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Articles > Webmaster > Choosing a Domain Name
What's in a name? Not much — unless you choose the wrong one. I've been choosing domain names for several years now, both for myself and for my clients, and I've learned some things the hard way.
Don't use hyphens or underscores. If you ever write the URL down people will get confused about which is which. www.yourdigitalmentor.com is much better than www.your-digital-mentor.com.
Beware of alternate spellings. Is is www.realizeyourvisions.com or www.realiseyourvisions.com? Or was that www.realizeyourvision.com?
Avoid initials. My Pencil Box Creations site is www.pb-creations.com (I hadn't learned the 'no hyphens' rule yet). When I try to give somebody my email address over the phone we always end up playing the same pronunciation game ("That's PEE DEE creations?" "Did you say BEE DEE creations?").
Keep it short. bob@yourbestsourcefordonuts.com just takes too long to type.
Your URL doesn't really matter that much anymore because nobody types in URLs. When people want to find my website they'll just go to Google, enter "your digital mentor," and my page comes up on the list. Your content matters more than your domain name.
What if the .com name that you wanted is taken? Do you dare take the .cc? That depends... I considered www.digitalmentor.com, which was taken by somebody offering a service remarkably similar to my own — bad choice. But www.digitalworld.com had no such problem. They sell computer components, so nobody who got there by mistake would get confused. They'll just say "oh, that's not it!" and try again. And, as I said before, people generally use Google, so as long as they can pick you out of the results list you're fine.
And what about .ca? I think it's better to spend the time brainstorming until you get a .com that you like, simply because the .ca addresses cost nearly twice as much.
Once you come up with a name that you like and it's available, buy it! Don't wait until you are ready to build your website — claim that name NOW! One of my friends wanted to buy jessicaeaton.com (since that's her name). It was available at the time, but two months later someone else had bought it. Jessica learned the lesson: she now owns jessicaeaton.ca and has a placeholder up until she can build her real site.
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