7 Sure-Fire Tips to Creating Domain Name that Sells

The first 2 components for your website you must get it right — reliable web hosting service and domain name.

People used to argue over whether you should get a domain name first followed by web hosting or the other way round.

It used to be ok either way. But now, you must register a domain name first before web hosting. I think it's probably a measure to minimize the number of low quality websites without a proper domain name floating around the web pool like garbage.

Oh, attaching your website with a proper domain name is actually not powerful enough. Your domain name must sell by itself, and be able to bring more traffic to your site and step up your sales revenue, only then can it be crowned "a domain name that sells".

And how to make it sell? Follow these 7 tips closely and burn them into your brain whenever you're brainstorming for one, then quickly go snap it up before someone else does.

1. Relevant

Your domain name should match with what you're promoting / selling on your website.

For example, if you're offering on your website the natural secrets of losing fat, then your domain name should contain related keywords like 'fat', 'weight', 'shape', 'body', 'curve', etc...

Online marketing experts like us favor such straightforward approach which speaks the benefits directly to the audience over the short but irrelevant names like Google and Yahoo.

Advantage of relevant domain name - Since people can instantly identify what your business is all about by simply looking at it, it tends to drive only those who are interested in what you're dabbling in.

Simply put, your domain name will become an auto traffic filter and gets you only the right type of prospects you need with which you're likely to convert more sales and make more money.

2. Short is Lucrative, but Long is Profitable Too!

If you'd done some research on domain name tips before you come in here, many a time you would have read about making your domain name short so that people can easily remember and visit your website often, rendering your more opportunities to make more money online.

Well, generally it should be the case, but not always. You have the choice, actually. And the opposite could sometimes profit you even more... if you get it right.

Let's run through the benefits of having a short domain name just in case you've forgotten or new to this, before we go into why a long domain name can be extremely profitable as well (if you get it right).

Short domain names like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, ... what do they have in common?

They're short (of course!). But also they're catchy, memorable and roll off the tongue. Now, usually short domain names will encompass these characteristics. And it's really cool to make people easily remember your domain name so that they can easily go to your website as and when they feel the need or urge to, or they just want to get on your website to kill time.

However, based on the trend of recent years, more webmasters chose long domain names as their preferred traffic driver, especially the marketing experts. Why?

So that they can jab benefits into the domain name.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that it should be so long that causes fingers cramp when people type it out. It should be "logically and comfortably long" such that not only it descriptively spells out the benefits but also pretty memorable to certain extent.

For example, InternetMarketingHacker.com, or SuperAffiliateHandbook.com.

See the benefits in them? Don't you find them self-explanatory?

These 2 domains are coined by Internet marketing experts. The former tells you it's about breaking the Internet marketing code. So, if you want to learn the behind-the-curtain tricks and win your online marketing war, you would definitely want to go there. The latter tells you it's a guide for someone who wants to become a super affiliate by promoting other people's products online. If you're doing affiliate marketing now, you will want to own this guide to learn the rope and become a super affiliate yourself.

Many gurus have used (and are still using) this benefit-driven tactics in domain name for one simple reason... it works! And the positive effect is phenomenal!

If someone says long domain name doesn't work, well, this is the proof against that statement.

Admittedly, some people tend to forget long domain names and might run into typo pretty often.

However, gurus still happily prefer doing that because nothing is further from the truth that long domain names produce immeasurably fantastic results and rock out more sales for them.

So the secret behind creating a long yet highly profitable domain name is to make sure the benefit is powerful enough for people to want to find out further what's in it for them, thereby not forgetting the name so easily.

But how long do you consider just nice?

It's pretty difficult to gauge this because the standard varies among different people. For my case, I'll try to keep my domain names less than 30 characters (including the .com extension).

I mean, most importantly you should honestly express the benefits to your targeted audience. That should be the bottom line.

You can follow this tactic (if you want) to generate a concise benefit-driven domain name. For example, I'm selling a quit-smoking kit. So the first thing I'll want to ask myself is "How will the smokers benefit from my kit?" I'll just type out the benefits first then I'll trim the sentence up to make it shorter:-

"Smokers will be able to quit smoking in 7 hours with no side effects at all".

I can't make that entire sentence into my domain name so I'll just extract the key benefit which is 'quit smoking in 7 hours'. Then I'll go register QuitSmokingIn7Hours.com or 7HoursToQuitSmoking.com, etc.

Get the idea? Good.

Wait, how about getting a domain name that's not only benefit-driven, but short plus relevant? Tall order?

Honestly, it's not easy though, but it's not difficult either.

