LESSON #23: Choosing and Registering a Domain Name

By | September 2, 2008

In the previous lesson, we talked about branding your business and naming your product.

Once you’ve come up with a product name, you’ll need to register a domain. However, some domains are much better than others, so I want to take a few minutes to explain it to you right now…

(Watch this video…)

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Main points:

  • A domain name is basically the web address of a particular website. For example “Google.com” or “EricsTips.com” is a domain name.

  • You NEED your own website (reasons explained on video)… therefore you need a domain.

  • A domain name is like the title deed to your website. (you want to build equity in your web properties)

  • Domain Extensions…

    – .COM is usually the best, especially if it’s for the primary website of your business
    – .ORG can be beneficial in gaining trust, and may be preferable for some information and service oriented websites.
    – Country-specific extensions (ex. .CA, .IN, .JP) can be advantageous if you’re marketing exclusively to a niche within a certain country.

  • While domains consisting of “made up” words can become popular (ie. ebay.com, Xanga.com, Bebo.com, etc.), a more straight-forward approach is better for informational websites.

  • The domain should concisely describe WHAT the site is all about.

  • Consider adding a word, thinking locally, or making it personal (Examples on the video)

  • Generally avoid superlatives such as ‘best’, ‘top’, and ‘number 1’. (Can hurt your credibility and cause problems with PPC advertising)

  • Use an adjective. I often use an adjective as the first word of a domain name.

  • What about hyphens?

    In general, I would prefer a domain with no hyphens. It’s debatable, but hyphens may create a visual advantage in some cases for SEO and PPC. However, it also makes the domain harder to remember, and more difficult to say out loud.

  • Don’t use intentional misspellings. You can use misspelled domains to capture traffic, but you should NOT build a full fledged site on one. (There are exceptions, like Flickr.com, but you are probably not the exception. Misspellings look bad)

  • Don’t use abbreviations, unless it’s VERY well known.

  • Don’t use numbers (digits), unless you have a really good reason.

  • Don’t make it too long. Aim for 2 or 3 words, and no more than 4 words.

  • Matching up with your product…

    – If your product name is 2 or 3 words, it would be ideal for the domain to match it.

    – If your product name is not available to register as a domain, you’ll want to check to see if that domain is currently in use. If someone is using that domain to sell a product in your niche, I would recommend coming up with a new product name to avoid conflicts.

    – If your product name is long, you’ll need to come up with a shorter domain. (see example on video)

  • You may want to register a few domains to give yourself some options. (Multiple domains can be used for the same website. You can then split-test domain names on PPC, or use multiple domain names to avoid competing with your own affiliates on PPC)

  • Just don’t register a bunch of domains you don’t need.

  • Domain suggestions tools. It’s fine to use domain suggestion tools to get ideas, but I generally do not use them. If you can think like a marketer, you can come up with a better domain name than a computer.

  • Where to register your domain…

    – There are hundreds of places on the internet where you can register a domain. Some are better than others. If you’ve already found a good and reliable registrar, feel free to stick with them.

    – I recommend registering your domain with someone OTHER than your web host. (reasons explained)

    – It’s important that you have good control over your domain (easily be able to change DNS, set up child name servers, etc)

    – I recommend using www.LifeDomains.NET

    (see registration walk-through on video)

    SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY:

    You may want to consider getting your own domain sales business, like mine. There are always people who need to register domains, so if your business has anything to do with business or money, then this could be a good side business for you. Domain resellers are making as much as $37k per month with this opportunity!

    Click here for info about getting your own turn-key domain business

    (Includes bonus advertising credits and other freebies. See details on site…)

    Action steps:

    1) Register a domain for your business.

    Use the guidelines from this lesson to register a good one!

    After you’ve registered your domain, the next step is to get it hosted. There are good hosts, and there are bad hosts, and choosing the wrong one could be a costly mistake. Having been a web hosting company owner, it’s a subject that I know a fair amount about, and I’ll be sharing the important facts with you in the next lesson.

    As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂 (Feel free to let us know about your new domain, even if it’s just parked right now)

    Have a great day!

  • 286 thoughts on “LESSON #23: Choosing and Registering a Domain Name

    1. Signe Seiersen

      I know its late for the question.
      I have recovered from a mental illness.
      I am now studying NLP online.
      will recovery and self Development be good niches for me and the market?

      Reply
      1. Jose

        Based on your comment and question, I think that you should “write” a “How I overcame xxxxx” and then strt your Web Site with a “General Theme” pertaining to the “Health Niche”. That way you have an ongoing channel rather than a “one-time only” case.

        JWer

        Reply
        1. Wendy

          That is good. I too have been wanting to deal with mental health issues because I have my own and know the struggle people have when it comes with this topic.

          Reply
    2. Andrea

      Eric: Excellent tips. I already purchased a domain for an affiliate site as well before I found your site: workfromhomesetgo.com – Glad to have these tips for domain names. Ever grateful,
      Andrea

      Reply
    3. Eric Post author

      I haven’t researched it, but generally speaking– yes those should be good niches, as they are very big, and evergreen.

