Hello,

Based on my experience this is one of the hardest decisions when starting a project.

Best case scenario:
- to have a name rather short and domain to be also available (over .com, or if is for a local market maybe something as .co.uk depending on country)
- name must be easily to be spell
- it's optional (sometime even not recommended) to have name related to branch of activity; SEO is important but it's not everything...
- name should be somehow attractive, exciting, "sexy"... let's remember "skype" or similar...

Always are two choices:
- try to find an available domain name
- try to negotiate for a domain you want with a domain owner (who is interested on selling); Is hard to say how much to invest into domains, first choice would be always to try to find a good/decent free option, only if seems to be no option try to negotiate with someone else.

Also, would be good to secure similar domain names (over .net, .info; or if you have a domain as domain.com try also registering domains.com) if are free for registering.

After selecting a name and registering domain would be good to establish branding side: logo, slogan, some graphic guidelines for site layout, aso...

I couldn't agree with you more! You all the time see domains up for sale that mean absolutely nothing like:


0ss.com
j01.com
mdq.org
tah.net
u1a.net
w0g.com
w0g.net
21ct.net
4ran.com
6565.biz
69zy.com
923p.com


What's the point? Just because there are few characters, doesn't mean more visitors. The name actually has to "mean" something. Like the name of this site for example. "AdminBuzz" says it all don't you think? "Buzz" is a perfect sales and marketing term that says a lot without having to actually say alot.

I guess that's why all of these names are for sale.
I don't think they're worth much.

I invite someone to prove me wrong.

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So true, if I said Bungie.net to you, would you instantly think hit First Person Shooter on the Xbox 360 if you'd never heard of them before? Nope.

The word 'sexy' in domain names generally turns me away from the site, since it normally means... well...
Umm, let's put it this way. Here in the UK we have a 'thing' () called a chav, which is basically someone who has a low IQ and thinks they're 'hard' and makes up 80% of most schools (except the ones you pay for). If I saw someone had added me on MSN, with the email 'sxcb17chhotty@hotmail.com' what do I instantly think? "Ugh, this person obviously thinks way too much of themselves, *declines*.

Or, to put it another way, nobody with a brain uses 'sexy' in their domain name unless they a modelling site, porn site or something similar... =P


Also, Def, those aren't even worth paying money for, since coming across one of them during a search is pretty damn hard, is it not?

By "sexy" i ment something which sounds good... As "skype", "google", "yahoo", aso...

Sorry for missunderstanding...