Five Common Domain Name Myths

With domain name articles and tips floating around all over the Web, most people probably feel that they know a good deal about picking and protecting a domain name. However, some common domain name myths persist. Let's debunk a few.

Myth: Once I register a domain, I can use it forever.

Fact: While it's possible that you'll keep your registered domain name forever, it's not guaranteed. Several things can happen that would cause you to lose your domain name. First, you have to register your domain name each year (or register it for multiple years up front) in order to keep your access to it. If you forget to renew your registration, you could lose your domain name, or someone else can register it and charge you a huge fee to have it transferred back to your name. Second, you could lose your domain name in a trademark dispute.

Myth: My domain name is automatically trademarked, so no one else can ever use it or anything too similar to it (such as with other extensions).

Fact: A domain name cannot be trademarked in the US! It also isn't protected by a copyright. However, if your business' name is trademarked before anyone else is using it, then you could sue if someone registered a domain name using your business name (or a common misspelling) to sell products or services that are extremely similar to your own. For instance, if someone else ever tried to register something like Microsoft.net, or even microsort.net, for the purpose of selling computers and software, Microsoft could sue them to stop them from using the domain name. This is to stop scammers and competitors from trying to profit off of a trademarked name. In some countries, you can't even register a domain with their country-specific extension unless you own the trademark there for that business name.

Myth: If I own the trademark for my company's name, I automatically have the right to register my company's name as a domain name.

Fact: You do not, in fact, have the right to register any domain name, even if you have a trademark on the corresponding company name. The reason for this is that a trademark on a business name doesn't give you exclusive access to use that name. It only gives you exclusive access to use that name for the particular products and / or services that you offer. Going back to our above example, let's say Microsoft forgot to renew their registration on Microsoft.net. While they could sue another computer manufacturer or software company for registering the domain name without question, let's assume it's registered by a small company making microfiber-covered sofas and other furniture. The name makes sense - 'micro' as an abbreviation for microfiber, and 'soft' because it's a very soft fabric. That company has every right to use the company name Microsoft, and they would own the trademark for that company name as it applies to the products they sell. Because of that, Microsoft couldn't do anything to get their .net domain name back except offering to buy it outright.

Myth: A domain is only worth registering if you can get the .com version.

Fact: Many web sites have been successful using .net, .org, and country-specific domain extensions. Don't reject an otherwise good domain name just because the .com extension isn't available. If you're setting up a domain name based on keywords, a .net or .org shouldn't make too much of a difference. If you're selling products or services to only residents of your country, a country-specific domain extension could prove to be quite profitable for you, as it tells your target market that you're specifically selling to them.

Myth: You should never use dashes in a domain name.

Fact: While including dashes in a domain name isn't ideal, it also shouldn't be forbidden. Dashes make it harder to market your domain name via word of mouth, but they can be very effective if you're determined to use a keyword-rich domain name for a general content site, if the version without the dashes isn't available.

Copyright 2006 Stephen Ashton

Are You Stuck With a Crummy Domain Name?

Think about the search

Before selecting a domain name it's important to take into consideration how people will be searching for you on the internet. Your name should include a variation of your niche's keywords. A direct keyword match is ideal, but not always available.

Once you've decided to start a home business and settled on a niche, it's now time to research the keywords that are relevant to your business and website and identify the ones with the highest amount of traffic and lowest competition. This isn't always easy! However, I cannot stress the importance of going through this process before you run out and buy your domain name Let's face it, your domain name is a part of your business that will be with you for a long time. Pick a good domain name and it won't be long before you start seeing traffic coming to your website. But choose the wrong name, a name that doesn't describe who you are or what you do, you'll have an uphill battle before you and it can be many months before you start to have regular visits to your website.

So how do I find a good domain name?

Before I go any farther I want to say, this article is not about a step-by-step process of using a keyword search tool like Google's Keyword Tool, which is free or one of the premium keyword search tools available on the market today. All I'm trying to show you are some simple techniques you should use when searching for a good domain name that will give you maximum results. What are these easy-to-do steps?

