When choosing a new domain name for your website I feel a few things are important.

• Easy to remember; not necessarily short.  I recently registered a domain name www.TheNeverEndingPrincessStory.com .  Long name, but very descriptive.  Most of the "short and snappy" ones have been taken a long time ago.  The search engines look for clues to the content in the domain name; give them something to work with instead of tmzor.info .  

• Stick to top level domains, .com or .ca, for example.  It may seem cool and realistic for you to register thisisthecoooolestsite.tv but try geting your Grandma to type in the .tv extension.  Remember, you want to be rich, not cool.

• Look for domain names that have been previously registered and have lapsed.  When I registered www.AskAuntSue.com I was leaning towards the name Betty and advice as the topic, but after searching a list of previously registered but now expired domain names I found this one.  Someone (probably a domain name speculator) had registered it at one time, thinking it was short and snappy, which it was.  I checked in the Waybackweb to see if there was ever any content associated with that domain, no luck, just a "this name is available page.." but you never know... an old directory link or 2 can help alot in the beginning...

Know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em.  Unless you are rich you should continuously prune your list of active domains.  One's that are registered but not operational are typically this way for a reason.   Perhaps you tried something and it never worked out.  Don't just leave it there, move on to something that WILL excite you and therefore be successful instead of just another charge at the end of the year.

• Use subdomains.  If you are launching a new website and it's related to one you already have instead of registering a new domain name use a subdomain.  An example would be widgets.com with a subdomain of metal.widgets.com or brass.widgets.com .  All are independent sites with a start page, but function UNDER the existing name.  Search engines like this, since it segments and organizes the content nicely.  Once the new website has sufficient content or they are out of beta and can "stand on their own" you can then easily move them to their own domains.

When I got started with meetnewplayers.com it was 1998.  We were all going to be millionaires; and it was the original Internet “land grab”.  People were registering domain names, even Hotmail addresses thinking they would be able to cash out in a few years.

I bought “meetnewplayers.com” to point towards my cheesy www.myisp/reddot website and the rest is history :)

At the time I met a few “domain name” speculators; people who would register thousands of domain names hoping that one day they would be worth something; essentially placing a “bet” on how long it would take with the number of years on the registration.   Some considered it their "portfolio".   They were the smartest guys in the room; and they had the foresight; others would have to pay an enormous sum for the privilege of using a name THEY had registered back in the day.  All they had had to do was dream up a list; register the dot coms, put up a page saying the name was available and sit back and wait for the offers to flow in.

Fast forward 8 years and most of them went bankrupt or simply could not afford the renewal fees and let everything lapse.  What's happened now is that a few "consolidators" have stepped in; and these people are now the new traffic brokers.

If I have 20,000 domain names that are active I could count on a few hits from typing errors or outdated link directories per hour.  I could then show a few ads and link related names in my catalogue to my other worthless, turd-like websites that are designed to do the same.  (see Black Hat).  It's great, since this way I can sell my bogus traffic to others and game the search engines for my friends the  "Search Engine Optimization" guys. \ End sarcasm...

I only bought domain names as I required them to develop new sites and have used subdomains very effectively to get a site up and running.

Back to Table of Contents