All you need is squeeze out every ounce of your innovative juice and stretch your creativity to brainstorm for one. No such thing as "The good names have all been taken up!" Not true.

A good example - iNotFat.com. The owner is clever in a way that the name doesn't sound like a stereotypical kind like 'burn fat' or 'lose weight' or whatever, but yet it conveys the right message to the right audience - the weight loss seeker.

That's what I called short, relevant and benefit-driven plus... creative, making it easier for people to remember. However, if you don't want to kill too much of your brain cells by stretching creativity, simply apply the direct approach as in the "quit smoking" example. Though long, it works just as good. Or even better.

3. SEO Your Domain Name

This simply means optimize your domain name for search engine.

When search engine users query some keywords or key phrases, search engines will scan through all web pages including the URL (where the domain name sits) for the queried keywords, then return lists of results and rank those web pages according to their relevancy and importance.

That said, embracing your domain name with queried keywords will add some weight to the relevancy of the topic being searched for, and this may result in your web page getting ranked a few hundred positions higher than those whose web pages' URL do not contain the queried keywords.

For example, someone enters 'how to go about becoming vegetarian' in Google, and if your domain name, more appropriately, your URL contains the keyword 'vegetarian', your site or web page will definitely rank higher on the search results page (based on the queried keywords) than hundreds of other web pages that do not contain the queried keywords.

But do understand this, certain web pages (on the search engine results page) that do not contain queried keywords in their URL may still rank higher than those whose URLs contain the queried keywords. Reason - search engines like Google rank pages not based solely on relevance, but importance as well.

If all other things being equal, and your domain name bears the queried keywords, you'll definitely gain stronger edge over your competitors.

The effect of better ranking will improve your website exposure on search engines, thereby unexpectedly pull in online visitors for free.

Tip: You can use this free popular keyword research tool to help you uncover the top hottest search queries. See if what you offer matches the world's interest so that you can include those popular keywords in your domain name to make them more searchable by search engine users.

4. Brand It!

Coca cola, McDonald's, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft... all these are company names, so are their domain names. If you're branding your business on the web, then making your company name your domain name is your best profitable bet.

If your company name carries benefit, of course... that would make it more powerful. Bonus!

5. .Com Rules!

.com is always the first extension that most people try when searching for a website... so if you don't have good reasons for not getting a .com extension, then you're leaving tons of money on the table.

But here's what I do need to clarify. You should register your domain name with .com ONLY IF you're targeting the global market, although more than 75% of domains are .com.

If you're dealing with hard goods, probably you'll only want to target locally instead of globally.

For example, let's say you're residing in Singapore and you want to sell your products to the locals only, then getting a .com.sg or .sg extension will be a better option.

Other than .com, you may also want to add on a .tv extension if you're doing podcasting where your site is full of videos and multimedia stuff, or others like .info, .net, .biz etc depending on the nature and theme of your business that will make sense to your audience.

6. Generic or Specific?

Whether you want your domain name to be generic or specific will largely depend on who you're targeting.

Let's say you're selling home theater systems and accessories, you might want to give a generic name like HomeTheater4Fanatics.com, for example.

But if you're targeting only a niche group of people who specifically looks for home theater speaker system, then a more specific name like HomeTheaterSpeaker4U.com will fit better.

There's no right or wrong as to whether your domain name should be specific or generic. Like I said earlier, it depends on what you're selling and who you're targeting.

An appropriate domain name that fits your business model will get you the right audience and raise the bar of sales conversion. Bear in mind.

7. How Many Years You Should Register

Blame it on those "fly-by-night" scammers and domain squatters (aka cybersquatters), Google and other search engines are using the number of years of domain registration as one of the many guidelines to determine how quality a website is.

If you register for only a year, they'll "see" you as a likely scammer who would go around ripping people off and get away with it after a year and then sign up for another domain name to continue your scheming act, even though you may not be one.

That said, should you register for 2 years and above up front?

What if you don't like that domain name? You'll be wasting money although it's cheap (less than 10 bucks a year).

Hmm... what I normally do is if the domain name sounds good to me but I somehow feel there should be one that's better, to prevent others from "stealing" it, I would go grab it first by paying for one year only. Then if a better one comes up and I feel it's what I exactly want, then that I'll register for 2 years or longer.

You might wonder, if it's not exactly what I want, why would I want to grab it in the first place?

Experience tells me that sometimes, it may not sound so alright at first, but when it sounds alright to you all of a sudden, that domain name could have already been taken up by others. So, grab it fast if you don't want to lose it.

Grab your cash-generating domain name now!