Buying a Website Name

At the time of writing this, the year is 2011.

The internet is about 16 years old and you are ready to stake your claim on the information superhighway. So let's take a moment to learn about buying a website name.

Maybe you want to promote your business, sell more widgets and doo-dads or you want to buy www.YourNameOnTheWeb.com for a vanity website.
Whatever your reason for getting on the internet buying a website name is an important part of the process.

A website name has to do some things for you. It should be relevant. Relevance can be defined a few ways: brand relevance or keyword relevant. When buying a website name make sure it is brand relevant by using your company's name if at all possible.

For example: http://www.nike.com is branded for the company Nike. An example of keyword relevant would be www.running-shoes.com for a website that sells running shoes including Nikes. Most business try to make their website names brand relevant if possible.

Another thing to take into account when buying a website name is the length of the name. In general the shorter the name the better. Short website or domain names are better for a few reasons.

One reason is spelling, the longer the domain name the more likely people misspell (did I spell that right?) the name and possibly not land on your website. Closely related to the website name it its length is the related emails. When buying a website name, you also get emails that use that website as the email address.

For example if you buy www.runningshoes.com then your emails will be yourname@runningshoes.com which can lead to you missing emails and potential business and orders because the user misspelled a long email address.

Now that we have those points out of the way actually buying a website name is easy.

1. Search for a name that fits your company, product , or idea.
2. Search for that name to ensure it is available.
3. Purchase the domain name, web hosting, and email package to cover your basic needs for a website.

Also, be sure to avoid domain name no-nos. Learn more by watching this video: