Some criteria for picking a name:

• Branding: A memorable domain name that reinforces the company identity.
• Easy Typing: All else being equal, a short name is best for type-in access.
• SEO Optimized: For a small boost in search engine ranking, some experts advice incorporate your subject in the domain name of the web site. A longer descriptive name may be called for.
• The Extension: If at all possible, use the .com extension especially if type-in traffic is expected. Some experts suggest the resale value of a .com name is x5 to x10 that of any other extension.

Bear in mind that millions of domains are already in use by existing sites, or parked in limbo by domain speculators, all 3 character names and all words in the dictionary for .com are taken. You may have to be quite creative in coming up with the domain name.

There are online tools to speed the process of discovering an available name, these tools can check the availability of a number of variations of a chosen name by adding sufixes, hyphens, and trying different extensions (.com, .net, .org etc.).  these tools can help the creative process by generation a bunch of variations to choose from (the 1000 monkey typist approach)

As a test case we used a smart name finder to investigate the availability of the ideal name namefinder.com and it’s variations. Entering 3 words and selecting “smart” words additions option yielded 309 available domain names in a single search. (Of these, only rare 2 .com names were found.)

Some of the automated search hilites: namefinderwizard.com, name-finder.org, name-genius.biz, namemanship.biz, namemaster.biz, nameexpert.us, namewizard.us, clevernamefinder.us,  geniusnamefinder.us

web master benefits is the newest site I’ve used, they offer a variety tools included: expired, pending expired lists and a user defined domain list watch function. Their domain name generator, used in the above test offers a rich number of options, and can test a few hundred names at once.

NameBoy.com also generates hundreds of names at a time, showing results in a compact tabulated form, but picks it’s own alternate words, unlike some tools which offer categories of added words to choose from.

DomainsBot.com offers a novel tool that generates and looks up 500 variations in one shot, it’s a bit daunting to read through the results, but way better then hand entering your guesses one at a time.

One of the biggest and generally recommended domain registration companies is GoDaddy.com be sure to search the web for discount coupon codes before buying. There has been some discussion by operators of risky, high complaint sites regarding the godaddy policy of charging a $75 administration fee for dealing with complaints about the site’s activities. Perhaps not an issue for normal operators, you can read more at No Daddy.

Another domain name registrant that apparently just passes complaints on to the operator is NameCheap.com they apparently just pass complaints on to the site operator, instead of intervening for a fat service charge. They currently offer confidential registration for no additional charge.

When purchasing your domain name, consider paying for multiple years, it’s an indication of anticipated long life, the search engine’s add ranking points to sites that are committed to the long run, unlike short lived scammer sites.

This Private/Confidential registration service hides your contact information from casual web surfers by acting as a proxy. Normally the owner’s name,  mailing address and phone number are available to anyone who chooses to lookup the Whois info. Be aware that some potential customers verify an online store’s credability by checking their Whois info, it may be a plus to make a business’s information public. Search the web for NameCheap coupon codes to save $0.79.

By the way, Google is an ICANN Registrar which gives them the power to pierce the anonymous whois protection, I don’t know if they routinely do, but it expose gamers who own multiple sites on multiple domains linking to one another for link ranking.

It is generally recommended to not invest too heavily in the domain name included in a web hosting bundle, often there is a high renewal fee or restrictions that can interfere with your business, check the provider’s terms. It’s generally safer to register a domain name separately, using it with a hosting package that allows multiple domains, using the bundled domain for personal, less mission critical purposes.

Elevate Your Site’s Ranking with a Domain Seasoned Name.

If you have a well funded web project that needs a fast start, consider buying a pre-existing domain name either directly from the current owner or when it had just expired. A mature domain name is carries more weight with the search engines,  a virgin name may require a considerable promotion effort and some time to match the ranking of existing domains. One can look up the ranking and incoming link count for an existing name.  Professional speculators, domainers tend to have the inside line on important expiring domains. Often one had to go through a broker to obtain a desirable domain name. There are a number of brokers, Sedo is a big one, another is deleteddomains.com.  One domain name blog that discusses the biggest sales and latest expired-available names is dnExpert.

A record selling price for domain with great type in traffic was 14 Million for Sex.com, the online magazine Men.com bought that domain name for 1.3 Million.

An old domain name might have a good ranking, but a shady history and reputation you might not want to get involved in, in addition to googling the prospect name for old discussions, you can check in with the Way Back Machine which maintains various age archive copies of significant sites.

The number of incoming links (and the quality of the linking sites) is a key criteria for determining a search engine results ranking (SERP). To check the incoming links to and existing site you might be buying, enter this search form in google or yahoo: link:domainName.com (with no spaces) yahoo seems to return a more comprehensive list of links.

This site’s name: WorkHomeBusiness.org, was selected as part of an experiment testing the effect of key word phrases in a domain name, the bad grammer is a may be too literal copy of a hi ranking phrase.  Some “Gurus” suggest that in addition to inserting your site’s focus keyword in the page title, bodty text and meta lists, the domain name should include the keywords. Words in sub directory parts of a path are said to contribute to a lesser degree.  bobsPieStore.com/Cherry-Pie.html