» September 28, 2007 in
Sure the question "How Do You Pick A Domain Name?" is unique to everybody's situation, but I'm asking anyway so we might all learn from everybody else's answers, how do you do it? Any special tools, magic 8ball? What?When you are done answering that, and more specifically, Rob writes about starting a blog which will discuss making money online and some personal stuff, and because my favorite blogs are the ones that discuss making money online I thought you might help rob out also with some domain advice:
I'm thinking of starting my own blog finally, but I'm not sure which domain I should use. I know a lot of people like you, johnchow, etc, use their own name.. but what if the name is confusing? Basically I'm trying to decide between rawb.net (which I've had since 2001), or robgabaree.com (not sure if people will remember how to spell gabaree :)). Any opinions?
My opinion about rob's question is to go with something short, and will lead to the most typein traffic. So given those two choices I would go with rawb.net.
As for using a vanity domain name, aka your own name, yes I own my own name in a domain name but I use it more to experiment than anything. I would probably get a much reduced amount of typin traffic if my traffic numbers relied on people having to spell wielgus all day.
I think the only time I would use my own domain name for a project would be if my #1 priority was branding my name to the project.
How do I choose a domain name?
If the site is a site that is going to rely mostly on search traffic (an seo site) then I try and make it short and have the keyword of the sites topic FIRST in the domain name. If possible.
If I care more about branding a site I think short, preferably starting with a number or low letter of the alphabet cause you get listed first in those types of lists, no dashes, easy to spell, memorable.
How do you pick a domain name? How should Rob pick his domain name?
Related Link #1 - Here is a list I made awhile back with some cool tools to help pick a domain name.
Related Link #2 - If you are frustrated with picking your domain name there is actually a domain picking service that takes your money to do it for you.
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CoolHappyGuy says on September 28, 2007
So, what was your rationale behind picking "45n5"?
45n5 () says on September 28, 2007:
45n5 = 50. My goal was to make $50 per day from the internet. And I finally did ;-)Also, it was short and started with a number. And, I thought it was brandable/memorable, still do, but some people think it's hard to pronounce so i could have done better probably.
Plus, at the time, i didn't own any four character .com's and I wanted one... goofy reason, but at the time it was true.
Online Money says on September 28, 2007
Thanks for the tips. They are good.
WarriorBlog () says on September 28, 2007:
I just pick one with a keyword that I am using in it. Yes, it also have to be short but I don't think too long when picking a domain name as long as it sound easy to remember.Don't think any other factor is too important.
Annie says on September 28, 2007
Well, if you're going to be blogging about a specific niche, I'd definitely make sure your major keyword is in there somewhere. I made the mistake of not doing that with a blog I started a couple years back (I figured, this would be more for fun than for money), and the blog grew quite popular (and profitable). The trouble is that it was a pain trying to rank for that keyword without actually having it in the domain name (when all my competitors did). Yes, it can be done, but make things easier and put your keyword in the domain name (if you're blogging on a specific niche), even if you're not sure the blog will be for profit.
Now, if your blog is just your diary or you're more interested in branding yourself, go for short and memorable (though you can brand yourself in a niche and have your keyword in the domain too). Make it hard to spell, and you'll lose visitors (especially when you're talking about your blog in the real world and people have to remember the name based on what you told them or a t-shirt they saw or whatever).
45n5 () says on September 28, 2007:
@annie -cool points, yeah I forgot about reselling it. If you have even an inkling you might want to sell the domain one day you shold stay clear of vanity domains and goofy onessarahG () says on September 28, 2007:
I usually use the domain name checker on domaintools.com. That's where I found my two blog domains. Throwing a word in and seeing what comes back is fun :o)Andrew says on September 29, 2007
If I'm looking for a brand-able domain I usually run some kind of program that uses a word-list to scan for available domains.
Like 3 and 4 letter ones. Found a really awesome one I plan to use yesterday.
If it needs to have keywords in it then I just target my keyphrase, and if thats not available I add something on the end of it. Like either dashes or "info", "review" etc.
It's also a good idea to bid on cheap domains that are at least 6+ mos old...or even older ones with PR. You can find some of them for dirt cheap it you look hard enough.
- Andrew
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