      Reply
    4. Jorge

      Eric tanks for the lesson keep working in my domains bless you

      Reply
    5. Les Line

      Hi Eric,
      Thanks for this. Lots of additional, useful info. But how do you park three domain addresses on top of each other?

      Thinking about joining your coaching programme.

      Les Line

      Reply
    6. Diana Rosalez

      And i did not finish school only 10 gd and sometime i do not I understand it is not good

      Reply
    7. K.

      Eric, I want to become a domain registration site…should I set it up first and then use it to set up my new domain names?

      Reply
      1. Micah

        Hello K.,

        Who are using for your domain registration business? Yes, you would need to register a domain where you would host that business.

        Reply
    8. Chelle

      Hi Eric,

      Such an interesting video. Thanks so much.

      I am interested in the domain reseller program. Would I be able to sell co.za [South Africa] domains as well? How would commissions be paid to someone living elsewhere than USA?… Say South Africa. Would doing this be beyond a newbie… I am PC and internet literate …. and own a wordpress blog….. not really earned online before though.

      Thanks again.
      Chelle

      Reply
    9. Erika

      Hello,

      I started to register the domain name to lifedomains.net and I found that I need to register with them the webhosting too ( it`s no other possibility, you have to choose at least Economy account). Or Eric`s advice is Hostgator as a webhost which I prefer as I can follow more easilly the directions. Now, should I register the webhosting with lifedomains.net, or is there another idea of domain registration?
      Thanks, Erika

      Reply
      1. Eric Post author

        Hi Erika,
        It looks like Lifedomains requires you to select web hosting on step #2, but actually it is optional. You can unselect it by clicking the bubble. And if it does get added to the cart, you can simply remove it from the cart.

        Alternatively, you could register your domain along with your web hosting directly from Hostgator.

        Reply
    10. Stinky McFarten

      When buying new domains keep in mind they my not really be new but expired and put back into circulation. Nothing is worse than buying a domain that someone has previously owned and then trashed and is full of penalties and will never rank. Before buying a domain at the very least you should drop it in the way back machine http://archive.org/web/ and see if it has ever been indexed before and take a look at what it has been used for before. There are also ways that are not free to examine these domains links such as open site explorer (Moz) and Ahrefs. Also, I do believe in buying the privacy but if you are on a budget you can go to http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/ and create a fake name with address and phone #. Just make sure when you are doing this to use an email address that you have access to because you will need to verify that this is you. And once you have verified the address change it to an address you established on your domain like support@sitename.com. I’m sure the registrars probably kind of frown on this but it works.

      Reply
    11. Brittney

      So 7 years later, is lifedomains.net still the best site you’d recommend for purchasing a domain for a membership website?

      Reply
    12. jon

      Click here for info about getting your own turn-key domain business seems to be a dead link now? Did I miss an earlier comment?

      Reply
    13. Stephen

      How about using your own name as your domain? I have already done this and hopefully link products from it. Or would you register a new domain for your product?

      Reply
      1. Eric Post author

        It’s definitely good to register your own name if its available. It just depends on your branding strategy… if you want to brand yourself as a guru in your niche, then your name is great to use. If you want to build a company that you can easily sell, then you don’t want to use your name. For marketing and SEO purposes, when it comes to selling products/services… it’s often best to choose a domain that describes what you’re selling.

        Reply
    14. Mike Bartlett

      I had heard that with the new regulations that are in place that a person had more legal exposures with a web site vs just a mini site on your audio responder and just using that for email marketing.

      What do you know about that?

      Mike

      Reply
      1. Eric Post author

        I don’t think it matters, as long as your email marketing is in compliance.

        Reply
    15. Mike Bartlett

      Is there a lot of work to running your own Domain Registry or is most of that taken care of for you?

      Mike

      Reply
      1. Eric Post author

        It’s really hands off in this case. I’m really just a reseller. They provide the website, all I have to do is market it.

        Reply
    16. Brenda Cavallero

      Hi Eric,
      I currently have 25 domain names, which are registered with GoDaddy.com. I’ve owned most of these since 2001 and would now like to sell many of them. Can you tell me the best way to do this? Do I need to set up my own Domain Name Website in order to sell them? Also, how do I determine their value?

      Reply
      1. Eric Post author

        There are several ways of doing that. One good and trusted marketplace is Flippa. The easiest solution would probably be to use Godaddy auctions since you’re already on Godaddy. Valuation is tough. Look at similar domains. If it’s truly a high value domain in the thousands of dollars, you may be best getting a domain broker.

        Reply
    17. Mike Gorman

      all good solid advice and absolutely agreed about branding and the need for a domain name-However, this old emphasis on the .COM/.ORG is not really valid today, we have upwards of 1,000 choices and it with the changes in online behavior this idea of only .com is now completely wrong. There are no SEO downsides to selecting another TLD, when you consider that Google’s parent company Alphabet is a .XYZ TLD perhaps this gives you a clue, you reckon google are worried about .COM being a convention?

      Reply
      1. Eric Post author

        I talk about this more in a lesson in my inner profit circle. .COM absolutely is still the gold standard, not just for SEO reasons. .ORG also does still have some inherent benefits. But you are right there are many other domain extensions that can work well for businesses.

        Reply

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