When choosing a domain.

[bmueller47]

Hi there,

What factors are important when choosing a new Domain Name?
One needs to be creative and selective to get an attractive name.

What challenges have you had in choosing a new Domain Name?

Which provider proved to be excellent?

I am at the starting point to find a good hosting provider. I guess
the choices are immense.

Kindest Regards

Beat Muelller
"Unlock People's Potentials!"

[OmnivoreInk]

I could give you the names of ISP providers here in the States, but since you appear to be in England... they probably wouldn't do you any good!

As for possible domain names, I'm sure a lot of people here will weigh in. Short and sweet is always best.

If we knew the name of your business, we could give you suggestions.

[litekepr]

This is the hosting company that I use - they are reasonable and I have very few problems. (Usually something small that I did The link for info is http://www.duoservers.com/?r=jcr266. I tried them because I really liked the price and have added 5 other sites since that time

I think domain names should be short and to the point. If you can find a popular search term that represents what you do that is huge. Not always possible, but very effective if you find one

I use simple to remember names - my pen name, my business name, the name of a writers/author group I started, the name of other businesses that I created sites for --- simple and to the point. Its also best not to use dashes or underlines if possible. All but one of my sites are .com but one is .net and it hasn't caused me any problems. I figured adding .net and having the name I wanted was more important than having .com

Shri

[OmnivoreInk]

I use ipower, because I like their file manager interface. (Although it is not as good as geocities - but they annoyed me and I'll never use them again.)

Ipower does seem to outsource it's Help features to non-native-English speaking people, which can be annoying if you have problems, but although my site was down for a couple of days last year, for the most part I haven't had any problems where I need to deal with them.

My question is... what about hosting more than one site on a single domain?

My main domain is The Thunder Child, but I've purchased domain names for my two other web magazines, which I host under the Thunder Child umbrella.

This way I'm only paying $100 a year for one site, plus $18 for my domain names, instead of paying $300 a year for individual sites.

This makes sense to me, but I'm wondering if anyone else has any insights. Should websites have their own individual sites, expensive as that may be, or is "umbrella hosting" okay?

[litekepr]

I use ipower, because I like their file manager interface. (Although it is not as good as geocities - but they annoyed me and I'll never use them again.)

Ipower does seem to outsource it's Help features to non-native-English speaking people, which can be annoying if you have problems, but although my site was down for a couple of days last year, for the most part I haven't had any problems where I need to deal with them.

My question is... what about hosting more than one site on a single domain?

My main domain is The Thunder Child, but I've purchased domain names for my two other web magazines, which I host under the Thunder Child umbrella.

This way I'm only paying $100 a year for one site, plus $18 for my domain names, instead of paying $300 a year for individual sites.

This makes sense to me, but I'm wondering if anyone else has any insights. Should websites have their own individual sites, expensive as that may be, or is "umbrella hosting" okay?

This isn't the right terminology -- but what about redirecting the other domain names to a specific page on your Thunder Child website? For example - use - www.magazine2.com and redirect it to www.thunderchild.com.mag2 or create a subdomain - www.mag2.thunderchild.com and redirect your new domain addy to the subdomain.

Shri

[Kevin Lee]

Its also best not to use dashes or underlines if possible.

Larisa Thomason's article "Are Hyphenated Domain Names A Good Buy?" says "Many webmasters avoid using hyphens in domain names because visitors might get confused and enter the wrong URL. But some promotion experts claim that the potential for search engine success makes the hyphens worth the risk.

Who is right? Unfortunately, both sides make good points. The need (or not) for hyphens depends on your individual site and your online competition."

Pros of hyphenated domain names:
1.They're easier to read in print.

2. You get more choices.

3. Keywords stand out to humans and search engines.

4. Have your exact URL used in link text.

Cons of hyphenated domain names:
1. Hyphenated names are hard to read aloud.

2. Visitors forget to include them.

Check out the full article here:
http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol6/promo_no19.htm

[Takuya]

It used to be whenever you included hyphens, it helped with search engine friendliness. But I hear it doesn't matter nowadays.

I buy both hyphened and non-hyphened domains from Godaddy.com for $9 each per year.

Warmest Regards,
Takuya

[bmueller47]

Hi There,

It is astounding, as to how much variety can be used to create
Domain Addresses.

