A domain by any other name is not the same

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August 2nd CNNmoney.com Article on Domains

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- These days, you really can't start a small business without getting on the Web, but it's also never been harder to score a snappy URL.

There's reason to worry about a shortage of marketable domain names. To date, more than 70 million domain names have been purchased, and most - if not all - dictionary-word domain names (i.e. house.com, furniture.com) have already been taken

But that doesn't mean business owners should give up the search for a domain that is easy to remember and could boost traffic.

Ideally, with the right domain name, customers will type the company's url directly into the address bar instead of using a search engine to navigate to the site.

By having a domain name that promotes so-called type-in traffic, businesses avoid having to rely on sponsored links on Yahoo!, Google or other search engines, for which they are charged a small fee per click - or hiring a consultant to try to make their web pages more search-engine friendly and appear higher on results pages.

"The best names are usually the key words of the name of the company," according to Roger Collins, president of Afternic, a domain name marketplace. For example, a pool company called Mermaid Pool Inc. would want Mermaid.com or Mermaidpool.com.

If your company has a unique name, try to purchase that domain name on the primary market, where unregistered domain names cost less than $15. Business owners can browse sites like Instantdomainsearch.com to see what's out there.

The "first preference is to find a generic domain name that is directly tied to what they want to promote," advised George DeCarlo, the vice president of marketing at Dotster, a domain-name registrar. "If you find a domain name like that, you should register it immediately."

"The number of domain name possibilities is enormous, but the number of quality domain names is shrinking," DeCarlo said.

If quality is what you want, and the name you prefer is taken in the primary market, there are some other options for getting a good URL.

More Here : http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/02/smbu...ains/index.htm