Choosing a domain name involves a lot of thought these days. It is no longer quite as simple as “mycompanyname.com”. URLs ending in .net and .org are now commonplace, and with new Top-Level-Domains (TLDs) that are now available, people can get creative with domains.

For example, CatalystHub also owns the domain “www.catalysthub.tv”. Down the road we plan to do podcasting, hence the use of the “.tv” TLD. Although to be clear, the “.tv” extension does not indicate television, “.TV” is for the island of Tivoli – an atoll that is actually sinking into the ocean a little bit more each year. However, since most people think of “.tv” as television, we thought it would be a great way to showcase our podcasts, as well as give money to the government of Tivoli who gets a percentage of the domain sales each year

In addition to thinking about your company name, you should also be considering relevant keywords or your brand image. I am currently working with a start-up non-profit organization called “Kindscapes”. In addition to “Kindscapes.org”, we also purchased “Kindscapes-LiveGently.com” so that we could incorporate their tagline into the domain name.

My favorite place to test out domain names is http://ajaxwhois.com/. Unlike most sites, this provides real-time feedback as to the availability of a particular domain name. The downside is that once you’ve found the perfect URL, you’ll need to go to another site such as http://www.godaddy.com in order to register it.

Alternatively, you can go to GoDaddy or Network Solutions directly, or to any other site of your choice that offers domain availability research. For Canadian registrations, I recommend: http://www.domainsatcost.ca. (Note: You’ll notice there are no trackbacks on any of those recommendations. I do not receive anything from either company for recommending them. These are my personal opinions based on 15 years of domain ownership.)

I cannot stress this enough: If you have found an available URL that suits your company and/or your brand, buy it immediately! As noted by Network Solutions, there are over 500,000 domains registered on a daily basis. There is a good chance that a name you find available today may be gone when you return tomorrow or next week.

If the name you want is taken, there are other options. You can go back to the drawing board and start again, or you can attempt to purchase the domain name from the current owner. There are many companies out there that offer this type of service for a fee. The fee can range from $20 – $100 or more, and this covers only the administration of the sale itself. The company charges this fee to contact the owner of the domain and negotiate a sale on your behalf. The owner of the domain is free to set any price they choose, and it will be up to you to determine whether or not you are willing to pay the price.

If you are a well-established company and it is imperative that you have “yourname.com” as your website, you may find the cost is within your budget. But don’t be surprised if the owner’s asking price is in the thousands – some premium domains have even sold for millions.

For companies that are just starting out, you can choose to go with “yourbrand.com” instead. This approach may save you costly domain sale and transfer fees.

As more and more people become power-users on the web, domain names that take advantage of search engine optimization by using keywords in the URL will become more commonplace and sites such as www.we-sell-comfortable-socks.com will be just as normal as “www.hanes.com”.

Purchasing a domain may seem simple at first, but there really is a lot that goes into it. As with everything else related to how you market your brand, think carefully about your domain name and the image that you wish to convey. And don’t forget: you can always have more than 1 domain name!

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