What about using a full stop or more commonly used as 'stop'? (.) It is easy to communicate.

Interested to hear your views.

Beat

"Unlocking People's Potentials!"

[OmnivoreInk]

This isn't the right terminology -- but what about redirecting the other domain names to a specific page on your Thunder Child website? For example - use - www.magazine2.com and redirect it to www.thunderchild.com.mag2 or create a subdomain - www.mag2.thunderchild.com and redirect your new domain addy to the subdomain.

Shri

Actually that is the right terminology - better than what I used in my initial post! - and yes, that's what I do.

I'm just wondering if search engines treat those "redirected" websites differently? Or if it is *quicker* to get into Google et al if you're piggy backing off an already established domain.

[TheAnonymousMan]

You probably don't want to piggyback domain names as my experiences with these have not been too great. You can get penalised if Google thinks you are trying to trick it into indexing your website more than once using different domain names/sub domains etc.

I've seen good SEO campaigns that used sub-domains really well to rank highly for particular keywords. For example
http://entrepreneurs-toronto.evancarmichael.com/ could be used in an attempt to rank higher for "entrepreneurs toronto".

[jvprosperity]

Hi there,

What factors are important when choosing a new Domain Name?
One needs to be creative and selective to get an attractive name.

What challenges have you had in choosing a new Domain Name?

Which provider proved to be excellent?

I am at the starting point to find a good hosting provider. I guess
the choices are immense.

Kindest Regards

Beat Muelller
"Unlock People's Potentials!"

When Choosing who to get your domain with I will get into some basic info for the benefit of everyone.

Domain Names and Hosting are infact two separate services that can be bought from different companines and linked to each other.

I shop by price when it comes to getting a domain name because all you are buying infact is a name.

I do not skimp on the Hosting package and I believe you do pay for what you get. Although I have to say you first need to know what your requirements are.

Basically your requirements will revolve around space allowed for you to store content and around bandwidth allowed for the amount of traffic you will receive. I use Dreamhost because they are very generous for the above and the longer you stay with them the more capacity of the above if given to you on a monthly basis. Thier dependability is to be questioned though as latley they have been having problems but they seem to fix them quickly and are getting to resolving it altogether.

Now for finding a domain name? many schools of thought here and I believe all have thier merit.

1. Keep it short (doesn't have to be as long as it's memorable and easy to remember you can go long)

2. Use keywords within your URL (domain name) - this can be useful for SEO placement - but Content is KING! and therefore more important than your URL having keywords e.g. Evancarmichael.com says nothing about entrepreneurship but yet the content does and therefore gets listed well.

3. using hypens within the URL e.g. www.make-my-day.com (I hate this personally and I hope people stop using it - it's not memorable at all)

4. using search Engine phrases (this ties in with #2) e.g. www.besthostingprovider.com would be the same as what someone would type into a search engine and may get good placement. It's also in normal human language and if someone typed it in Google and hit "I'm feeling lucky" you may be the site that popups up as a result.

Hope that provides some guidance.

p.s. I'm no expert and this is based on my knowledge and past experience with web design.

[litekepr]

Have to comment about this

3. using hypens within the URL e.g. www.make-my-day.com (I hate this personally and I hope people stop using it - it's not memorable at all)


I totally agree and think it looks terrible, but I'm also not a fan of underscores. I used an underscore in my email address and would've preferred something different, but at the time....

I think they should allow "&" in domain names and email addresses. My business is S & C Consulting, but I had to use www.sandcconsulting.com for my URL and sandc_consulting for my email. So, some people think my business is Sand C Consulting

Shri

[deb-B]

www.ultrawebsitehosting.com is wonderful. Their service and support is second to none. I have been with them for quite sometime now and they are the cheapest around too

[GT Bulmer]

www.ultrawebsitehosting.com is wonderful. Their service and support is second to none. I have been with them for quite sometime now and they are the cheapest around too

Hello, deb-B:

This is just a note to advise you to check your forum Private Messages: I sent you a message a couple of days ago. Thanks.

GT
Forum Administrator

[Sab3awy]

I think choosing depend on your keywords not your company or business name so if your are working on car sales don't put your company choose domain like cardealer.com