domain name is forgettable, inconvenient to type (try it to see what I mean) and is boring.

Business Domain Names

If you own a business that provides professional services, I would recommend that you stick to .com domain names. This is mainly because the dot com is still considered professional above other TLDs.

However, if you own a business in the creative, retail or entertainment industry, feel free to get domain names ending with: .me, .tv and others. Imagine if you have a fashion website. Fashion.me would sound more intimate to your visitors rather than Fashion.com.

Search For Multiple Domain Names

As a business, you should consider registering multiple domain names (e.g. myname.com, myname.info, myname.net) and link them to the same website. This protects your branding of your business site since no one else can use similar domain names with different suffixes.

Furthermore, as a traffic tactic, you might want to register domain names with commercially valuable relevant keywords. Comercially-valuable keywords are keywords that can target a specifc group of visitors (e.g. Gaming.com targets gamers).

Let’s say you own iDeadly.com, a strategy gaming website. To bank on organic search traffic from Google and Yahoo, you can also register strategygames.com (relevant keywords) and point it to the same website.

Registering multiple domain names is not a must. But it can protect your interests and help you by gaining more traffic.

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The primary purpose with your domain name should be to make it easy for visitors to find your website. You should therefore choose a domain name that is memorable and/or convenient to type.

For a domain to be memorable, it should reflect the nature or brand of your website. Choose a dot com above all. Most people by habbit type “.com”. Whereas convenient to type, talks about the length of your domain name and the proximity of the keys on the keyboard while typing it. The domain name should preferably be below 13 letters/characters. And avoid awkward names like 1-halqf-207d.com. Not only is it forgetable, but it requires the visitor to move his fingers on different end of the keyboard. Think about the disabled.

How To Buy and Sell Domain Names

You may have noticed I haven’t discussed on the domain trader’s and investor’s point of view. Well, it is prudent for beginning traders and investors to understand how the demand of domain names work. Do not start out like me by putting my money on one speculation.

Hereon,  we shall build on the foundation, which is what a regular person looks for when buying a domain name. On the whole, people prefer short and memorable domain names. After all, we have established that a domain name should be convenient for visitors and beneficial to the website’s brand name.

This is straightforward. Invest in domain names that are:

• Brandable
• One-word dictionary words (e.g. ardor.mobi, love.com)
• Short (below 5 letters preferably)
• Commercially valuable (can be effectively used to target a product/service market)*

      *must be combined with the other factors; it exists separtely

Here’s the not so straightforward part…

While each of the above point can survive on its own, brandabiliy is the weakest. You cannot sell a domain for much if you base it on brandability alone. Why not invest in the other stated points instead?

Well, many one-word dictionary word domain names have been taken. All short domain names that have less than 5 letters are taken.

That leaves us with one factor to bank on -brandability. What then can we do? On top of being brandable, make sure the domain name you choose has commercial value. Keep the domain name short (below 13 characters/letters). And perhaps, have a real word within the domain name.

The result are domains like:

• iAgnostic.com
• MrsBids.com (I sold this already)
• DarkEmo.com (I sold this already)

Be creative, but consider your target market when you plan to buy a domain name for resale. What does the customer demand? Supply the customer with what he/she wants!

Logen Lanka