Desirable domain names are a hot commodity and the prices are going up, up, up!  Have you tried to register a domain name just to find out it has already been taken?  Desirable domain names, also called Premium Domain Names, are being marketed more aggressively than ever and people are paying a fortune for some of them.  We are not talking about the multimillion-dollar domain names here, we are talking about every day names that you might want to use for your business.

If you have a company name or product name and that name is available already, that is an obvious choice.  This article is about what to do when your first choice brand name is not available.

What Makes a Good Domain Name?

There are two important goals for most websites.  First is to be memorable to visitors.  Brand recognition and stickiness is very important.  Second is to help train Google.com in order to get more visitors redirected from the search engines.   To be clear, your domain name is a very small part of your overall search marketing strategy, but it is an important one.

To train Google.com, your domain name should include useful keywords.  If you are an attorney that specializes in divorces, some of your keywords would be:  divorce, attorney, lawyer, custody, settlement, alimony, etc.  You could choose a domain name by combining good keywords, such as: DivorceAttorney.com, DivorceLawyer.com, etc.  Those are very memorable and include great keywords.  Of course, someone else already registered those names.  What happens if you use more keywords, such as DivorceAttorneySettlementChildCustodyLawyerSpousalAbuseAlimonyFamilyLawOffice.com? That has many keywords in it, but it hardly solves our first objective of being memorable.  Well, it is very memorable, but not easily memorized.

What Variations Should I Try?

If you have decided on an one or two ideal domain names and they are no longer available, what do you do?  The first thing to do is to try a few variations.  Try and stay with .com style names.  Avoid adding dashes.  Add things like "Houston", "Texas", "My", "Your", "Offices", "Blog", "Store", etc.  This gives you a lot more options.  Using our example domain, DivorceAttorney.com, we have a lot more options: HoustonDivorceAttorney.com, MyDivorceAttorney.com, DivorceAttorneyOffices.com, and so on.

There are many alternatives to the .com extension.  These are less desirable for several reasons.  Mainly that your customers will probably go to the .com version.  It is not as big of an issue as it used to be, but .com names are still considered the premium choice with .net, .us, .biz, and .tv as decent second choices.  Do not choose .org unless you are a non-profit because that is what people expect from a .org site.

How do I Buy a Premium Domain Name?

You can easily determine who owns an existing domain name using a service called "WHOIS".  The "WHOIS" data is available from many places including most companies who provide domain registration services.  Send an email or call the official contacts associated with that domain name and see if the domain is for sale.

Many domain names are registered for the purpose of being resold at a profit.  You can usually tell from what happens when you try to visit the website.  The site looks strange and there is a link to inquire about purchasing the domain name.

Once you contact the domain owner, they will either say "not for sale" or they will give you a price.  Negotiate that price.  I’ve talked down every domain I’ve ever purchased.  One domain was offered at $5000 but I paid $1000.  Another domain was $1800 and I paid $800.

You can also purchase a domain name appraisal from GoDaddy.com for a few bucks and that will give you negotiation ammunition if someone’s asking price is too high.  There are a number of factors considered in pricing a domain name.  Use of popular keywords, extension, and many other factors influence the price.

How do I Pay and Not Get Ripped Off?

Never pay someone for a domain name without protecting yourself.  Many domain sellers are overseas and taking legal action against someone in another country will not be worth the trouble.  If you are buying from a reputable company such as GoDaddy.com, then there is little to worry about.  But if you are buying from an individual, you MUST use an escrow service.  I suggest www.escrow.com .  They charge about 3% and they manage the transaction.

An escrow service takes your payment, but will not release the payment to the seller until the domain name is properly transferred.  It also protects the seller because you cannot get your money back very easily either.  There are dispute resolution processes if necessary.  Generally both parties feel safer with an escrow service holding the money during the domain transfer process.

Transferring the Domain Name

Finally, there are some administrative headaches in transferring a domain name.  This takes an attention to detail and a little experience is helpful.  You should get the help of someone technical just to make sure everything is properly transferred and to confirm you have 100% complete control of the domain name before releasing escrow.  There may be several steps to the process.  The exact steps will vary from registrar to registrar. It is usually a process.