Simple - Easy - Social

1. Make it Simple - A one word domain name is best. It's probably next to impossible to do today, but if you're lucky enough to find a single word that describes your site, then take it. Don't be discouraged if you need to create a phrase name instead of a single word. If "best.com", is already taken, then a variation, such as, "thebest.com" or "thebestsite.com" or even "thebestreview.com" will work. The important thing here (assuming you already did your research and determine the keyword has high potential for traffic) is to use the main keyword that describes what your site is about. In our example above we have a site about "Best". Very generic and maybe not a good example, but perhaps your website's about camping or fishing or whatever. The same rule applies; the ideal domain name will be "camping.com" or a variation thereof. A keyword phrase can work just as well as a single keyword as long as it's relevant to your site and a common search term.

2. Easy to Remember - This is the main reason a one-word site name is ideal, it's easy to remember. However, even a keyword phrase can be easy to remember too. When doing your keyword search, the search tool you're using will provide you variations of the keyword and popular keyword phrases. It will show you how many times that keyword or phase is searched every month. If you find one that has a high number of searches and competition is low-medium and it's descriptive of your niche, you found a good match. Even a keyword with "high" competition can be a good choice too. Especially if it's not being used as a domain name by another website.

3. Easy to Spell - This is important too! If it's not easy to spell then it won't be easy to remember. Avoid super long keyword phases. Stay away from numbers in place of words - "how to" instead of "how 2". Do not use hyphens - "howto", not "how-to". Never use another language for your domain name. You might think it cute to call yourself, "qui.com", instead of "yes.com", but you will have already ignored the first two steps we talked about and now added another strike against your website by making it hard to spell.

4. Don't - We just touched on this, but stay away from hyphens. If the hyphen is not placed properly or left out altogether, your customer will most likely end up on somebody else's site, but not yours. Do not use a well-known brand name. Just because the 'dot com' has not been purchased yet doesn't mean to go out and get it. You'll lose in the long run. Big corporations are just that, bigger than you. If you decide to use a brand name as your domain name it won't be long before you will one day find a nasty email in your inbox. The email will most likely be from a law firm or even in-house counsel telling you that you're in violation of copyright laws. You now have a choice to make. Either shut down your website voluntarily or have it shut down for you. Either way, you're done.

5. Do - Consider purchasing variations of your site's name. Most Registrars (where you buy your domain name) will offer you variations of the site name that is available. If your site name is "Bananas.com" consider the following variations: "thebananastore.com, or "bananas.net". You have to think about the person searching for your site or brand It's easy to add the word "the" before any site name, and before you know it, that person was sent to another website... not yours.

6. Social Networks - Here's another area you'll need to consider if you're in the e-commerce business; your domain name will be your Facebook and Twitter account name too. That is, if you want to maintain consistency between your website and social sites.

Final thoughts

There are more things to consider when selecting a name than just the six, I've listed above. Nevertheless, I believe these to be some of the most important ones you should take into account when deciding on a good domain name.

The old saying goes: 'sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me'. Well, in the virtual world of the internet, that's not always true. A crummy domain name will hurt you, and it will hurt for a long time. Take the time to think about your business, your brand, and the person searching the internet. If you apply the simple techniques listed above, you'll avoid a boat-load of disappointment and the spending of a lot of money for those pay-per-click ads to compensate for a poor domain name choice.

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Domain Market - How To Make Money Buying or Selling Premium Domain Names

The domain market of today is one wrought with opportunity. In order to get the goods on the domain name that will make you money, it is important to know how to buy and sell on the premium market. It takes a great deal of expertise to be able to do this properly, but the good news is that you don't have to graduate with any special degrees. You don't need letters after your name or anything like that. You just need the drive to research markets and make purchases based on what names are the most popular. There are two ways that you can make money off the buying and selling of domain names. Clearly, you can create a domain name of your own and hope that others will notice. But this is much more of a crapshoot than the art of buying and selling premium existing domain names. Here's how to take control of your own destiny in this lucrative market.

