The first thing I always do when building a new brand is to pick out a great domain name. It may seem odd to pick out a domain name before anything else, but this is the one place where you must stake a claim and stick to it. You’re going to have to live with your domain name for a long time and it is the first impression that your business makes on a new buyer, so you have to get it right.
What is Godaddy?
For registering a domain name, we always use GoDaddy.com – World’s No.1 Domain Registrar .
GoDaddy is a domain name registrar. Essentially, this is a company that registers and holds your domain name for you. It is like the telephone company for your phone number: You have to have one in order to have a phone number.
While the company has a funny name, they’ve been around forever, I’ve never had a problem with their domain name services and their interface is fast and easy. After you create an account, their domain registration process is quick and nearly automatic.
Selecting a Domain Name: New or Used?
Years ago, getting a great domain name was easy, but it has become much more difficult. The internet has become crowded!
There are basically two kinds of domain names: new and used.
New names are those that are not currently registered to anyone. It is quick and easy to register a domain name that nobody else holds. If that’s your plan, you can jump straight to the search box:
Unlimited potential. Unlimited names. .COM’s just $9.99 each!
Alternatively, you can try to purchase a domain name that has already been registered.
Some are registered by folks who are using them. They are unlikely to sell you their domain name. You can check whether a domain name is currently being used simply by opening the page in your web browser.
However, some domains are held by investors who hold the name only so they can sell it to you. These are sometimes called “squatters.” If a domain name is not being used, it will sometimes have a “for sale” sign on the home page. In that case, you can click on the link and go through the process of trying to purchase it.
Typically, if you do a search on GoDaddy and someone is holding a domain name for re-sale or has listed a domain name for sale, it will either return a search result that includes a price, an ongoing auction, or simply a note that the name is registered. If you want to buy the name at the listed price or bid on the auction, it is straightforward. Follow the GoDaddy links and purchase the name.
If there is just a note, then the name is probably in use and unlikely to be for sale, but you can always try. You can try going to the home page of the domain and look for contact info. If there is none and you want to find the owner of a name to try to purchase it directly, that is a bit more complicated. We’ll write a future post on how to do this.
While you can certainly purchase a domain name from a squatter, they will typically charge between hundreds and thousands of dollars for really good ones. Keep in mind, they are playing the lottery and want to win big. They buy a lot of names and hold them for years, so they need to sell a few of those names each year for big bucks.
Creating a New Domain Name
So, instead, to buy a new name, you have to get creative. I like to use thesaurus.com to find great words that get my concept across and are memorable for the visitor.
These days, a good name is a two or short three-word domain name that captures your main product or service concept in the first word and something about how you deliver in the second word. If you can encapsulate your “brand promise” – what your customer wants – in your domain name, you’ve found a great name.
Alternatively, nonsense domain names have become popular. The travel site Trivago comes to mind. What does it mean? Nothing. But I remembered the name and it does sound vaguely kinetic, like it might go somewhere…
Race to the Finish Line
Once you’ve found a great domain name, register it quickly. If it really is a good name, it may only briefly be available before someone else registers it, either for their business or for the inherent value in the name.
After you’ve got your name, you have a brand to build, so get to it: $.99 .COM
