Domain Names Tips at a Glance

• If you are opening a small business, choose your domain name before you choose your company's.  Many times, people have registered their company and then found out that their company name is not available as a domain name.  It is easy to check if a domain is available. 
• If possible, choose a dot com extension for your domain, rather than dot net, dot org, dot us, etc.
• Make your domain short and memorable.
• One-name domains may be difficult to find, but plenty of good two-word domains are still available.
•  There is no need to pay $35 to register a domain.  Plenty of good registrars charge less than $10.
• Make sure that your registrar offers you good customer service, a powerful control panel, and options like URL forwarding , email forwarding , and domain servers management.
• In general, don't buy your domain name from your domain host.  If you ever need to change hosts, they will make it very difficult for you to transfer your domain to your new host.  Instead, register your domain with an accredited registrar, and forward your domain to your host's name servers.  That way, if you change hosts you just have to change name servers in your control panel and you're done.
• Renew your domain name for several years at a time.  It costs less, saves you time, and reduces the risk of you forgetting to renew it.  As you develop your online reputation, get listed with the search engines and start generating significant traffic, your domain will become very valuable.  Don't let somebody else take it away from you and benefit from all your hard work just because you forgot to renew it.