how to choose a domain name

I think it’s high time I share what I know about choosing a domain name. It seems that by the time a friend or an acquaintance asks me my opinion of the new domain name, it has been purchased already. A little reminder, I am not an expert. I am just blogging what I have learned while pondering with mine.

1. Make it relevant to your content. Or at least your targetted audience. Bloggerhappy - I blog on an impulse. Berryscrappy - it is about scrapping. (There are some things related to scrapping like cats, sugar and in my case, berries)

2. Make it short. If it isn’t a business name, go with a one or two-word domain name. They say 12 characters max. The only ones that can get away with the long ones are the ones that are common remarks, quotes, song/movie titles, etc. (You get what I mean)

3. Make it simple. Here’s a test that I actually did before finally deciding on bloggerhappy. Ask a 7-year-old to spell the words for you. If he/she can spell it correctly, then it’s good.

4. Avoid plural words (ending with ’s’) and the “the” word. Why? because people often forget. Same goes with dash and underscore.

5. This one I didn’t follow. Don’t use words that can be spelled in many or slang ways. Like “hapi” for “happy”, “2″ for “to” or “n” for “and”. Why? Again, people tend to forget.

This is why some people cash in on the alter domain name. If you think twopeasinabucket.com is great, you’re sure to get hits for 2peasinabucket.com without much plugging.

6. Go for the .com. I know some people may argue but not all people are net-savvy. When you say a domain, people tend to think .com instead of .net, .us, .ph etc.

That’s all I could think of. Feel free to comment to add more to the list. Again, I’m no expert. Just sharing.