A short how-to video by Pete Ericson about choosing an effective website address for a magazine. He strongly recommends using a .com domain when possible, shows tactics if your preferred name is taken (hyphens, suffixes like “mag”/“online”/“hq”, or numbers), demos instantdomainsearch.com to find available names and aftermarket prices, and advises registering with major registrars (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com).
Questions this video answers
.com
instantdomainsearch.com
GoDaddy; Network Solutions; Register.com
$500
Chapters
Today we're going to talk about how to find and choose a great website address. Now, you might think that all the great website addresses are already taken, but I'm going to give you a tool that will help you find the perfect web address. Should I have a dot com or can I use a dot net or a dot org or a dot co or some other. These are called domain extensions. And the simple answer is use a.com at all costs, because that's what we're trained to remember. That's what's easy. You can tell people all day long that your web address lives on a dot net, but they're going to forget and they're going to try to find dot com. And dot com has that panache that this is the best web address you can have brand. So stick with the.com.org is for nonprofits. It's not legally required that you be a nonprofit to have a dot org, but it's implied that you are not for profit. Okay, now what if your address is taken? Let's say dollmaking.com is taken. And by the way, it is taken. Well, you can use a hyphen in between doll and making. You can add mag on the end of doll making. So it would be dollmakingmag.com you could add online to the end of doll making. So it would be dollmakingonline.com or dollmakinghq.com. you get the idea, right? Or maybe dollmaking99. If there's a significant number for your magazine, then use the number. And finally, here's the tool I talked about in the beginning. When you go to find a domain name, go toinstantdomain domainsearch.com and I'm going to show you exactly how it works. All you have to do is start typing in the box and let's say I'm going to try to get doll making right as the first keyword. And look what happens. It tells you right away, is the dot com taken? Is the dot net taken? Is the dot org taken? Red means it's taken. So doll making doesn't work. So what do we do now? Well, we can experiment. And while we type and let's call it, let's say doll making mag. Hey, look at that. Dollmakingmag.com is available. And then you can play around a little bit. You say, well, let's put a hyphen in between the doll and the making. Hmm. Well, the doll. Com is taken, but looks like somebody's willing to sell it for 500 bucks. So you could have doll-making.com for 500 bucks. Well, is it worth it? Maybe you have the option and all you have to do is click on the link to take you to the seller and you can keep going. So ultimately you might want something like an HQ or a mag or an online something that's easy to remember and says what it is. And where should you register your domain name? Well, I would stick with one of the big domain registrars such as GoDaddy Network Solutions or Register.com don't fall for a get a free domain registration with an unknown provider. It's very difficult to deal with them down the road when you need to make changes to your website. So stick with the big ones.
