How to Choose the Best Domain Name For Your Business
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Mike Dillard asked:
Choosing your own domain name is very important and can be critical to your success as a network marketer. Take your time and choose the right one.
Why is it important for you to choose a domain name you are happy with? You need to realize that once you start your business and/or have a lot of customers you will not be able to change your domain name. If you do you will lose all of the advertising exposure for the previous domain name and you will look unprofessional to all your customers.
To set up a domain name you need to find a domain hosting company. There are plenty of hosting companies you can find on the internet and buying your own domain name is not very expensive. You can usually buy domains for $5-$10 a piece, per year.
“Mike’s domain registration rules:” Rule #1: keep it simple. You want to find a domain name that is easy to say, easy to spell, and easy to remember. This is not optional. If you can’t find an address that fits all three of these qualifications, keep looking.
If you are giving your website address to someone over the phone or to a group on a conference call, there can be no room for misinterpretation or spelling errors which means you need to follow the next piece of advice.
Rule #2: Register plural and hyphenated versions. You want to register all plural and hyphened versions of your domain name of choice in order to capture anyone who might misspell the name, and to protect yourself from competition who will intentionally register any domains similar to yours.
Now this is not going to matter much if you are just a tiny fish in the big internet pond and you are aren’t promoting yourself in a massive way. But if you ever start to brand yourself and that domain name, then you need to follow these suggestions.
I recently started a project on creating lead generating capture pages, so the very first thing I did was register several possible domain names for it. (The hyphened and plural versions of each name).
Do not leave a door wide open for a competitor to leech visitors and customers through a similar domain name. You can bet that if I had not registered a hyphenated version of my domain name right after registering my real domain name a cyber squatter would have bought it and would have then owned a very valuable piece of internet real estate. (And he’d probably have a law-suit on his hands).
Always remember that entrepreneurs are opportunistic people by nature. Just do it right the first time and you won’t have to worry about any of these issues.
Rule #3: Use the top “key words” In the domain itself. (But not every time. I will explain why in Rule #5). Search engines give high relevance to sites with top key words in the domain name itself, and a higher relevance for .com names over any of the other extensions like .net .biz . org or .info.
So how do you find the right key words to use? Head to a search engine and go to the resources page for current advertisers, and click on the link for key word selector tool. (Most, but not all, search engines have a tool like this).
Type in a common search term for your category or product or service. Example: If I type “capture pages,” it brings back the following results: The top result is “lead capture pages,” so I would want to try and register something with the words “lead” and “capture,” right in the domain name itself.
NOTE: If the .com version of your preferred domain is unavailable, choose another. You want to have the .com address, because that is what your visitors will automatically type in when going by memory. And if they do not, many will type it in just out of curiosity, and if it is owned by a competitor, you are in trouble.
Rule #4: pay attention to phonics when purchasing a domain name. Try not to use numbers unless you can purchase both the numerical and alphabetical names. If you can find a domain name with both listings available, then go for it.
Rule #5: Register a “generic” domain name that can be used to promote anything now and in the future. Choosing a generic domain name can be very important when generating leads if you are a network marketer. 99% of the time, you do not want to have the name of your company or product in the domain name because your capture page is not going to be promoting your company, it will be promoting you or your business team.
Why? Because I want to keep control of what my prospects see and when. I want to keep control of the presentation of my business and the timeline in which it takes place. My prospect does not know what company I am with until I tell them. They cannot look at my network marketing opportunity website until I give it to them.
Most network marketers will register a domain name with their company name in it, but what if you change companies? What if you decide to leave your vitamin company and decided to sell products for another natural health company? What are you going to do with an email address (that everyone now knows, with your company name in it) when you change companies?
That is why you always register a generic domain name to use for your email correspondence that you can keep forever, no matter what kind of business you decide to build.
I chose a very generic domain name for my first website for this reason: Once you have a generic domain, you can always register another one for your specific opportunity that you can give to your prospects when the time is right. I have purchased over 100 domains in the last year alone. It is like owning cyber real estate.
This is probably going to be a very frustrating process for you if this is your first time
registering a domain name. Why? Because you will soon find out that 19 out of 20 domain names you think of will already be taken. Coming up with something generic is pretty easy though.
Here are a few ideas: Use your name in combination with an extension, like “LLC” or “Inc.” Think of a company name, or “Doing Business As”, name. Once again, keep these three rules in mind; easy to say, easy to spell, and easy to remember. If your last name happens to be Leibowitz, then pick something else!
Rule #6: You want to buy the .com, net, and .biz versions of each domain you choose. When coming out with a new product I might end up buying a total of 15 a domain names: each with a different “.” ending.
You get the idea. Purchasing this many domain names for one project is not necessary, just recommended. So go ahead and make your purchase, but do not buy any of the other services your registration company will want to sell you like traffic generation, search engine submission, etc. You do not need those.
All you need are the domain names, and a basic hosting account which you can set up with any of the many hosting companies.
Start with the domain search box. You will get to know this one well as you search for a name that is actually available. Continue to search until you find a name that meets all of the criteria we have discussed today.
Once you find a name that works, choose to register the .com, .biz, and .info names. Go ahead and start the check out process. Skip all of the extra services they will try and sell you. You do not need them.
I only register my domains for one year at a time to keep costs down. They will automatically renew each year as long as your credit card on file is current. If it is not, your hosting company will notify you.
