Why Do You Need A Domain Name?

· Increases your name recognition

· Makes it easy for your customers to remember your address

· Indicates you are a serious Internet player

· Helps brand your image

· Adds a level of trust and integrity to your site

· Many search engines refuse to list pages from free sites

· Some search engines will only index the first page of a domain site

· Domain names containing 'keywords' aid in higher search engine ranking

· Allows you to use your domain address (www.yourname.com) and virtual email addresses ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) on your business cards and letterhead

· Once a domain name has been registered, it is no longer available. The most popular and easily-remembered domain names are being reserved daily, at the rate of one domain name every 5 seconds!
At that rate, in the near future, only obscure domain names will be available to the general public.

· Avoids somebody else from registering the name you want.

· Lets you change your current email provider and still keep the same email address

· Protects your Internet advertising investment from failure of your Internet Service Provider

How to Select A Domain Name:

· Make it as short as possible

· Make it memorable

· Make it easy to spell

· Make it pronounceable

· Make it a name you can brand

· Make it non-confusable with another domain name

· Make it not conflict with an existing trademark

· Make it easy to say

· Make it trust-worthy, not off-beat (i.e. a .com instead of a .to or .ws)

· Make it directly related to either your business name or

· Make it directly related to keywords from your industry or

· Make it descriptive of your site's content

· Consider multiple domain names:

· Obtain similar names to avoid competitors confusing your customers

· Obtain misspellings of your domain name to keep competitors from taking advantage of misspellings

· Obtain names for future offerings (services or products)

· Link to your main site from additional domains to aid in your search engine ranking (major search engines use link popularity in their ranking algorithms)