How to buy

When you are buying existing domain names on the Internet, it is not unlike buying an existing home. Virtual real estate and brick and mortar real estate basically work on the same principle. The longer that something stays on the market, the less viable it becomes for selling at the top asking price. Of course, that is not to say that you can't buy, make improvements to the site, and then sell at a profit. But there will be certain commitments needed from you after the purchase. For starters, people are rarely able to "flip" a domain name that has been on the market for an extended period of time. Secondly, you do not need a lot of money to turn a domain into a hot property. All you need is a little creativity and ingenuity. Adding valuable content and taking the site in a specific direction can be appealing to potential online entrepreneurs in much the same way that improvements to a home can add property value.

How to sell

Selling the property can be either very difficult or very easy. So much of it depends on being at the right place at the right time. But by creating quality reasons to buy, your job as a salesman is that much easier. Hosting providers often have a direct link to buyers and sellers, and as such, they can provide a wealth of information for any virtual real estate investor. Know the site's monthly traffic and existing revenue. More importantly, know what the improvements that are made will do for the sale price of the site.

The premium domain name is still a viable way to make money, but only if you take the time to treat it like you would any other business.

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Making Money With Domain Names Online

The Internet seems like an endless stream of income for a creative person, as everyday people discover new ways of making money. Domain names are now the new cash cows in the tech world. And the good news is that anybody can make learn how to make money with domain names.

Just like real estate, you should consider making some clever moves if you want to be ahead of the pack, otherwise you might end up spinning your wheels for naught.

Your first assignment would be to find out what is actually selling on the market and the current rates. This is akin to a business person who is looking to start a new business. This will give you a good feel of the initial budget required and the hot industries where probably you might expect quick and fast returns for your investment.

Once you have identified a potential industry, the next crucial task would be to identify the name itself. Look for an attractive name that is easy for a web user to guess and connect with a certain industry. For instance, insurance.net would be an obvious bet for somebody who is buying insurance, and would therefore be a high potential name. If possible, use the.com ending, as this is the most popular search term used. You should also do some research to find out how popular a certain search term is on the search engines, as it can be an indicator of the popularity of the domain name.

Now that you have a potential domain name, it's time to locate a registrar. While there are so many domain registering companies available today, choose one that is already a popular choice in the industry. A wrong move here can really cause you heart ache. The company should already have laid down procedures that will enable you to sell the name as quickly as possible when you have a potential suitor. Remember that technology is a time sensitive industry, and any delay might mean cash literally out through the window.

Once you have acquired a goodly name, the next step if you want to make money from domain names would be to develop the address. Check this out; you can start to make money from your name even before you sell it. If you don't have plans yet for a fully fledged website, you could put up a page with links to website related to your industry. Every time a visitor clicks a link to a site, you make a few cents.

A better strategy would be to develop a complete web site where you do business on one way or another. Then, in order to attract huge traffic, you could market the site using some paid up services. The idea is that you will sell the domain name together with a fully built website.

When you have found a client for a domain name, do not be sleazy with your offer. Domain names fetch anywhere from a few thousands to millions of dollars. The hottest industries these days are usually technology, finance, and the fast moving goods sectors.

You don't have to be a technical geek in order to profit from technology. A few lessons on making money from domain names can turn around your life and leave you smiling all the way to the bank.

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For More Professional Email - Buy A Domain Name

Email services such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail are robust, have plenty of features and are free. However, if you're in business you really should buy a domain name and use it for your email communications.

As we all know, first impressions count. If you're trying to woo new customers, they may be a little more open to your approach if your mail is coming from a domain name you've bought (registered) associated with your business; rather than an address from a free email service.

The reason is two-fold.

First, so many scams are carried out via free email services. Secondly, a business person using a free email address may seem like an amateur, or very new to whatever industry they are in; even if this isn't the case.

With domain name registration so cheap these days; a business relying on a free email address doesn't exactly scream success.

Another very important reason to buy a domain name is it becomes part of your branding efforts - advertise your business wherever you can; not your ISP or a free email service.

