Trying to choosing a domain name for your new business or website? Here are some factors to consider:
[list][li]Make sure the domain name you use is not someone else's registered trademark.[/li]
[li]Prefer shorter names to longer ones.[/li]
[li]Avoid domain names with ambiguous or multiple spellings, unless the domain names corresponding to all the ossible misspellings of yours are available, and you are willing to buy them![/li]
[li]Names with ambigous spellings include server4u.com vs servers4you.com vs. serverforyou.com vs. serverforu.com, want2buy.com vs. wanttobuy.com or any names including the number 0(zero), easily confused with capital 'o'.[/li]
[li]Separate multi-word domain names with hyphens rather than underscores and register the alternate (non-hyphenated) form if possible[/li]
[li]If you have long-term plans for your site, a really unique domain name will help with differentiating your site.[/li]
[li]Make every effort to choose a .com domain for any business website, .net domain for network and internet service providers, .edu for educational institutions, and .org for non-profit organizations.[/li]
[li]Special note: www.something.com domains are easiest to remember and better respected by internet users.[/li]
[li]For a website that belongs to a legally registered organization or business, choose a name that is related to your organization's name.[/li]
[li]Finally, be patient: take your time and generate lots of domain names, and immediately use a service like CheckDomain.com to check availability, until you find the perfect one.[/li][/list]
Originally posted on seunosewa.com, May 25, 2004

What do webmasters need to know when trying to select the perfect domain names? Please feel free to add your comments.

If you are starting something new, remember that branding is more important than describing your business. For example, let us say you sell medicine online. You may think it is a good idea to register the domain www.medicine-cheap-online.com, but actually, it is not, because people forget that name. You need to _brand_ your product. For example, let us say this website had been called nigeria-chat-forum.com, it would be a lot less succesful, because people searching for it will find other forums that have to do with nigeria.

The most succesful companies (and products) are companies that have strong brand names that in most cases have nothing to do with the product, for example:

Mercedes Benz
Google
Yahoo
Panadol

And even with crazy names that are difficult to remember, you can still become the biggest sites online, like slashdot.org. Remember to brand your product, and not to try to add the functionality of the product into the name or domain name.

I am often tasked with helping a customer decide on the domain name for a brand new site. This is a daunting task because people have very specific ideas it - even if they are not enthused about anything else regarding the site. The choice is an important one. Your domain name is sort of like the headline on a newspaper article. It should reflect something regarding the content and nature of your site. Here are my tips for choosing a domain name.
Make it as easy to spell as possible

If your company is "Avacodo, Macadamia, Watermelon, and Cantaloupe PC", I do not think you should go with "AvacodoMacadamiaWatermelonAndCantaloupePC.com" - unless your help people with carpal tunnel and you are trying to drum up business. Many business owners have trouble distinguishing between the name of the business and the domain name of the business. Just because you have your name as a part of the business doesn't mean you should have your name as a part of the domain - especially if your name is hard to spell. Remember, people have to type the domain into the address bar. Sit down and type your new domain name 3 or 4 times to gauge how easy folks will be able to do it. If you struggle with it they will too. "Ok," you say, "if I can't put my full company name in the domain, what else can I use?" How about referencing what you do. If you are fruit growers, how about something with the word "fruit" in it. You can always prepend your initials to make yourself feelbetter (like amwcfruit.com).
Watch out for Similar Sites

If the spelling of your site is similar to the spelling of another site you will get cross-traffic. This may not be what you want. If the other site is inappropriate it's going to make some folks upset. Take your domain name and deliberately mispell it in the browser a few times to see what else is out there. A good example is Barnes and Noble. The book site is www.barnesandnoble.com, but if you misspell it and add and "s" at the end (i.e. www.barnesandnobles.com) you get a redirect to a stock tool. Notice something else. If you miss the "e" in "Barnes" you still get the book site. Why? Because a wise web person at Barnes and Noble registered both domains. That's a very good idea if it's in your budget. Domains are cheap these days. Get as many as you can afford in order to avoid confusion.

This especially holds true if you get a domain that is not a .com domain. If you register a domain with a .net extenstion for example you can bet that folks are going to type in .com out of habit. Make sure that whoever owns the ".com" version of your desired domain doesn't have anything embarrassing or folks will remember your site - but not in a good way.
Avoid Embarrassing or odd-looking Combinations

See if you can see what is embarrassing about any of these domains. I've used Mixed-case notation to make it more obvious what they are supposed to be.

* WhoRepresents.com - An agent/attorney search engine.
* ExpertsExchange.com - A great site with resources for IT folks and others.
* TherapistFinder.com - help for finding therapists of various stripe.
* PowerGenItalia.com - an extranet for an Italian power company

When they are capitalized this way there isn't anything odd about them. But if you look at them another way you get:

* WhorePresents.com - for that special someone.
* ExpertSexChange.com - when you just aren't feeling yourself.
* TheRapistFinder.com - I hated to include this one, but is pretty awful don't you think?
* PowerGenitalia.com - when you are feeling egomaniacal.

These are all humorous takes on domains, some of which have long standing pedigrees. It's not just a funny take though - it's difficult to come up with domains that make sense. For instance a friend of mine wanted to start a site called "full life ministry" but when he put it together it was "fulllifeministry" - which looks like it includes the word "feministry", making it seem like a quirky science involving Ann Rand and Lithium (stare at it a while).

Personally, I prefer short and cryptic to long and explanatory. I think it's easier for someone to explain "abandf.com" than "abercrombyandfitch.com" - even though the latter is a well-known retail name and the former is an acronym.

If you have a funny "domain naming" story plese feel free to comment - right after your ick-clay on the ad-ays

source: http://mkruger.cfwebtools.com/index.cfm/2006/1/31/domain.name.choice

For me when ever i am choosing a domain name, i always try to pick something tha is a .com just as seun said, it is more respected than any other to internet users.

I also try to get a catchy name especially to the target market, For example i have an alumni website for my high school and it is called www.redbrixx.com (because the school is totally made out of red bricks and to the students of the schoolit makes total sense.

Thirdly try to keep it one word or a short two word phrase like nairaland.com or redbrixx.com you will be suprised how easily forgetful internet users are of the name of the website they have been too

I also want to mention that it's probably a mistake to register a domain name if you don't know exactly what you want to do with it. You'll just find yourself paying money every year for something you will never use!

Seun:

I also want to mention that it's probably a mistake to register a domain name if you don't know exactly what you want to do with it. You'll just find yourself paying money every year for something you will never use!

I feel you on that one.

In my experience i got the domain here http://www.xnynz.com/ , its very useful & good in services , why cant you make use of this site , it provides at reasonable cost & will satisfy your expectations , With every paid domain , it provides free hosting , make use of it & gain solution .

dn