Choosing the right domain name for your website is critical to your success. I’ve probably registered well over 400 domain names in my life and after throwing away 399.5 junk domain names I can tell you the difference between a good domain name and a bad one. Instead of telling you what you definitely should or should not buy, I will give you some suggestions based on your sites purpose.

1. Personal Sites: Register your name as your domain name. Regardless of if you plan on starting your own website or not, register your name! I registered both my full name and short name, andyisaacson.com and andrewisaacson.com many years ago. If you cannot get your first/last name, try getting your first name/last initial or something easy to remember.
2. Blog Sites: Try to come up with something unique, something catchy. More and more I’m noticing that the big blogs have a unique identity. I would try to avoid putting the word “blog” in my blog domain name. I put the name blog in “Blog of Revenue” because I thought it was catchy. Had it been “Revenue Blog” it might have been kinda cheesy, however, it also might have received better search engine ranking. Some good examples of unique, popular blog names are: engadget, lifehacker, technorati, doshdosh, just to name a few. I helped a friend setup a blog today that will be dedicated to Registered Nurses. We registered the name rnitus.com. Its catchy, short, has to do with “RN’s” and a disease. Perfect.
3. Forum Sites: As with blogs, forums also demand a certain level of a unique/catchy name. However, I think that with forums it is most important to grab the most direct keyword domain name available. You can cover for not having a unique/catchy name with a sweet logo and design. Because so many people are searching directly for “Dodge Dakota Forum”, “Mac Forum”, “Honda Forum”, those are the best domain names to purchase (dodgedakotaforum.com, macforum.com, hondaforum.com). When the “forum” domain name is not available, look for something catchy. To find out what keywords people are using, check out: SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool.
4. Ecommerce Sites: A unique/catchy domain name that relates to your product and niche is important. A few good examples of domain names in the Auto Parts industry for example are: AutoAnything.com, AutoPartsWarehouse.com and TruckRacingParts.com. Very descriptive and still catchy. These domain names leave the user with no question as to what the sites might be selling.

www.GoDaddy.com is the only registrar that I will ever use. They have competitive pricing, the best domain name management, and the best customer support that I have used so far. I have used other companies such as Network Solutions, Moniker and Enom in the past and GoDaddy is way better in every area.

In the end, you want a domain name that people can remember. The most important thing is the content you put on your site. Stay tuned and we will get to that shortly.

What makes a good website? I’m finding that more and more people do not understand the basics of a good website. Most people I talk to think that its all about show, lots of moving things and flash-iness. I get asked a lot,

“Do you do flash?”

I always reply,

“No.”

First reason not to do flash websites is they are not search engine friendly. Adobe and Google are working on making Flash search engine friendly, but it will probably be a while and probably will never have the potential like a good standard css/html site.

As an internet marketer, and not just a “web designer”, I often have to rely on my websites and projects to sell in order to bring income. In other words with many of the websites I build, if the product or service is not selling, I dont make anything. In fact, in internet marketing I often loose money if the website is not doing a good job at selling. This has made me one of the best and most practical website designers that anyone could hire. In all humbleness.

Some things to think about when building a website:

1. Is my website distracting?
2. Are people finding what they are looking for immediately? (product/service information, phone numbers, a way to buy)
3. Is there anything preventing a potential customer from making a purchase?

Those are just a few things to think about. The best kind of site you can build is simple. Make it attractive to the eye, but not distracting. Make sure that its easy for people to use, and to get the information they came there for.

Flash type sites may look cool sometimes, but like many flash ads and banners that people see on a day to day basis, people grow blind to it. Often times Flash sites are too distracting for people to use, and so they leave.

If you woul like us to build a practical, but totally awesome website for you then call: 208-755-0538