By acquiring your own domain name, it doesn't mean you have to build a web site too (although this can certainly help your business). You can just use it for email purposes until such time you are ready to have a web site designed.

You don't have to be a business person to benefit from email under your own domain name either. For example, your own domain can be useful in job-hunting; helping you stand out from the pack - particularly if the name you choose is your own; e.g. "firstname@firstnamelastname.com".

Using your own domain also doesn't mean you need to stop using Gmail or whatever free email service if you would prefer to continue to use those interfaces. Simply set up an email address under your domain name as a forwarder and in your free email account, configure your "send as" name to reflect your domain name email address.

Clarification: "buying" domain names is somewhat of an incorrect term; but one that is commonly used. A domain name you register yourself is actually leased from the registry to which the extension belongs. When registering the name, you are being provided a license to use that name for X period, with option to renew perpetually - assuming you are observing the registry guidelines.

Even when you buy an existing domain name from another party; all you are purchasing are the rights to be listed as the registrant and administrator of the name and to operate the domain. Nobody can truly 'own' a name.

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How To Transfer a Domain Name?

Transferring a domain to a different registrar can be very simple. A registrar can be defined as a commercial entity or an organization that is accredited by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). It is important to make sure that the registrar has ICANN on their post. The first step is to find a registrar that best suits your needs. Some registrars will offer you a package deal or incentives to transfer your Domain name. You can search the web for more registrars if you want to see what most of them offer. Once you have found the site you want to transfer your domain to you now have to choose how long you want to register your domain. If your website is for a business it may be sufficient to register the domain for a period of 5 years. If you are unsure of how many years, it is best to choose the lowest which is 1 year and you can always change it any time. Most registrars will give you a discount for registering for more years.

Now that you have found the registrar that you want to use. The domain name has to be unlocked from the old registrar before the transfer. It is locked to protect your domain against unauthorized transfers. Check with the current registrar to get the proper procedures. It should not be hard at all. After unlocking you may want to confirm the transfer with the old registrar, next confirm with your new registrar. Keep in mind this process can take 7 to 10 days depending on the registrar.

There are also some other reasons why your transfer can be denied by your old registrar. The most common one as I mentioned earlier you can be denied by not unlocking the domain first, or if they suspect evidence of fraud such as not being the authorized user to transfer the domain. Another will be if your domain is identical or confusingly similar to a service mark or trademark. For example: your domain is (www.yourdomain.com) and a major corporation is (yourdomain) depending on the nature and category you may get flagged. There also can be third parties involved with your domain which can also get your transfer denied. The transfer can be denied for a court order, non-payment from previous registrars and credit card charge backs.

Now that you have a basic idea on how to transfer a domain good luck!

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Domain Name Services

Domain names are an essential part of every Internet business, and you need to ensure that you keep yours protected. Creating a successful website for your business is essential, and there are several elements, which will ensure that it is a massive success. Once you have selected the perfect name for your website and business, you will need someone to host the site.

Many inexperienced website owners will decide to combine the hosting services and domain registering as a package. However, this can lead to issues and problems in the future if you decide that you want to change your hosting company. Combining the two services may seem like a logical process; however, it can leave you in a difficult position.

There are several incredibly experienced hosting companies that can take control of the whole process of domain names, registering and hosting. However, it is always advised to be a part of the process to ensure that you understand how your website is operating. Far too many businesses have lost their website and domain name through a falling out with the hosting company.

If possible you should always register your business name in your name, with your details. This will ensure that you can edit the details in the future and that all enquiries regarding your domain name will come direct to you. If the hosting company has full control, they may take advantage of the situation, and over charge you when it comes to renewing your domain names.

Successful names will generate an immense array of interest, therefore, making them inviting for hosting companies to be greedy. Once the company knows your name is a success, they may try to charge you more, which is unsatisfactory practice. This thankfully does not happen as often as it once did, however, remaining in control and being aware is essential.

It may cost you more to use two separate companies for the services; however, it will ensure that there are no issues in the future. You will be able to be in control of registering the domain name, and leave the hosting to the professionals. If you decide to change the hosting company, there will be no fear that your name will be affected.

