Every day there are hundreds of thousands of domains registered, and that’s just with the ‘.com’ extension. As a blogger, you’ll have probably registered a domain before, and although Teenwebguru touched on this matter in his post, this article will contain some of the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of registering domains to get you on your way to making the right domaining decisions.
Do’s
Get a ‘.com’ or ‘.net’ domain – I say this for one simple reason: they’re the best. Lets say someone forgot my URL, but remembered ‘Teenius’. The first thing they’re going to do is try ‘teenius.com’, so by picking a different extension you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
Find a brandable domain – I must admit, this is easier said than done, but if you can find yourself a brandable domain then it’s not only a good investment for the future, but also a powerful branding tool.
Research – This is a matter that is close to my heart (and this blog). You should always research the past history of the domain before you buy it. For example, my mistake was to not take this step, and it turns out that ‘Teenius’ was infact a film back in 2007, so as you can imagine I’ve had to battle with all of those search engine results before I even start on the more competitive keywords!
Use a reputable registrar – The registrar is one of the most important parts of registering a domain, and would be compared to the nerve centre of the operation. Yes, price is important, but for the sake of a few dollars it’s better to go with a known registrar that has a good support department, incase you need it at some stage.
Don’ts
Buying copyrighted domains – This is a problem I’ve seen many newbie domainers and webmasters face. They see that a popular brand has left a domain that is in someway related. Well, if you haven’t already done this… don’t! It makes the domain worthless and, should you choose to develop it into a site, you could get in serious legal trouble.
Having more than 3 words – The general rule of thumb with domain buying is to keep it as short as possible. I try to register one or two word domains, but I never go over three words, and I would recommend that you don’t either.
Buy a ‘.info’ – OK, maybe it’s just me, but in my opinion these are the worst domains in the world. They are spammy, and I’ve never seen a good/popular site built on a ‘.info’… don’t be taken in by the cheap price; they’re like that for a reason.
Following those rules (and of course reading the other posts in the ‘Domains’ category), you should hopefully be able to find a domain that is not only good for you, but is also a good investment for the future.
If you have anything to say, or would just like to leave a comment, please feel free to submit one below. If you liked this post, please click one of the icons below to share it with other people who might enjoy it, too!
This is an awesome guide.
One of my friends bought a .info and that too it had iweb in it, which is a trademark, he had to give it up
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Haha, so he did 2 things wrong! lol, unlucky!
Thanks for the kind words: )
Nice Post..
to be very honest, at some points You are beating about the bush again and again from last couple of posts.. Or its just me who thinks..
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Thanks for your comment. Hmm, I wouldn’t say the posts are related in any way? Yes, they touch upon the same principle and the posts are laid out in the same way, but the points made are quite different
Was just my opinion..
I was especially pointing out like dont buy a .info or find a brandable domain.. I feel lke, they are being repeated so much. Or maybe because teenwebguru had also a post like that some days ago.
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Yeah, I accept your point, thanks for the constructive criticism
I just felt that if I left them out, people would only say it in the comments anyway, so I felt it was better to try and cover all the neccessary points in the post. I probably could have gone on, but for a newbie webmaster I think these tips are the most important.
Good information here Simon. It never hurts to go over the fundamentals. It helps the newbies as well as the more experienced!
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Thanks for the kind words, Keith. I’m trying to do posts that will be relevant to the current visitors (semi experienced bloggers), but at the same time useful to those who are new to the scene.
I do have a ‘Back To Basics’ series planned though, so hopefully that will help some people transform their blogs and also give some newbies a few vital pointers
That is a great idea! Look forward to that series!
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Great post Teenius. I agree with the points in this. I remember that many people got sued for a lot of many when they bought a brand name URL. Thanks for pointing that out.
You said in the comment above you were making a series. I can’t wait.(:
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I think (don’t quote me on it), the company will usually just get the domain taken off you, but there could be a fine involved if you develop the site and make money using their brand.
The series should be good, but I’m not sure whether to release it as an ebook or as blog posts. What are your views?
Depends on the tone and quality of the articles. If they are totally formal and against my post of Conversational Writing.. then they must be in an e-book.
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Great post ! I would always recommend a .com domain. The Keywords of the domain hold great importance. And a good registerar plays a great role.
And as you said the domain should be a maximum of 3 words. A big domain name can also affect the traffic. Really great post Simon
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Thanks for the comment, Harish.
I think your domain is excellent as it has what the blog is about (blogging), and then your unique selling point (you being a kid).
Hello Teenius.
I think you’ve done a great job covering everything that needs to be covered about domains, and you’ve done a good job..
Nice post.
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Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed the post
I don’t know about that last one about .infos. I’ve seen lots of site even web apps that were built on an info. They’re cheap to buy first month but after that they’re expensive or normal price so I don’t see the point but still don’t discount a domain because of what spammers do with them.
