A brief how-to by Pete Ericson on choosing effective domain names for a magazine website. Covers the tradeoffs between branded domains (thecrafter.com) and keyword-rich domains (dollmaking.com), tactics when preferred .com names are taken (hyphens, suffixes, numbers), a demo of instantdomainsearch.com to find available names, and advice to register with major registrars (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com).
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. Now, what should the web address be? Now, let's just pretend that we're starting a magazine called the Crafter, and it's about doll making. So you have a couple options. You could call it the crafter.com ideally, which is what I would ultimately recommend. Or you could call it something like dollmaking.com which gives you an advantage because you're using the search keywords in the name of your web address. So if I go and search for doll making or doll making information, then because your magazine's website is named dollmaking.com you have a better chance of showing up in search results. Okay, so now we're at a crossroads. What do we really do? Well, here's a tactic that you might want to employ. Get dollmaking.com and then also get thecrafter.com and forward thecrafter.com to dollmaking.com so all your stories live on dollmaking.com but the crafter.com also gets you there. And you get two advantages. One is you get to have the name of the magazine as the domain name. And you also get the Google search advantage of getting found in Google search for doll making. Now, make sure it's easy to remember. And another question I get a lot is, 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.com and.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, 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 dot 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.
