The truth is that a good domain is the most valuable digital asset you can have and it’s easy to lose it too if you don’t know how to manage it successfully.
Are you in a hurry to read further but to ahead and register a domain name for your internet business? No problems!
Click here to go to NameCheap registrar where to register a domain name
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What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is a website URL (universal resource locator) which represents an IP address on the World Wide Web. It could be a word, phrase, alphanumeric or numbers only that takes you to a specific website when you type it on your browser’s address bar or by following a hyperlink text where the URL is embedded.
For example, HustleVim.com is a domain name with the .com extension or TLD (top level domain). When you type it on your browser, it may take you to a landing page, content website or parked page depending on who the incumbent owner is as at the time you’re reading this blog post.
As a beginner or newbie, you should know that registering a domain which has a high value is really building a solid and strong foundation for your web business. This is why domain flipping business will continue to be a viable and booming business in the near and remote future.
You’ll discover that domain flippers or investors are constantly buying and selling domain names on the internet because a premium domain name can be used for branding and promotion with ease by startups or existing business that wants to upgrade.
Characteristics of a Good Domain Name
Before you can classify a name as poor, good or best domain, you’ve to look at a lot of qualities it possesses. The qualities of a good domain name are many and I’ll outline it here for your perusal. But you’ve to understand that no one domain name can possess all of these characteristics of a good domain name.
In any case, a good domain should have most of these qualities:
- Short
- Memorable
- Passes the radio test
- Brandable
- Not prone to misspelling
- No trademark infringement
- Commercially viable
- Rich in target keyword
- No numbers, symbols, hyphen or dash
- Easy to remember, type and pronounce
- Marketable
A good domain name should be able to say something about the topic of your web business without necessarily explaining it to someone. Again, if you own https://hustlevim.com, any visitor to the website should favorably expect to read about side hustle business ideas, all things being equal.
The only exception to not register keyword domain is when you want to invest in a brandable domain name. In this case, the business goal of this type of domain is essentially for branding and to simplify online user experience in some way. But huge advertising budget has to be made available in order to be able to create brand awareness as quickly as possible.
Domain Name Registration Tips
It’s quite simple and easy to register a domain name. All you’ve to do is to visit your preferred domain registrar and use their domain name availability checker to confirm if your desired name is taken or not. I can tell you most of the time that the name you want to register will not be available for registration especially if you’re hunting for the .com extension.
NameCheap.com always makes it easy to buy a domain name from their web site. Also, it will make possible suggestions as well for other domain name ideas you can run with. You can quickly evaluate it and decide if you’ve to buy a domain name suggested to you on the spot.
Click here to go to NameCheap official site and type your domain name idea into the search box. You’ve to wait for few seconds after clicking the search button to get the results. If it’s available, you’ll be given the opportunity to add it to your cart before checking out.
I’ll advise you to sign up with NameCheap now before you start checking for available domains so that you can quickly register your domain on the spot if it is available. At every point in time, one or two aspiring online entrepreneurs and domain investors are thinking and generating the same domain ideas as you and me are doing. And domain name registration is on first come, first served basis. So, don’t allow another smart online business owner or domain flipper to beat you to the game.
Even if you’re not building a website or creating a blog on your domain, you can reserve it for later use. Sometime ago, while I was planning to start web hosting reseller business, I went online to check for a domain name I have in mind. As luck would have it, it was available for hand registration.
But guess what happened? I vacillated to register it on the spot and the next time I checked it has been registered by someone else! You should not let this happen to you. I can actually inhibit your motivation to start an online business if you cannot find a choice name to brand with.
Types of Domain Names
These types of domain names depend on the way you want to classify them. Broadly, you’ve:
- EMD (exact match domain)
- Keyword domain with action word or phrase attached
- Brandable domain name
- Product or service domain name
Exact Match Domain (EMD)
EMD is a domain name that is registered with a target keyword in it “as is.” Registering “side hustle business” (i.e. SideHustleBusiness.com) in that order as a domain name is an example of EMD because it’s a searchable keyword phrase if you look it up with keyword research tool.
If you get a domain as EMD and you’re able to build a website or create a blog on it with high quality content, you’ll be miles ahead of the competition. And if you optimize your blog or website and target low-competitive keyword phrases, you can rank higher on the SERP (search engine results pages) over time.
Keyword Domain
This is a domain with the target search query plus a descriptive word or phrase attached to it. For instance, HustleVim.com has “hustle” as the target word with “vim” attached to it to get a domain in this niche market.
