• Your first target should be the .com. If only the .biz/.net/.org/.info/etc is available, try another name. Other TLD’s just don’t come to someone’s mind when they’re buying a domain name.
• Try a solid domain name that uses its extension in the name. Examples include: script.aculo.us and del.icio.us.
• If it’s uniquely an online business, work out your company’s identity based on the available .com instead of the reverse. You don’t want to set up your entire website, only to find out the domain name doesn’t exist.
• Don’t buy from anyone who isn’t GoDaddy. Enough said.
• Is it pronounceable? Is it easy to communicate verbally?
• Can you make it shorter?
  

There are two general paths to follow when trying to come up with a domain name:

• Keyword-filled domain name. Example: pat-burt.com
• Catchy brand. Example: technorati.com

When working trying to pick out a keyword-filled domain name, you should focus on terms that users will actually search for. This should be the reasoning for going this route in the first place. Be wary of words spelled differently in different areas of the world, for example: Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Optimisation.

Although hyphens look unattractive in a domain name, they help with search engine optimization

When trying to think of a catchy brand, try some word generators or web 2.0 generators. Even though you probably won’t generate gems, it’ll certainly help you brainstorm.

Hope that helps, that’s all for now.

Why It’s Bad

Search Engines, or, let’s be serious here, Google, is known to penalize sites with duplicate content. These penalties can range from de-listing your domain, to a hit on the search engine results page, to a PageRank hit. Regardless of the penalty, penalties are not good things. It is often in your and your website’s best interest to stay as far away as you can from those penalties.

How is it duplicate content? If you visit http://www.mydomain.com/register.html and that page (and other pages on the website) are identical to http://www.myotherdomain.com/register.html, you may know that it’s the same site, but Search Engines will interpret two different .com’s as two different websites.

Google’s negative response towards duplicate content is, I imagine, a method to discourage content scrapers, who use bots to steal content from other sites and post it on their own.

What’s Wrong

What’s wrong is that you’re likely you have likely set up the domain name to point to the same nameservers and same folder as your main domain name. That’s where the problem lies.

How To Fix It

What needs to happen is that all domain names other then your main one need to be redirected. Redirecting your domain name shouldn’t be confused with mirroring the content from your main domain name. These redirects should be 301 redirects. You can either:

• Redirect the domain name with your registrar. Some registrars will give you the option to set up redirects without any hosting configuration. If at all possible, go with this option.
• Host multiple domains on your hosting account. You will have to create a separate folder to point your excess domains to. Each of these should be set up with a 301 redirect to your main domain. These can be done with most (any?) programming languages, so you should look up which your hosting package supports, and do your best.

Hope that helps.

Approximately three months, as a spur of the moment decision, I decided to buy the domain name:

BigGirlfriend.com

http://www.biggirlfriend.com/

Not the smartest of my investments, I’ll admit it, but I figured I might be able to make something fun out of it or resell it. It’s pronounceable,correctly spelled, no dashes and is/can be an expression. What I mean by that is.. girlfriendbig.com doesn’t make sense.

So, I’m extending this question out to the public:

What Do I Do With This Domain Name?

I invite anyone and everyone to post their take on what I should do, here are some examples of things I can do, hopefully it will get your imagination running.

• List it on eBay and hope you get the $3 it’s worth, it’s worthless
• Make a porn site featuring, the.. uh.. larger demographic.. or women (not likely)
• Design and Develop a fun site possibly where people are open to post anonymous comments on present or past girlfriends, good or bad
• Use it as a branding platform for a website not associated with anything big or female.
• Sell it privately by convincing someone it has unlimited potential as a domain name
• Got a different idea? Post it!

Help a friend out.
Cheers and thanks guys.

A Brief Intro to Domain Names

A Domain Name is a relatively simple thing. It’s a pretty looking link. Typing in http://www.example.com is a heck of a lot easier then typing in http://49.149.24.99/~account/ for example.
A Domain Name simply points to a your Hosting Services’ Nameserver so that the URL typed into the browser bar sends you to the right spot on their server. That’s it. Sure you may get some special email services or other special features with your Domain Name registrar, but that’s not part of a Domain Name.

What’s Included in a Domain Name?

Apart from the Domain Name itself, PageRank is (to my knowledge) the only other component that is PASSIVELY transferred over with a Domain Name. I won’t go into details, but PageRank is a technology used by Google to determine a site’s rating. This ranking is associated with a Domain Name. Whether the Domain Name transfers hands or not should not affect PageRank. PageRank will be affected, however, if links to the domain are taken down. The higher the rating, higher the Search Engine placement.

