You now have your "short list" of domain names. In the best situations, the names tell what your site is about. They may contain a keyword, a benefit, your trademark or some other way to make them memorable and easy to find for your customers.

Survey Potential Customers for Their Preferences

Next, you need to check with some people, preferably "customers" or "potential customers" in your chosen niche, and ask them which name appeals most to them. Get on the phone, go to your bricks and mortar store, visit the library and ask patrons, go to the nearest shopping mall and ask shoppers, send out some email to customers who've given you permission. Do whatever you have to do to find out from your customers or potential customers which ones they like.

Here's an example. We chose some possible names for the 20MinuteWebBusiness.com site. We asked six people for their opinions in the 20 minutes we allocated to our task. Here is the tally:

TwentyMinuteWebBusiness.com	1
20MinuteWebBusiness.com	2
20MinuteBusiness.com	2
OneHourWebMarketer.com	1

The tally shows that 20MinuteWebBusiness.com and 20MinuteBusiness.com are tied, but it's not the numbers that tell the story. There aren't enough votes to have much weight. It's the comments from potential users that matter. Even though using a number in a domain name is usually not as good as using a word, they wanted something faster to type. The number also stuck in their minds better. Putting in the word "Web" made the name longer, but one user found it more natural because this site is about web business, not just any business.

Your 20 Minute Task

Contact as many people in your niche as you can in 20 minutes. Tell them you're choosing a name for your site and would appreciate their opinion. When you've asked several customers about your domain names, you'll probably have a feel for what works and what doesn't.

Once you've completed this task, try to get to the next 20 minute task, which is to sign up for web hosting, as soon as possible. You don't want someone else to take your domain name before you have a chance to register it.