Ahh, and you thought it got easier as we went? Shame! Creating a name for your blog is one of the most frustrating tasks on the face of the planet. It s not all that hard to come up with a clever name that is just perfect for your blog. What is hard, is when that name isn t available and it s time to go back to the drawing board. It seems that the stars are never aligned when it comes to you getting that perfect domain name.

It s even more frustrating when you type in the URL and realize that it s a MFA (made for adsense) or Spam site. Well, short of hiring a mobster to make them an offer they can t refuse (or if the mobster doesn t pan out, you can try Sedo), there are other options. That s right… time to brainstorm again! But wait, I m getting ahead of myself. Let s go over some keys to picking a good domain name …

Research

Yep that s right, it s the ugly R word again. Research the keywords that you are going to be targeting on your site, and try to include one of those in your domain name. If you can t, no big deal… but it helps.
If you decide to blog about potatoes, which domain name do you think the search engines would rank higher?

http://everythingpotatoes.com
or
http://spudwarfare.com?

Well, that depends … both of them cover a keyword in the potato niche, but one of them is likely to get searched for more. That s right, potato will always be a more popular search term than spud . So the key is to find the keywords that you will target, and try to include one of them.

Here are some other keys to selecting a good domain name.

1. Try not to use hyphens if possible.
2. .com domains are always worth more than .net domains
3. Try not to use numbers.
4. Spell everything out, unless it s a well-known abbreviation, like NFL for example.
5. The shorter the better. Even though http://imthekingoftheuniverseandirockhardcore.com sounds like a simple name to remember to you, it s a bit long for the rest of us.
6. Keep spelling in mind. If your keyword is hard to spell, you are going to lose some people because they can t spell your URL.

These tips are all you need to make a great domain. Follow them closely and you ll pick a winner.

Having trouble? Why not try out a few domain name generators like Nameboy.com, Bustaname.com, or Makewords.com? These sites allow you to enter keywords and they ll do the rest. They ll find you hundreds of domains that may or may not be taken by Spammers. I love spammers!

Registering Your Domain

So you ve picked a winner! Now, it s time to register it. I recommend GoDaddy for all of your domain names and hosting (Host Gator is another good option).
I use GoDaddy, and it s by far the simplest and most affordable way to go. Some people would advise you not to register your domain name at the same place as you have your hosting. But I think that it makes life much simpler to have everything in one place.

The first step is going to be typing in the domain to make sure that it s still available. Even though the name generator said it was, this may not always be the case. You see domain generators are a bit slow, or as I like to call them special . They make for great inspiration tools, but they aren t completely accurate. Keep plugging, you ll get there!

Something else to consider when registering your domain. It s always wise to buy the .net and version of the domain as well (if it s available). This keeps the beloved spammers from registering the .net version and turning it into a MFA (made for Adsense) page. And we love when they do that… right?

Setting Up Hosting

If you took my advice and registered through GoDaddy, I applaud you. Because this next step is going to be that much easier. If you didn t take my advice … go back and re-read the entire three paragraphs of Registering Your Domain , and then sulk while I give the people that listened to me some advice.

Setting up a hosting account on GoDaddy couldn t be easier. All you have to do is go to the hosting tab, and check out the different hosting options that they have available. Unlike most bloggers who recommend that you go with the basic package, I am going to recommend the middle one. The middle package gives you plenty of space to store movies, pictures, and the ever popular blog post. The reason I recommend it is because of the bandwidth allowance. Although the bandwidth for the cheapest account will be plenty for a normal day, what happens on days that you receive thousands of visitors because your story is on the front page of Digg? That s right … the dreaded server crash. And we don t want that … do we? It s a whopping $3 extra a month, GET IT. It s sort of like an insurance policy.

After you have set up and paid for your hosting, you ll need to login to your GoDaddy account yet again to set up the new account. It s pretty simple and all you have to do is follow their instructions. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 24 hours, so go put a movie in and relax. We can chat later.

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