Since, EMD are hard to find and register these days, people are getting more creative by appending action word or phrase to search terms to get a domain. Although there may not be outright SEO benefits accruing to keyword domain, I believe it can help in conversion because prospects and leads will have an idea of what the purpose of the website is.
Brandable Domain
Brandable domain name is creative in nature and it can help in future growth and expansion. It could be invented, blended, playing on a letter/word in the domain, and the like. A good example of a brandable name is Google.com. This is not an English word but invented which has become a household name and synonymous with search engine on the World Wide Web today.
Also, a lot of brandables have become popular in some way. Let’s take Lyft.com domain name as an example. What the owners did was to replace letter “i” with letter “y” and you’ll still come up with the same pronunciation of “lift.” This can be seen as deliberate misspelling in order to come up with something that is unique and brandable.
Some domains owners do go to the extent of dropping a letter from English words e.g. Tumblr.com instead of Tumbler.com where the letter “e” is conspicuously missing. To be frank with you, getting these types of domain names is like searching for a needle in a haystack in today’s tech world.
Product or Service Domain Name
This type of a domain name refers to specific but generic product or service name. If you own HairShampoo.com, you’ll fall into this category. Product domain name should not be confused with EMD or keyword domain because there is a thin line of difference.
A lot of domain investors scooped up lots of these domains in the early days of the internet and they use it as type-in traffic.
Domain Name Life Cycle
A domain name life cycle refers to the states a domain is assigned during its life time. As soon as a domain is registered and paid for, it enters an active status. This will, however, depends on the number of years it was paid for up to a maximum of 10 years on a row.
To break down the domain states, we have:
- Active status
- Renewal grace period
- Redemption period
- Pending delete
- Deleted or expired or available status
Active Status
A domain name is in active state when its period of registration or renewal has not expired. For instance, if I register a domain name for one year period on January 1, it is going to be active until the anniversary day of my first registration.
During this period, web services (both free and paid) being offered by the registrar which are related to this domain name should work properly without any encumbrance. This includes URL forwarding, email forwarding, updating or changing domain name severs (DNS), and so on.
If you’ve a valuable domain name which you don’t want to lose for any reason, it’s always advisable to set your domain to auto-renew in your account with the registrar. As long as your checking account is funded, you’ll have no problem renewing your domain name since it will become automatic.
With your domain name in active status, you’ll be able to build a website or create a blog on it. Yes, just register a domain name and get web hosting and you’re good to start a blog and make money blogging online.
Renewal Grace Period
For some reasons best known to an incumbent domain owner, a domain name can lapse and enter into renewal grace period at some point in time. This is about 30 days or so (it depends on your registrar anyway) after the domain active status ceases because the owner eventually failed to renew it in order to bring it to an active state again.
As it were, the incumbent domain owner can still renew it at the normal domain renewal price without paying any surcharge. This is the best time to renew and reclaim your digital asset if it is valuable to you without paying through the nose.
Redemption Period
Redemption period is a state of a domain name after the renewal grace period lapses. At this time, the current owner cannot get the domain back without paying restoration fees because the registrar must have requested the domain to be deleted from the registry.
For a domain name you should have renewed for only $10, you may end up paying as much as $120 to get it back via restoration. And most times, it’s a 50/50 chance of recovery because domain backorder services may also snap it up before your registrar does.
Pending Delete Status
Pending delete state is usually a 5 day period when the domain name is finally removed from the registry by deletion. What this means is that the name will become available for hand registration at the regular price.
But more often than not, a valuable domain name may have been backordered which will preclude it from dropping. A lot of these types of domain names go to auctions and closeout for buyers to pick up and purchase for a winning bid.
Where to Register a Domain Name
Domain registrars and their resellers are saddled with the responsibilities of registering and managing domain names in their custody. For you to be on the safe side, it’s advisable to sign up with ICANN accredited domain registrar.
Also, web hosting companies carry out the business of domain name registration as well. If you want to buy a domain name and purchase web hosting at the same time and place to start your own business online, you can get that from a reliable web host like HostGator. They will give you a free domain name of your choice when you sign up for their web hosting services.
Otherwise, you can go with domain registrar like NameCheap.com to purchase a domain name. This is how to check availability of a domain name.
First, click here to use the domain name search box on NameCheap’s website.
Then, go ahead and type in your domain name idea into the search field. This feature also doubles as domain name generator because it will suggest a lot of other domain name ideas to choose from in case your name is not available to register.
You can go through the list of domains to see if any of the ideas appeal to you and buy it before someone else does.
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