I don’t think it’s just me who’s branding the info as a spam domain, and I’m not intentionally sterotypicalising all people who own a info domain, so sorry if it came across that way. That said, I’m sure the vast majority of people will trust a .com/.net over a .info – I know I certainly would
this is very helpful information…
but i think .info domains are becoming famous these days..
just because the are cheap it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be bought…
Regards..
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Thanks for the comment, glad you found the article helpful.
Yes, the info extension is becoming more and more popular these days, but I think it’s been labelled as a bad domain extension to have due to the misuse of it by many webmasters. I mean, when was the last time you saw an authority site on a .info domain?
Your tips will surely be useful to all webmaster.
Thanks
sandeep
sandeep’s last blog post..Dropped domain On April 11th..
I agree with this. 100% agreed.
Great guide written but many people have misconception on the low value of .info domains. With more traffic, research, time and effort, they can be made into a big hit too. However of course, when it comes to the value, it’s always best to take .com or .net
Glad you agree
Yes, info sites CAN be as successful as any other TLD, but the site owner will lose out on a fair bit of type in traffic as people will usually automatically enter the .com
thanks for the lovely article….
yup .info is always taken as a cheap domain
I tend to disagree with ur .info perspective.From the seo point of view it does not matter weather you have a .com or .info domain as both are TLD.
I agree that from an SEO perspective, the ‘info’ extension is just as equal as any other domain. In terms of clickability, I don’t rate it though. If you’re presented with a choice of .info or .com, lets be honest, you’d pick .com everytime
so what if you have to choose between great keywords on a .info or bad keywords on a .com? I´d pick the value of keywords over the value of .info-.com.
or, what if you´d use the domain to do a redirect to an affiliate product?
It is really all about what you are planning to do with the domain, but with the right traffic generating techniques, I wouldn´t discard the .info that easily,….
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Damn, that’s a tough debate there! Personally I think I’d just try and find a stronger .com, but then I’ve never liked .infos, so that may sway my judgement. :p
so really, it comes down to what you plan on doing with the domain …
If you only plan to have one blog/website in order to brand yourself, I´d spend more time finding a .com but if you are after creating a lot of websites with a specific goal in mind, like setting up your linking network or using them to redirect, I´d go for .info´s
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Yeah, I agree. Every domain is different (and so is every website), so you should always take things on a blog-to-blog basis, although personally I’d never go for a .info
Hi, nice information you have here and nice design too. I agree with you if I would pick .com than .info. Too bad many .info domain had great spam history.
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Yeah, exactly. Glad someone agrees with me
lol
great article bro
and cud u pls post some advises for domain sellers ?
thanks in advance
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ya i agree with you, if you wanna save money you must take these things into consideration..
Nice guide, Loved to read. I just checked these all points on my already running blog ”Activr.com”.
How’s it ? I think it’s not trademark anywhere !
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Pretty cool domain
Do you get quite a lot of type in traffic from people who have mistaken it for ‘active.com’?
Not really, even not a single hit from active.com, my bad. Although I didn’t got this domain to steal hits from active.com..
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Yeah, good point. It is a cool domain, very brandable and short
There is one .info I know of that’s very popular (a PR7 I believe) and that’s PRChecker.info
Other than that though, yeah, .info domains are usually used for all the spam stuff.
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Agreed. Whilst I don’t like to generalise (especially on such a big range), I just don’t think there are enough quality websites on a .info extension to give it a good reputation (compared to .com/.net/.org)
I thought getting a copyrighted domain is like winning a supper lotto. No?
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True… but if you can find one then you’re either in the money or in a court!
I agree with most of what you say here. I am on the other side of the fence with .info domains. I think if the name fits the extension it can be very valuable. I do not think that they are the best for blogs but for information type sites they can be very good, in fact I thkink they can be better than .net in some cases. I have a couple dozen .info’s in my port and I am holding as I think they will increase in value over the years. After .com and .net, they are the third best extension..
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.info domains are a little spammy but they’re cheap and can rank just as well as others so don’t discount them if you need to check out a niche or want a cheap way to dominate a low competition keyword.
I don’t think domains matter when it comes to websites. I know people with .conr, .louk and still manages to bring over 20k visitors a month. I think what matters most is the content of your website. If your site has good content and the people likes it they will come back for more.
Another point I’ve found with domains is if you intend to target a specific geographical audience with you site then buy an appropriate TLD. If your site caters for the American audience then buy a .us, just the UK obviously .co.uk suits you best. This is not to say that buying a TLD of this type will exclude you from other regions search results but if you want to target a region this may just give you the advantage over your competitors.
P.S. .biz is just awesome
thanks for this guide, when i am newbie in blogging, i am always registering .info domains and i found this that it is don’ts. great share
I’ve just known that .info domain is spammy. This would be my concern when i want buy my own domain.. another useful post from you Teenius!
Glad you enjoyed it and found it useful!
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