Domain Wizardry"

By Jim Daniels

- November 30, 1999... eCompanies Pays $7.5 Million For BUSINESS.COM Domain Name"

So who's the real "domain wizard" in that deal? The seller or the buyer?

Believe it or not you'd get conflicting opinions from most online business experts.

So what's all the hoopla over domain names recently? Marketers are hoarding domain names like crazy. Long domain names are going like hotcakes and Dot Com domains are hotter than ever!

This article will try to put a finger on it all. Let me start by asking you a few more questions...

How many domain names do you have right now? One? Five? Fifty?

Well, perhaps a better question is "how many do you really need?"

We all know that if you are serious about doing business online, the very bare minimum is one.

Actually, I stayed with just two domain names for years; www.bizweb2000.com and www.jdd-publishing.com

But I must admit, now I have over a dozen domain names and I've been grabbing up more recently. A few I've registered are:

SmallBusinessPromotion.com SmallBusinessWebPromotion.com HomeBusinessWebPromotion.com Make-A-Living-Online.com
makealivingonline.com BusinesstoBusinessAdvertising.com ComputerVoiceRecognition.com


So Why My New Interest in Domain Names?

Here are three reasons why I'm grabbing more up...

1. Future Use

I have a few more sites planned over the coming months and years and finding good domains for them will be MUCH harder if I wait. For a price of just $30 a year I can lock in what's left of the decent domain names I may want to use.


2. Possible Resale

If I decide not to use any of my domains personally, I'll undoubtedly be able to unload them, most likely at a hefty profit. Dot Com domain names especially, are already at a premium. And while I'm not much of a domain prospector right now, I like to keep my options open for future revenue. Who knows, maybe five or ten years down the road I'll cash some fat checks from my $30 investments.


3. Search Engine Positioning

While registering domain names with targeted keywords in them is NOT a *guaranteed way to increase search engine ranking, it has been proven to help. And yes, there are lots of ways to implement this strategy, which I'll discuss in separate articles.


So What Makes A Good Domain Name?

OK, so now that you know a few reasons why snatching up additional domain names is a solid and cheap investment, here's a little help in choosing your names wisely.

Keep your domain names as simple and as descriptive as possible. Try to describe site content with your domain names if possible. My own domains above are good examples of how to do that.

And contrary to popular belief, the hyphen (-) can actually be a GOOD component in a domain name. This week I had a little chat with a fellow you may have heard of, Declan Dunn of activemarketplace.com. He recently experimented with hyphenated domain names to be used as headlines in advertising.

An example of his strategy is using the domain: http://www.How-To-Register-A-Long-Domain-Name.com

Declan was floored with the results these long hyphenated domain names produced. So pay no attention when a guru advises you against it.


How to Find Powerful Domain Names:

When preparing this article I decided it would not be complete without a full-featured domain search resource. But rather than the run-of-the-mill (run-of-the-mill.com - hey that's an available domain; but not for long!) interface where my readers could search availability, I wanted something more.

So off I went in search of a powerful script. And I really lucked out at CDomain Software. Not being one to install cgi scripts, I was thrilled to encounter a fellow by the name of Keith Poincelot who installed and modified his slick script on my server.

It not only contains a domain lookup which helps you find existing domains, but it also includes a powerful domain name wizard. The wizard combines descriptive words that you enter and presents you with a list of related domain names that are available. This lightning-fast, user friendly script went up just a few days ago and it is now ready for your domain hunting pleasure here.

Oh, and should the wizard present you with a few of those domain names you simply can't pass up, just click the domain name(s) of your choice and our hosting company will hook you up with free domain parking. There are no setup charges whatsoever and the domain registration fee has just been reduced to $60.00 which covers two full years. Finding and registering a unique domain name has never been easier!

Happy domain searching...

Best regards, Jim Daniels