Congrats! You now own your very first domain name!
Choosing your own domain name is very important and can be critical to your success as a network marketer. Take your time and choose the right one.
Why is it important for you to choose a domain name you are happy with? You need to realize that once you start your business and/or have a lot of customers you will not be able to change your domain name. If you do you will lose all of the advertising exposure for the previous domain name and you will look unprofessional to all your customers.
To set up a domain name you need to find a domain hosting company. There are plenty of hosting companies you can find on the internet and buying your own domain name is not very expensive. You can usually buy domains for $5-$10 a piece, per year.
“Mike’s domain registration rules:” Rule #1: keep it simple. You want to find a domain name that is easy to say, easy to spell, and easy to remember. This is not optional. If you can’t find an address that fits all three of these qualifications, keep looking.
If you are giving your website address to someone over the phone or to a group on a conference call, there can be no room for misinterpretation or spelling errors which means you need to follow the next piece of advice.
Rule #2: Register plural and hyphenated versions. You want to register all plural and hyphened versions of your domain name of choice in order to capture anyone who might misspell the name, and to protect yourself from competition who will intentionally register any domains similar to yours.
Now this is not going to matter much if you are just a tiny fish in the big internet pond and you are aren’t promoting yourself in a massive way. But if you ever start to brand yourself and that domain name, then you need to follow these suggestions.
I recently started a project on creating lead generating capture pages, so the very first thing I did was register several possible domain names for it. (The hyphened and plural versions of each name).
Do not leave a door wide open for a competitor to leech visitors and customers through a similar domain name. You can bet that if I had not registered a hyphenated version of my domain name right after registering my real domain name a cyber squatter would have bought it and would have then owned a very valuable piece of internet real estate. (And he’d probably have a law-suit on his hands).
Always remember that entrepreneurs are opportunistic people by nature. Just do it right the first time and you won’t have to worry about any of these issues.
Rule #3: Use the top “key words” In the domain itself. (But not every time. I will explain why in Rule #5). Search engines give high relevance to sites with top key words in the domain name itself, and a higher relevance for .com names over any of the other extensions like .net .biz . org or .info.
So how do you find the right key words to use? Head to a search engine and go to the resources page for current advertisers, and click on the link for key word selector tool. (Most, but not all, search engines have a tool like this).
Type in a common search term for your category or product or service. Example: If I type “capture pages,” it brings back the following results: The top result is “lead capture pages,” so I would want to try and register something with the words “lead” and “capture,” right in the domain name itself.
NOTE: If the .com version of your preferred domain is unavailable, choose another. You want to have the .com address, because that is what your visitors will automatically type in when going by memory. And if they do not, many will type it in just out of curiosity, and if it is owned by a competitor, you are in trouble.
Rule #4: pay attention to phonics when purchasing a domain name. Try not to use numbers unless you can purchase both the numerical and alphabetical names. If you can find a domain name with both listings available, then go for it.
Rule #5: Register a “generic” domain name that can be used to promote anything now and in the future. Choosing a generic domain name can be very important when generating leads if you are a network marketer. 99% of the time, you do not want to have the name of your company or product in the domain name because your capture page is not going to be promoting your company, it will be promoting you or your business team.
Why? Because I want to keep control of what my prospects see and when. I want to keep control of the presentation of my business and the timeline in which it takes place. My prospect does not know what company I am with until I tell them. They cannot look at my network marketing opportunity website until I give it to them.
Most network marketers will register a domain name with their company name in it, but what if you change companies? What if you decide to leave your vitamin company and decided to sell products for another natural health company? What are you going to do with an email address (that everyone now knows, with your company name in it) when you change companies?
That is why you always register a generic domain name to use for your email correspondence that you can keep forever, no matter what kind of business you decide to build.
I chose a very generic domain name for my first website for this reason: Once you have a generic domain, you can always register another one for your specific opportunity that you can give to your prospects when the time is right. I have purchased over 100 domains in the last year alone. It is like owning cyber real estate.
This is probably going to be a very frustrating process for you if this is your first time
registering a domain name. Why? Because you will soon find out that 19 out of 20 domain names you think of will already be taken. Coming up with something generic is pretty easy though.
Here are a few ideas: Use your name in combination with an extension, like “LLC” or “Inc.” Think of a company name, or “Doing Business As”, name. Once again, keep these three rules in mind; easy to say, easy to spell, and easy to remember. If your last name happens to be Leibowitz, then pick something else!
Rule #6: You want to buy the .com, net, and .biz versions of each domain you choose. When coming out with a new product I might end up buying a total of 15 a domain names: each with a different “.” ending.
You get the idea. Purchasing this many domain names for one project is not necessary, just recommended. So go ahead and make your purchase, but do not buy any of the other services your registration company will want to sell you like traffic generation, search engine submission, etc. You do not need those.
All you need are the domain names, and a basic hosting account which you can set up with any of the many hosting companies.
Start with the domain search box. You will get to know this one well as you search for a name that is actually available. Continue to search until you find a name that meets all of the criteria we have discussed today.
Once you find a name that works, choose to register the .com, .biz, and .info names. Go ahead and start the check out process. Skip all of the extra services they will try and sell you. You do not need them.
I only register my domains for one year at a time to keep costs down. They will automatically renew each year as long as your credit card on file is current. If it is not, your hosting company will notify you.
Congrats! You now own your very first domain name!
