At a Glance:
Should you register a company or get the domain first?
Good domain names are hard to find.
Approaches to find the perfect domain name.
“Domains have and will continue to go up in value faster than any other commodity ever known to man.” – Bill Gates
As we discussed earlier, you don’t need to register a company (right away) in order to start a web business. You can fully operate your online business as an individual and earn for living, or even make millions. Since registration of a company may involve additional costs, many online entrepreneurs decide to skip or postpone the registration of a legal entity and operate as individuals.
Having the advantages in mind, we recommend that you go as an individual first, and register a domain name only. The registration of the domain will mark the official start of your online business. The domain can then be used/perceived as a name for your online business too. If you decide to incorporate later, you can transfer the ownership of the domain name, if necessary, to the newly registered company.
Regardless of the approach you choose, naming your legal business and registering a domain name are two separate procedures. Anyhow, if you want to match your business name with your domain name, you should select/register the domain name first, since it is fairly hard to find a desirable domain name that is available. Afterwards, you can name your legal business accordingly, incorporating the legal requirements for a business name in your country. For example: As the domain is Biizly.com the name of the company could be “Biizly.com Online Investments Ltd.” or “Biizly Web Consulting Gmbh.” or “Biizly Publishing Inc”.
It is not uncommon that a company owns more than one domain. In such case the domains may represent, not the company itself but different projects or different brands owned by that company. The same thing applies to individuals too. You may own as many domains as you wish and can have more than one online project or brand.
Searching for the perfect domain name.
“I often get questioned about how we came up with the name Weebly. We all know that all of the good domain names are already taken, and we had neither the desire nor budget to try and fit our business into a pre-existing word – so we made one up.” – David Rusenko
Since the domain name is very important for your online business, the effort you will put to find an appealing one is completely worth it. Anyway, let’s get straight right ahead. Finding a good domain name for your online business is damn hard. You may even realize that finding whichever name can be difficult, unless it is a jumbled meaningless word. You may encounter many advices what to do or what not to do when you want to register a domain, but in reality, you don’t have much choices.
The quest for an available domain name should start at one of the well-established domain name registrars as GoDaddy, Name.com, Domain.com, or at some reliable hosting companies as BlueHost or Hostgator. The real price for a domain name is about $15 dollars per year, but sometimes you can get it for less for the first year or free if it is included in the hosting plan. Our suggestion (at this moment) is that you go with Hostgator since you can easily establish your web presence there (Domain + Hosting + WordPress) at affordable rates*.
When searching for a reasonable domain name at any of the above-mentioned providers, here are some realistic (not always the best) options at your disposal:
- Make up a word
This is probably the best option you have. Many successful online businesses have made up words as their domain names. Take for example Google, Tumblr, Pinterest, Etsy, Weebly, Zillow, and many others. Our domain biizly is just another example in the list.
When you use a new word as your domain, just make sure it’s short, easy to read, spell and remember, but it should also not imply to something inappropriate. Ideally, the newly coined name should indicate your offering like Weebly or Shopify do, for example.
If you struggle to coin your own word, you can use this handy tool for generating new words.
- Coin two (or three) word phrase
The shorter the domain the better. Anyhow, while it is almost impossible to find an available single-word domain with a meaning, it is still possible to find a domain with two words, especially when one of the words is made up. There are many successful websites that use two words in their domain name like: Facebook.com, Kickstarter.com, Statcounter.com, Godady.com, SoundCloud.com, DropBox.com, Hostgator.com etc. If you struggle to find the perfect domain for your business even with two words combo, you can try using a three-word phrase or go for a hyphenated domain name (a dash between words) like in coca-cola.com or mercedes-benz.com. However, long names and hyphens are not recommended for several reasons.
- Use number(s) in your domain.
This is not (always) a recommended option because it’s hard to verbally communicate your domain if it has numbers in it. Anyway, since the promotion of a web business mostly goes online and sometimes the numbers have some purposeful meaning for your business it’s not always a bad idea to include numbers in the domain. Here are some examples 1800flowers.com, news24.com 99designs.com, 7-eleven.com and w3schools.com.
- Use uncommon extension
The most commonly used domain extensions (TLD) are .com, .net and .org. When you plan to start a website, or an online business, almost everyone will advise you to get the .com version, but that’s easily said than done. (If your target audience resides in a specific country you should consider using the country’s specific extension (us, co.uk, de, jp, ru, fr, es, eu etc).)
So, if you run out of options to get an attractive .com (or country’s specific) domain you may decide to go with another extension. The extensions available nowadays are countless. You may start your consideration with .net, .org, .co, .us, .it, .ly, .be, .is, .ltd. Then you may look for extensions like .site, .info, .biz, .me, .tv. You may even buy domains that end in .accountant, .gift, .guru, .band, .shop, .deals, .travel and many, many more. These new, keyword extension domains, may seem a little bit odd today but they may get more attention and value in the future. Anyway, be extra careful with these options since the internet users are still used to the .com extension. They may get skeptical when they encounter unusual ending of a domain name.
Popular sites with uncommon domain extensions for example are: Who.is, Scoop.it Twitch.tv.
- Buy an expiring domain (domain name backorder)
Many domain names are registered (taken) but are not in use. If the owner fails to renew the domain it will again become available for registration. If nobody else wants that name you can easily buy it at any registrar but if an expiring domain is attractive for you, it may be attractive for others too and they could get it before you. It also happens that the domain name registrants automatically buy any expiring domain names that are considered valuable and wanted. Backordering a domain means using a backordering service to acquire an expired domain as soon as it becomes available. To increase the chances to get a desired domain name you can use more than one backordering service.
Here you can find some details on backordering domain names.
Backordering a domain name is a good option since you could find an attractive name at a fair price. The negative thing is that there is no guarantee that you will get the domain so you need to opt for more names in order to increase the chances of getting one. If there are other interested buyers, the backordering service will place the domain(s) into an auction where the price can go high. Another negative thing is that you can’t buy an expiring domain right away. You need to wait for it to expire. Anyway, since finding a good domain is hard, it might be worth waiting.
- Buy an existing domain
When you search for a domain name you may find out that some of your desired names are taken but on sale. Depending on the attractiveness of the domain, the prices may range from $50 up to thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. If you have a nice budget for a domain and you encounter a perfect domain for your business within that budget, go for it.
- Get help
If you find the process of finding decent domain name for your online business overwhelming, ask for help. Actually, you can go on Fiverr and starting from $5 you can get some suggestions. You can also place a contest for $10+ on freelancer for the same purpose and choose from several suggested names you will get.
Summary:
- Finding a good domain is hard, but there are still some available options.
- To (closely) match your business name with the domain name, register a domain first (even if you decide to register a company right away).
- To start a business online you don’t need to register a company (soon), so now focus on your domain name.
- The best option for a domain name is to make up your own word and use the “.com” extension.
- Since it’s hard to find a good domain name take some time, invest resources and/or find help.
- To simplify the process of starting a business online we suggest that you get a domain and a hosting plan at the same provider.
Task:
- Get a domain name + hosting plan (Take some time)
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.In-depth reading:
Choosing a Brand Name: Descriptive or Unique Coined Word?
How 16 Great Companies Picked Their Unique Names