5 Quick Tips to Buying a Domain Name

As more are looking to the internet for searching and researching, it is becoming a necessity to have a web presense. So it’s important to get off on the right foot. Below are a few quick tips about domain names.

1. Buy your own domain name *very important*

So you have decided to take the plunge and start your website, you’ve hired a company and are ready to roll. You pick out the name and hand it over to the web design company. Wrong! This is one mistake that I have seen way to many times in the past few months. If you let someone else purchase your domain name technically it’s theirs and they own it.  Though not impossible, it become sincreasing harder to gain control once someone else has it. Say for instance you had a friend/collage of yours buy your name for you. Well years go by and you need to switch hosting companies but you don’t know what the log in is and worst yet you have lost contact with that person. On the flip side if you have a company register your name they can change any amount for  maintaining it.

2. Buy more than one.

If you have 2 or more domain names that referrer to your business don’t be shy about purchasing them all. Domains are much cheaper now than they have been in the past and having multiple domain names can help with marketing and web searches. Note they can all lead to the same website so you don’t need multiple web sites or hosting plans.

3.  Simple is better

When picking out a name try to go as simple as possible. On average over 100,000 domains are purchased everyday,  so as you can imagine your choices narrow the longer you wait. Domains can be up to 67 characters in length but shorter is better for consumer memory.

4. Don’t wait

Even if you haven’t fully committed to creating that website or business adventure still purchase the domain. On average a .com costs less than $20 a year so it’s better to jump on it than not to have it when you need it.

5. Google it but don’t post it

Once you have a name, google it. See if there are other sites related to it. If in the past it has been used spam or if someone holds the copyright. Don’t post the name in a forum or message board asking for opinions. You will get trolls that search those posts out and then buy your domain, of course you can buy it from them at a steep price.

What other tips or stories do you have when buying your domains, please put them in the comments below?