A PageRank 1 (or N/A) website usually indicates that the domain name is newer and/or doesn’t have quality incoming links whereas a PageRank 10 website means it has millions of quality incoming links. Of course, the higher the website, the more it’s worth. If you’re looking for a really simple PageRank checker, prchecker.info does it quickly and easily. I won’t go into more depth, so if you’re looking for more details, Wikipedia has a great article up.

What Makes a Good Domain Name?

Please note that there are exceptions, numerous sites go against these guidelines are worth millions, but if you had a Domain Name like this, chances are you would have never come across this blog.

• Extension - .COM’s are more favorable then .NET’s and .ORG’s, and exponentially favorable then some newer extensions such as .INFO, .WS and country extensions. They have a broader reach then country extensions and of course, they’re harder to get
• PageRank – As mentionned above, the higher PageRank, the better. If someone’s buying your domain, they’re willing to pay more knowing they’ll have a jumpstart on Google
• How easy it is to communicate and type – For example http://www.gas4u.com may be a 5-letter domain, but think about how it comes across in conversation. “Our website is gas four, as in the number 4, you, as in the letter U, dot com” is just tedious to communicate
• Target demographic – Does your Domain Name indicate that you’re targeting business people? or home owners? Domain Names with a potential for a bigger reach are likely to be worth more then Domain Names targeting small demographics like the owners of Moroccan fighting parrots (just made that up, don’t bother to Wikipedia it)
• Length – Shorter then better, also applies to word counts as well. The less words, the better. I likely don’t have to go much into this.

So Really, What is my Domain Name Worth?

Simple answer. A Domain Name is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. I compiled a list of resources where you can look through Domain Names on sale and get a general idea of what they’re going for. In the event of auction sites, it’s best to only pay attention to sites with bids on them.

• SitePoint Forums Marketplace – A section in the SitePoint forums dedicated to selling Domain Names and Domain Names only. The people there know what they’re doing, and aren’t screwing around.
• DnScoop.com – Gives an often inflated figure that takes in a lot of factors of your website. It’s best to use DNSCoop if you’re selling an established website, but it still gives a decent idea none-the-less.
• GoDaddy’s Domain Name Aftermarket - A long list of domains on sale, the site gives a great idea on what prices to set for your Domain Name so it DOESN’T sell. But like I cautioned above, it does give you a good general idea if you look at the Domain Names with bids on them.
• Search for “Domain Name” on Ebay – Also gives you a decent general idea of the ballpark value of your Domain Name by looking at similar listings.
• SwiftAppraisal – A free online Domain Name appraisal service. If you’re REALLY honest when it quizzes you about your domain, it can give you a pretty good idea of its value. If you overestimate some of the question’s answers, you may end up with an “appraisal” that’s exponentially inflated.
• Sedo – Yet another Domain Name auction site. Alot of listings, catergorized really well, a great resource. Also a good one to look at if you’re looking to sell your Domain Name.

Hope that helps.

I’d say the average domain name registrar charges $8.95/year, but this can easily go upwards. For example, there is a site called DomainsAtCost and they charge 50% more (or 100% more then the examples I’m going to list) then your typical domain name registrar. Even in Canadian Dollars, $15.40 is a unnecessary cost for a domain (This is rougly 14.50 in US Dollars). You may argue that they offer some sort of superb service, and I say, superb service? Nonsense. What other services do you need other then being able to set your nameservers for a specific domain name?

If you need hosting, go to a hosting company. Why would buy hosting from someone who is likely marking up the costs that they’re just reselling from GoDaddy.com? Now for the climax of this blog post:

Where To Buy The Cheapest Domain Names

$6.95/year
GoDaddy.com
– They’ve been doing it for a long time, they do it well. Right now, they’re offering domain names at $6.95, the lowest I’ve seen a domain offered in all the years I’ve been online. If this hot offer expires, you can always enter the CJC695DOM promo code at checkout which cuts off $2.00 from the original $8.95 domain name price. Great customer service, quick email support.

$7.95/year
Aplus.net – If for some reason you are anti-GoDaddy, Aplus offers domain names at $7.95/year and even offer $1.00 off for the first year if you are a first time customer.

$8.88/year
Namecheap.com – If you have a little extra money and want to support the “little” guys, Namecheap.com has been my domain name registrar of choice for the past 4 years (I’m now a GoDaddy customer). They have excellent customer support and if you’re a fan of not going through Control Panels that load forever because of complex programming, then you’ll enjoy your experience there.