There are many different services which are on offer; therefore, research is essential to guarantee that you receive the best deal. Taking the time to research different companies and domain name services will ensure that your domain names are secure, and your website is hosted by the best. Once your hosting is established, and your domain name in place, you can begin to enjoy your website.

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Register Your Domain Names

Domain names are a vital part of your online business, and understanding how to register yours is essential. Online businesses and websites have begun to be an incredibly popular way to promote and run your business. However, there are several elements that you need to understand ensuring that your business name is protected. Choosing the right domain name is vital and can become incredibly valuable.

You will invest a large amount of time and effort into choosing the perfect name for your business; therefore, you do want another business to make a claim to the name. As soon as you have chosen the perfect name, you will need to register the domain. This will ensure that it will remain protected in the future. However, many people do not register their domain names correctly, which is how they occur issues in the future.

Many website hosts will register your name for your domain for free; however, you need to ensure that it has been done correctly. The name that you have chosen for your domain will be considered as intellectual property. This will ensure that other people cannot use your name in any form for their own business. Allowing your domain name to lapse can cause immense issues, and allow other businesses the opportunity to purchase your website name.

You need to ensure that you have all of the registration details in the event that you change website hosts. If the domain name has been registered in the website host's name, you may be unable to edit, renew or cancel the registration. Therefore, asking for the registration of the domain names to be in your name is essential. Understanding every element of the registration process is vital, and will ensure that your name remains secure.

If your budget is larger, you may want to consider purchasing variations of the domain name to ensure that customers can find you easily. Many people type the wrong name when searching for companies, and you want to ensure that you can be found easily. If the name you have chosen is common, you may need to purchase other similar names. The different domain names can easily all redirect to your main website, ensuring that potential customers do not get lost on the way.

Registering your domain name for as long as possible is always recommended, and a reminder service when it is up for renewal will ensure that you do not forget. If you have the financial resources, you can often register a name for up to ten years. Many larger businesses will do this to ensure that they secure their name for the future. You will be protecting your business name, and guaranteeing that there are no shocks in the future.

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Is Your Domain Name and Brand Protected?

Securing your brand identity is one of the most important things you must do as a business owner. In order to effectively manage your brand name and prevent misuse, slander or discredit of your reputation; you must not only conduct good business practices and maintain high ethical standards, but also ensure that your identity as a business is well managed.

Social media identity protection is the solution!

In today's high tech digital universe, the internet and specifically social media networks have made private information much more readily available on the web; which as a result presents a security risk for both personnel and organizations alike. This is why we all need some sort of social media identity protection.

More and more we are seeing not only personal identity theft cases on the internet, but also those of businesses; as criminals attempt to profit from the misfortune of others online

With an evolution in search engines comes an evolution in optimization. Branding and social media have become a major influence in the ranking system of every major search engine on the internet. Whether you're seeking online reputation management, brand awareness, or search engine optimization, a strong Social Presence is essential for any business that is communicating through the internet.

The industry has multiplied over the past decade. An inux of interest, funding and support have helped Social Media communities grow and prosper in the 21st century.

Thinks of the following possibilities.

Imagine your business name being registered as a profile or fan page on a major social network by someone other than yourself. This would eliminate you getting that user-name for yourself and increases the risk for misuse, as well as misrepresentation of your brand by others.

One of your competitors could register your brand name as a profile or fan page on a major social network and use it to discredit your business.

Your business name could be registered as a profile or fan page on a major social network and use it to attract customers under false pretenses, bringing discredit to your brand name.

Social media has become the Wild West for cybersquatting, with no regulations or a central control system for taking down names. We usually advise our clients that the best offense is a good defense.

This kind of service is also good for companies that want to control the trademarks or brand names but do not necessarily want to have a presence on the various social media sites.

As such, it is a good idea to look for a Social Media Identity Protection company that can help reserve your company name or brand on over 300 websites.

