How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Website

[carnavia]

OK, whether you have a business or you just want to put up a website, what are the more effective and practically names for domains. How do you go about choosing them? Do you have any suggestions on choosing domain names when it seems that all the good ones are taken?

[JakeJ]

Rule 1: IT MUST BE MEMORABLE. No matter how clever or even short it is. If it's not memorable, it's not going to work. It's got to roll off the tongue effortlessly in order to be memorable. It doesn't even have to be short. Let's say your business name was California Advanced Technology. Something short would be Caladtech.com but that doesn't flow very well.

Rule 2: It has to be related to your business. Let's say you manage to snag the domain table.com. It's short and memorable, but it doesn't fit with California Advanced Technology.

Rule 3: It can't be a name too close to another well known brand. You couldn't use something that sounded like you were affiliated with Cal Tech.

Rule 4: Know your purpose. Some of the rules above can be bent depending on the purpose of your site. If your site is almost always going to be reached through links, it probably doesn't have to be too memorable; but it shouldn't be cryptic either. In some cases, you can pick the site name first and then name the business; especially if the business is the site.

[carnavia]

Rule 1: IT MUST BE MEMORABLE. No matter how clever or even short it is. If it's not memorable, it's not going to work. It's got to roll off the tongue effortlessly in order to be memorable. It doesn't even have to be short. Let's say your business name was California Advanced Technology. Something short would be Caladtech.com but that doesn't flow very well.

It flows well to me. Sounds like salad. Just with a "c".

Rule 2: It has to be related to your business. Let's say you manage to snag the domain table.com. It's short and memorable, but it doesn't fit with California Advanced Technology.

Why does it have to be related to your business? Why can't the name be: "www.m4e.com"?

Rule 3: It can't be a name too close to another well known brand. You couldn't use something that sounded like you were affiliated with Cal Tech.

Is this against the law? If not, it would increase your traffic if they type the other domain in wrong.

Rule 4: Know your purpose. Some of the rules above can be bent depending on the purpose of your site. If your site is almost always going to be reached through links, it probably doesn't have to be too memorable; but it shouldn't be cryptic either. In some cases, you can pick the site name first and then name the business; especially if the business is the site.

So let's say caladtech.com is taken. What then? My question implies how to go about thinking up creative ideas. I find it very difficult to come up with name ideas for anything. And all those domain generators don't really help.

[JakeJ]

It should be related to your business (if it is a business) or it just won't seem professional. It should at least relate to the industry if not the name of the company.

If your name is close to another well known brand, they might try to come after you for cyber squatting. Even if they don't succeed it could run up unnecessary legal bills.

Some people are able to think of very creative ideas and some people aren't. You're almost better off coming up with a good domain name and then naming the business following that. I've come up with some pretty good domain names in the past that fit the criteria I laid out.

[devinet]

Here are ten more tips. (25 tips on how to choose a domain name is given here -- domainsuperstardorcom/how-to-choose-a-domain-name )

1. Stick with “.com”
2. One Possible Spelling
3. Shorter is Better
4. No Hyphens
5. Keyword Rich
6. Avoid Numeral Substitutions
7. Avoid Slang
8. Easy to Type
9. Easily Understood
10. Industry Jargon

[califdon]

My question implies how to go about thinking up creative ideas. I find it very difficult to come up with name ideas for anything.

I don't know of any way to teach someone who is not very creative how to be creative.

[mikosiko]

I don't know of any way to teach someone who is not very creative how to be creative.

and even being creative you can have the wrong idea or just bad luck... some funny examples
http://blog.dreamhosters.com/2007/01/26/20-more-unfortunate-domain-names/

[social_experiment]

@mikosiko - Lol, nice find.

[slimgoody]

Here are ten more tips. (25 tips on how to choose a domain name is given here -- domainsuperstardorcom/how-to-choose-a-domain-name )

1. Stick with “.com”
2. One Possible Spelling
3. Shorter is Better
4. No Hyphens
5. Keyword Rich
6. Avoid Numeral Substitutions
7. Avoid Slang
8. Easy to Type
9. Easily Understood
10. Industry Jargon

OOOOOOk, I somewhat agree to this list. "Stick with.com"-I don't agree with.First we need to know what type of website we are building. Every extension has a meaning.

.com (commercial)
.net(network).,org(organization)
.BIZ(business)
.us(United States)
.info(informational)
.MOBI(mobile)
.TV(television)
.WS(website)
.ME(me)
.Name(name)
.CA(Canada)
.CO.UK(United Kingdom)
.CN(China)

There are tons more to talk about but who has that time.......You don't have to necessarily choose .com. If it doesn't fit the scheme of your site, then choose one that does.

2.One possible spelling= there will always be another way to spell your site but making sure that it's easy to spell and remember is the key. Oh yea and buy the other versions of your domain name as well.

3.shorter is better= Shorter is better......

Oh yea I said that I agreed with majority of your list....[chuckle]

Conclusion,
.com won't be as popular in the near future. Everything falls by the waste side eventually.