Choosing A Domain Name

Choosing the right domain name could at times be difficult and hurting,  but still its among the most important things when it comes to your internet identity. 

Not only do you want to be found online, but also be remembered much later and remain explanatory on the lips when you get viral.

Over the past few years, I have personally registered a couple of catchy domain names such as (yarnable.com, geofeed.me, yrn.me, edugeria.com and typr.us) so I would tell you things that I know about making a choice of domain name.

1. KEY WORD:
First you need to generate a list of generic keywords that describes your business, lets assume you want to start a business on real estate, you may want to add words to like "house, mortgage, home, apartment, shelter etc." to your list.

Because generic names like homes.com or shelter.com are mostly not available, you should add prefixes/suffixes to each of those generic keywords, such as arthomes.com, homesclean.com, 6kmortgage.com, afripartments.com etc.

Notice, I added prefixes and suffixes to the names to make them a bit unique and catchy!

2. KEEP IT SHORT:
Domain names can be up to 63characters long, but i don't think http://www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com/ is good for business! So, keep it short. At least for your visitors to remember you.

3. DOT COM IS BETTER:
Except for the tech savvy, most common internet users have that assumption that every websites is ".COM", you don't what to make a mistake of loosing those customers!

However, there are exceptions when you could use other extension like .TV (Can't be replaced by .com when you're into TV Business.).

So, think about ".COM" first before any other! Its always better.

4. AVOID HYPHENS:
Hyphens are so 1990,  back then; people use them to get some search engine ranking but not anymore. Hyphens/numbers are the last thing you should think of in your domain name. Not only are they difficult to type in the browser, they are also unprofessional and not for a common internet user.

5. ASK FRIENDS:
When you've generated a couple of cool names, ask your friends what they think about them or even your potential customers, because a name that may make perfect sense to you may be totally difficult to remember for your target market.

Ask them which one is easier to spell, easier to remember and does not require much explanation about what the business is all about when it gets viral (spoken).

Also remember that, when you found a nice name but not so sure its the one... Register it anyway, before someone else does. Domain names are scarce.