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How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Real Estate Blog

A domain real estate name is where your blog lives on the Internet. It's your blog Uniform Resource Locator code, popularly known as the URL address. A URL will tell a computer where a resource is and how to access it. For example, iAgentc.com, which incidentally is where we recommend you buy your domain name. Your real estate blog's domain name information should be unique to you or the farm area in which you serve.

For real estate agents, owning yourname.com (your own domain name information) is the key to establishing your brand identity on the internet. Buyers and sellers buy YOU, the agent, not the company or your broker.

Five Features When Selecting A Domain Name in Real Estate

Length Easy To Remember Niche Related Dashes Are Okay .com is Best

Let's explain these 5 features in more detail:

Length - Shorter is better, but in real estate, geo-specific content is the key. We recommend either one or two syllable words. It rolls off the tongue better and is great to remember when directing traffic. Easy To Remember - If users cannot remember your domain name, then they won't find you from the domain name itself. And that's not good for search engine marketing. Keep your domain short and simple. One syllable is ideal, but two is okay. Niche Related - This is target marketing. Don't forget, geography in real estate is considered a niche area, but it can also apply to other types of niches. Ideally, you will want to conduct a keyword analysis before deciding on a domain name. The best tool is the Google keyword tool. Using keywords in your domain name will help to improve your overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For example, if an individual searches for a home in Austin, Texas, what would users type into the search engines to find their results? We typed "austin texas homes" and the keyword tool provide us with popular search terms that users actually typed into the search box. Dashes Are Okay - Search engines don't mind dashes. In fact, they behave a lot like grammar police when reading content on the web. That's why they give us the option of "Did You Mean" when we misspell a word or phrase. Words are recognized by the search engines as separate terms when they have a dash. Dashes (aka hyphens) are treated as a space between words. For example, if you are located in Austin, Texas and you want to secure the domain name austintexas.com and found out it was already registered to someone else; it would be okay to secure austin-texas.com or austin-tx.com or some other variation with dashes. As a result, you have a small opportunity to capitalize on SEO using dashes because austintexas is a misspelled word and will not be recognized. In fact, you will be given the option of, "Did you mean: austin texas." .com is Best -.com's are the best because they are the most recognizable by Internet users. More often than not someone will say, "Go to yada-yada-yada.com." In general, users will automatically try the.com first in a search because we have been conditioned to do so. You might as well give them what they want and secure the.com. However, we also recommend securing all extensions (.net,.tv,.info,.me) when developing your authority and brand identity online.

It is highly recommended using http://www.iAgentc.com for your real estate domain name.

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How to Choose a Great Domain Name

Domain Name: What is this?

In very simple terms, a Domain Name is like a street address but for a website. If the address is not proper it is hard to be located. For example the Domain Name for Google is Google.com and the Domain Name for YouTube is YouTube.com. The use of a domain name is to help a person get straight to the location and access a website.

Choosing an appropriate name:

It is very important to choose a domain name which is relevant to the kind of business or services being provided. Although this is a slightly mind boggling exercise, but it shows results if it is done right. A lot of thought should be put into create this name as this is what is going to reflect the website for the business. Hence it needs to satisfy the search made by the customer and the search engine which maybe a means of locating the site. It is nice to have a keyword in the domain name.

A good example would be of yourbookstore.com for a books store. Nowadays it's very hard to get a domain name. Sometimes even a combination of words in the domain name is a good way to beat this. It has to be unique.

A good domain name should feature the following:

a) It represents the business identity: A cleverly made domain name is relative and should be easy to remember with the associated business.

b) Helps to create external links: A good domain name attracts customers more and helps get a better ranking leading to more relevant traffic and potential buyers.

c) Should be able to play a significant role in a blog logo: A good domain name should be able to identify business identity and should be able to promote the brand.

d) It is good to have a short and snazzy name. Keeping it to fewer than 13 letters is ideal: This minimises the possibility of misspelling the address by the user and this helps in keeping the continuity of the brand.

e) The domain name should not be hyphenated. This could attract a penalty. Don't try duplication, it won't work. These kinds of names are easy to forget and sometimes may even lead the customer to a competitor's site if the hyphens are not used right. It also happens that if a site is recommended by word of mouth, generally the hyphens are left out.

