What Makes a Good Domain Name?

A domain name is the name of your web site. For example, this web site's domain name is 20MinuteWebBusiness.com.

A good web site domain name has these characteristics. It:

• Is short
• Is easy to recall
• Tells what your site is about
• Offers a benefit
• Can be trademarked

The best domains are often those that end in .com because that's what people have learned to associate with the web.

Nowadays, it's hard to find a domain name that fits all of those criteria. One reason is that millions of people have already acquired domain names. Another is that speculators have come along. I call them "scalpers" because they are like ticket scalpers: they buy up domain names, sometimes for twenty cents, and resell them for hundreds, thousands or millions of dollars.

Your 20 Minute Task

However, all is not lost. To get a list of good domain names, spend your next 20 minutes using the following techniques. Try to spend only about three or four minutes on each if you want to get through all of them in twenty minutes.

Get Free Domain Name Suggestions

• Get a piece of paper and jot down all the domain name ideas you can in three minutes. Use the keywords and benefits you created earlier. If you have an existing business for which you want to build a web site, be sure to include its name on the list.
• There are a few great tools on the web to help you find a domain name for your web site. Start with domain-suggestions.domaintools.com. In the box labeled "Enter your desired domain name or product concept" type in one of your domain name ideas or one of the keywords or phrases on your Google list. (If you type in a phrase, put quotation marks around it, as in "search phrase".) Look at the suggestions to see if any of the domain names is terrific. If so, you've struck gold. If not, try some of your other keywords.
• Next try www.domainsbot.com.
• If you still don't find a great domain name, try www.NameBoy.com. Type in a word in the "Primary" and "Secondary" boxes, then click the "go nameboy go!" button. Note that NameBoy may sometimes show a name as "available" when it is not.

When you're done, glance through the lists quickly and cross out any names that don't appeal to you personally. At the end of 20 minutes, you should have a list of potential domain names for your new web site. If you feel you want more choices, come back and repeat this 20 minute task using other keywords and phrases.