Get a good name. It might become famous associated name. Good luck.

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Tips for Choosing A Perfect Domain

Whether you are planning to launch a business site or personal blog, choosing the perfect domain name is of huge importance and requires careful planning. Regardless of what purpose your site will serve, there are a few general guidelines which are universal for choosing an effective domain name. A few of the most important are listed below:

- Dot com domains are the number one choice for just about any new website. The reason for this is basically the familiarity that the general public has with these types of domains, though the importance of your domain extension may vary for some types of sites.

- For best results, your domain should be both as short as possible and as easy to remember as you can manage. Try to avoid awkward combinations of letters or names that would be difficult to recall or even challenging to type, as this will ensure that you don't lose much traffic due to misspellings or other input mistakes.

- Make sure to do your research and choose a domain that is unique and one which does not violate any trademarks or copyrights. This one goes without saying, but don't forget to check on the status of any names you are seriously considering.

- Always avoid using numbers and hyphens in your domain name, if at all possible. Using numbers can make it difficult for users to remember whether they should spell the number out or use the numerical symbol. Hyphens create a memory block as well, since most of your visitors will forget where to place them in your domain name, or may even forget to include them at all.

- Check similar domain names to make sure that your domain name won't be easily confused with a different website, as this will make it difficult to brand your site.

One of the greatest challenges of choosing the perfect domain name is the overwhelming number of domains that are already registered or unavailable. After brainstorming a list of your favorite ideas, you may be disappointed when you discover that most or all of them are already taken.

At that point, you should evaluate your budget and the different options you have. If you have your heart set on a specific domain and your budget is considerable, you may consider contacting the owner of the domain to find out if they are willing to sell, or even hire a domain broker to assist you in securing the name you want for your site.

If you're working on a more modest budget, you will need to get creative and go back to the drawing board.

When choosing the perfect domain name for your website, your traffic strategy also matters considerably. There are two main types of domain names: keyword-based and brandable. Keyword-based domain names are likely to be discovered by large volumes of web users who are searching for broad or general keywords.

Brandable domains, on the other hand, are unique and oftentimes made-up names that immediately bring something distinctive to mind that is associated with the company behind the product or website.

Obviously keyword-based domains are more discoverable and work best for sites that plan on attracting most of their traffic from organic search results. Brandable domains are a more attractive option for sites that plan to utilize paid search promotions to generate traffic.

There are several ways to find a unique and brandable domain name. A few of the most popular methods are listed below:

1. Tap into your creativity and think of a relevant metaphor. The best way to find an appropriate metaphor for your site is to first identify what makes it exciting or how it stands apart from other sites. Once you have that in mind, try to think of a few simple concepts that you can use as an analogy. Try to pick one that most people will have no trouble understanding. Think of "Tech Crunch. com" as an example.

2. Use two relevant words to find a great compound word to use as your domain. This is done by choosing two nouns or other types of words and simply sticking them together in order to form one, as in the case of http://www.dropbox.com.

3. Use a phrase for your domain instead of a word. With phrase domains, emphasis often goes on the second or last word, unlike compound domains, which typically place their emphasis on the first word.

4. Blend parts of different words together to come up with a creative and clever domain name. The most classic example of a blended name is "Microsoft," which blends part of the word "microcomputer" with the "soft" from "software."

5. Alter the spelling of a word to find an appropriate domain name. When using this method, it's best not to change the spelling of a common word by more than one character. A perfect example of an altered spelling domain is "Flickr.com."

6. Add a common prefix or suffix to one of your keywords to find an available domain name. This has been a popular choice in recent years.

7. Get imaginative and make up your own word or name entirely. Some domains are completely invented words, like "Etsy.com."

Just be sure that you stick to relevant concepts when combining keywords to come up with the perfect domain. Both words should add to the meaning of your site, or allude to its purpose. Hopefully the ideas listed here help you kick start your domain name inspiration and now it's time to start brainstorming!

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